FREDDY GONZALEZ | Valley Morning Star
LA FERIA — In a rematch of last season’s bi-district contest, the La Feria Lions will face a familiar opponent in the first round of this year’s playoffs.
After defeating Grulla 30-9 last Friday, the Lions clinched a share of the District 16-4A Division I title, the top seed overall and a chance at redemption against a team La Feria knows all too well: Rockport-Fulton.
In last year’s bi-district match, La Feria lost the coin toss for home field advantage then lost a close 25-21 contest to the Pirates to end the season 7-3.
However, after clinching a share of the title this season, the Lions received another gift: Home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
UIL rules state: Playoff Games. Unless mutually agreeable otherwise, the place for playing a playoff game shall be determined on a “home and home” basis for the past two football seasons. Exception: State championship games. The team that was the visiting team the last time the two teams met on a home field in a post-district playoff game may require the game be played at its home field.
“It’s great to finally have a bi-district game here because I can’t remember when the last one was here,” said La Feria head coach Oscar Salinas. “To have a home game here… The community gets fired up and it’s going to be fun to enjoy the home field advantage.”
The Rockport-Fulton Pirates enter the game with a deceptive record of 4-5. The Pirates come into the contest with a win over Robstown, however they have lost three of their last five games.
Meanwhile, La Feria comes into tonight’s game on a three-game win streak and winners of five of their last six.
“We match up well with them,” said Salinas. “I think their secondary plays a lot of man coverage and we’re going to have to score and prevent them from getting the big play. “We’re going to have to be real physical on the line.
“Defensively, we’re going to have to be pretty good to stop them. They run a Slot-T formation so they are going to run the ball right at us so were are going to have to be good at the point of attack, and keep them in line and get them in long distances. If we can get ahead it’s going to be to our advantage.”
Unfortunately, the Lions will be without senior playmaker Julian Trevino, who suffered an injury last week.