Kirk Dooley’s Blog
Friday night’s regular-season-ending contest between the Highland Park Scots and the Richardson Eagles will be the classic tale of two teams coming in from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Scots are 8-1 and the Eagles are 1-8. Regardless of who wins this match, it will be Richardson’s final game of the year while HP has already scheduled Irving Nimitz for a bi-district game next weekend at Highlander Stadium.
It will be the Eagles’ final home game so they’ll play with pride but they won’t play with the passion of a playoff hopeful. The Scots will go full-throttle because they want to win the outright district championship. If they lose against Richardson, they would tie with North Mesquite for the title but it wouldn’t change their playoff seeding. The sting of losing the district championship last year to Horn still motivates the seniors on this year’s team to bring home the trophy without another name on it.
Like Mesquite, Berkner and Pearce, the Richardson Eagles have talent. None of these teams made the playoffs but I think they (especially the Skeeters) could beat up on some playoff teams from other districts.
The Eagles are led by one of the best wide receivers in the state, Kahlil Lacy, who has caught 35 passes for 693 yards and seven touchdowns. The highly-recruited Eagle is projected to be a solid major college receiver.
Richardson quarterback Michael Johnson has completed 139 of 241 passes for 1,743 yards and 14 touchdowns. HP’s QB Henry Allen, by comparison, has completed 138 of 230 passes for 1,697 yards and 14 TDs.
The Scots are averaging 365 yards per game but are allowing 379. That’s an odd statistic for an 8-1 team. The Eagles are averaging 333 yards per game and are allowing 471, which is appropriate for a 1-8 team.
Unlike their games against Mesquite and Berkner, the Scots hope to strike quickly against Richardson, build up a comfortable lead and then allow their back-ups to get some experience in the second half. The Eagles, if they saw film from the HP-Berkner game, witnessed how the Rams defense held the Scots to 52 yards of total offense in the first half. Although HP came back in the second half with 246 yards, video doesn’t lie. Playoff opponents will be clamoring to study the first half of that Berkner film.
The Scots are relatively healthy, rested and have playoff experience. They know they can’t look past Richardson to focus on Nimitz yet. And beyond the Vikings, who lurks in the playoff shadows down the road?
It’s too early to think about it, but a challenger from Waco lies Midway to the regional finals.