LONGVIEW, Texas — A pair of unbeatens take to the gridiron tonight for a neutral site contest as both teams get ready to wrap up their respective non-district slates at Longview Lobo Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
It’s an eerily similar set-up to last season, too, as both Ruston High (4-0) and Stephenville (5-0) enter the contest without any blemishes in the win-loss column.
And for Bearcat Head Coach Jerrod Baugh, it’s been an up-and-down week after the 49-21 win over a Midland Legacy team last week after jumping out to an early 35-0 lead and then sort of losing focus for the remainder of the game.
“It’s kind of been erratic — been good and bad,” Baugh said. “You know, I thought (Wednesday) was good, and I thought (Thursday) was pretty good. Normally the better the better we are later in the week, the better it normally turns out in the game. So I’m hoping that we continue to make sure that we’re prepared. You know, it turns into a mental game from here to deal with until kick off. And so I hope we just finish off what it is that we need to do and make sure we’re prepared to play.”
Stephenville’s high-powered offense is averaging 46.8 points per contest, relying heavily on skill position players in the receiving corps, as well as dominant offensive and defensive line players. Last season, the Bearcats blew the Yellow Jackets out 63-17, though Baugh acknowledged that the 2025 Stephenville team is significantly improved from last year.
“I think they’re a much better football team than they were last year,” Baugh said. “I think they’ve returned a bunch of starters, and it’s not that they weren’t good last year. I thought they were talented — — they were kind of inexperienced in some areas and had some growing to do and got better as the season went on. Now, they’re more experienced and have gotten better, faster, stronger. I see a more confident football team than what they seemed last year. And the coaches are doing a good job of putting together schemes against the people they played.
“As far as the skill groups are concerned, I really like those guys that they’ve got out there, and I think their quarterback operates their offense really well. They do a bunch of Run-Pass-Option stuff, and anytime you’ve got a good group of receivers to throw the ball to, that’s a tough thing to defend. You know, I worry about our defensive front against those big offensive linemen that they have. Same thing on the offensive side of the ball for us. I think those are going to be matchups to look at particularly early in the ball game, — how we’re handling their defensive front and how their offensive front handles our defensive front.”
After playing on Thursday of last week, the Bearcats had an extra day between games, something Baugh hopes will be beneficial heading into tonight.
“I think it gave us a little more rest being off last Friday after school through Sunday,” Baugh said. “We had a three day break, so that should have freshened them up some. So I think that that part of it was probably really good.”
The Bearcats will be the visitors for tonight’s contest. Tickets will not be sold at the game and can be purchsed by clicking here.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Q94.1FM and streamed on BearcatNationNetwork.com.
