Eric Smith
Staff Writer
The Lytle Pirates (4-1, 0-0) will open 14-3A (Div.I) play this coming Friday in the Strawberry Capital as they face the Poteet Aggies (0-5, 0-0) at Aggie Field. Coach Mike Trevino and squad are hoping the Lytle faithful make the short trip over to Atascosa County and support the Black and Gold Friday night.
How did the open week go?
The Pirates were open last week as they concluded non-district play with a 4-1 overall record with their lone loss coming vs. the Pearsall Mavericks. Coach Trevino was asked what they focused on during their open week.
“Open week couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” Trevino said. “Our saying around here is fresh is best and fresh is fast. That’s the approach we took all week. We are getting back key pieces off injury that will contribute heavily heading into district play. We enjoyed each other as well and focused on listening and learning about each other a little deeper.”
What did you accomplish during open week?
“We cleaned up a lot offensively and defensively,” Trevino said. “There were still some question marks throughout our scheme that I felt we covered and cleaned up for our kids. Like I told them last week, we are heading into our “Championship Phase” and we need to continue to sharpen our shovel heading into district.”
Poteet Aggie Outlook
The Poteet Aggies went through a coaching change over the summer, lost a number of key players from the last season and have had more downs than ups so far this season as they are currently looking for their first win.
The suffered the following set-backs in non-district: 27-9 loss-Bandera, 57-7 loss-Goliad, 36-0 loss-Uvalde, 6-0 loss-Pearsall 32-0 loss-Pleasanton.
“Poteet’s record does not reflect who they are and what they demonstrate,” Trevino said. “They are well coached and have had a challenging non-district schedule facing some good teams. We still have to continue to focus on us, and running our race.”
Poteet will base their offense out of a pro-spread formation and will get out wide, but also stay condensed with the utilization of their TE’s and Fullbacks according to Trevino.
“They are a mixture of gap scheme and zone based principals, so we need to play sound defense all throughout the night.”
10 Brook Avelar is one of their best athletes on offense as he plays as both QB and WR for the Aggie offense.
“They mix and move him around to utilize his athleticism,” Trevino said. “They also use #$40 Seth Dunn who is also a multi-position athlete on offense.
Defensively, the Aggies are a 4-2-5/4-3 Cover 3/Cover2 defense,” Trevino said. “They mix in multiple looks up front with slants, loops, stunts that create confusion for the O-Line. This is the strength of their football team. They will lean on their defense and play aggressive throughout the night.
Defensively, Dunn is their best defensive player at Linebacker. Alongside him they have some good D-linemen that can create havoc in the backfield (#70/#50) according to Trevino.
Lytle Outlook
According to Trevino, fine-tuning a few things during the off-week has helped further prepare the Pirates for the district opener this Friday.
“With some adjustments and additions, we were able to make during the bye week, I feel it is putting us in a great spot to be successful,” Trevino said. “We will continue to lean on our culture, love and lead each other daily and run our race.”
Keys to success Friday night will be to set the tone with a fast start on offense utilizing their speed with Davila and other weapons to jump on the Aggies. Lytle will need to shore up on turnovers and penalties and assure they are great tacklers and maintain composed which has been a huge improvement this season.
Kickoff is set
Be sure to head to the Strawberry Capital for the 7:00 p.m. kickoff this Friday night. It’s time to “Dig a little deeper” as district play has arrived! “That’s just how you like it, Pirate Fans”- as the great Dan Pitts once would say!