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Thick of things: North looking for first win, higher ground in district standings
Photo courtesy of Troy Conley
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
With the district season underway, McKinney North remains in pursuit of its first win of the season. And when it hosts Royse City in its homecoming game Friday, the Bulldogs will be looking to edge upward in the great divide that is District 13-4A.
The four teams that lost their district opener – North, Greenville, Wylie and Denison – are all winless, while the victors – Sherman, Wylie East, Lovejoy and Royse City – carry a combined 11-5 record. Royse City (1-3, 1-0) is among those winning teams, but as owners of three of those losses, they are clearly on the fringe.
Sherman, East and Lovejoy are 10-2 combined and have established themselves as the class of the district with their performances so far this season and the decisive margins by which they won their district openers.
North (0-4, 0-1) will look to make the delineation between those teams and itself a little less distinct when it takes on Royse City this week. Despite its early presence in the upper tier of the district, Royse City has not played well this season and does not project as a playoff team, making a win against them a clear priority for the Bulldogs.
“Being 0-2 doesn't knock you out, but it makes it much more difficult; and 1-1 doesn't put you in, but it does set you back up,” Fecci said. “That's what we've got to do, is to go set ourselves back up.”
A win against Royse City could preclude a win against a better team later on in district, not to mention that after a tough stretch of games, North is in need of any kind of victory. The Bulldogs have played a more difficult schedule than most of their other winless opponents, but that's only a mild sort of consolation.
Fortunately for them, Royse City remains a vulnerable team, though its numbers received a very significant bump from last week's win against Greenville, 21-10. In one game, it more than doubled the number of points it has scored this season (16 to 37), dropped its average number of points allowed by a significant margin (36 to 30) and saw a sizable uptick in its total yards per game (141 to 173).
But there's no disguising that Royse City played very poorly in its three previous games. After opening the season with a 31-6 loss to Forney, it put together even worse performances in a 34-3 loss to North Forney and a 44-7 loss to Prestonwood Christian Academy.
During that stretch, they were allowing more than twice as many yards per game as they were gaining (343 to 141) and more than seven times as many points (36 to 5). They also turned the ball over seven times, with four of those turnovers going for points the other way.
After sputtering though its early schedule, Royse City finally found success last week, albeit in a win against a weak opponent. Royse City fell behind Greenville early and trailed, 7-0, until late in the third quarter. They scored the equalizer on a 2-yard rush from running back Samuell Rushing. After a Greenville field goal pushed them back down, 10-7, Royse City scored two unanswered touchdowns in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
Rushing ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries that game and currently leads the team in total yards and scoring. After finding success with their rushing attack against Greenville, expect them to roll out more of the same against North.
“They like to run the ball and then play-action pass,” Fecci said. “They try to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball and then bang, play-action pass on you. It's a challenge for our secondary, because when you play a team that runs the ball a lot, you have to constantly be thinking about your job.”
For their part, North will look to rebound from a 45-21 loss to Sherman in which they were gashed by big plays across the field. The Bearcats amassed nearly 500 yards of offense against them, the bulk of which came in 30- to 50-yard chunks, including a 31-yard touchdown pass in the final seconds of the first half.
“I keep saying it and I wish I had something different to say, but it is what it is, we just have to stop giving up big plays in critical situations,” Fecci said. “That score before the half was big time, because if we hold them right there it's a one-score game instead of a two-score game, especially with them getting the ball to start the second half.”
That loss closed a three pack of vicious competition that also included a 31-10 loss to Prosper and a 42-21 loss to Frisco Centennial – both undefeated teams that have yet to be truly challenged by an opponent. Sherman's lone loss was a respectable setback at the hands of area power Highland Park, 35-21.
North will have to beat Royse City without running back Trey Smith, who is sidelined with a collarbone injury. They'll roll out running backs Justin Jones, who saw significant playing time against Sherman, and Ronald Jones to take the place of the team's leading rusher.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs can't afford to miss a beat.
“You don't ever want to be 0-2 in district,” Fecci said. “You want to get to 1-1, because that puts you back in the mix and that's where we need to get. We need to get back in the mix of this thing and it would put Royse City at 1-1 with us having the tiebreaker over them. That's how you have to start looking at week after week, just taking it one at a time and having a plan. The plan this week is to go put ourselves back in the mix.”
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