Friday, September 13, 1996

Eagles heading to Stephenville tonight
By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer

STEPHENVILLE - Abilene High coaches have been preaching to their players to expect good things to happen, and to expect to win.

That philosophy will undergo a severe challenge when the Eagles take on Stephenville tonight at Memorial Stadium.

The Eagles used their new credo to rally for 10 fourth-quarter points in last week's 17-14 win over Lubbock Monterey, but this week they'll have to do it against a team that's dominated them the last three years.

"We're trying to get our program to their level," AHS head coach Steve Warren said of the Yellow Jackets. "We've been talking to our kids real heavily about having high expectations and expecting to win, no matter who we play. It's a good opportunity for us."

While the Eagles have had more than their share of problems over the last several years, perhaps no team has dealt them more misery than Art Briles' Stephenville clubs. The two teams have met in five straight seasons with Stephenville winning four of those games.

Not only has Stephenville won, but it's done it in dominating fashion.

The Jackets have outscored the Eagles 127-14 in the last three seasons (158-63 overall) and outgained them 1,225 yards to 369 the last three meetings.

"I think we've just had some very fine football teams that played well on the nights we played Abilene," Briles said. "I don't think it has anything to do with them being intimidated by us."

But Warren said the prevailing attitude at AHS the last two or three years going into this game has been one of self-doubt.

"I don't think over that period we've thought we had a chance to win this game," he said. "Whether we have a chance Friday night remains to be seen, but I think we have a good chance."

Tonight's game has some striking similarities to last year's game.

In 1995, Stephenville had its 32-game winning streak snapped in the season opener before playing AHS, and this year the Jackets opened the season with a 14-14 tie against Denton. Last year AHS played well before losing to Monterey, while this year it beat Monterey on a last-minute field goal by John Michael Herrera.

Stephenville took out its frustrations on the Eagles last year, whipping them 33-0 and racking up 442 yards of offense while limiting the Eagles to just 132.

Warren said he thinks the Jackets will be anxious to prove they're a better club than the one that showed up last week.

"I think they'll be revved up to play and ready to play well," he said. "They made some mistakes last week (four turnovers inside the 10-yard line) that cost them the win. I'm sure they'll be primed to rectify that Friday night."

Briles, though, said he doesn't look at this game as a way of making up for last week's tie.

"Every game we have to prove something, so this is no different," he said. "We just want to play better and play harder. That's one thing I can guarantee we'll do."

One thing Warren guarantees his team will do is not worry about every offensive formation the Jackets will throw at it. Instead of using every different defensive variation known to man, Warren said the defensive game plan has been simplified so as to keep the Eagles in their base defense most of the game.

"One of our big goals is concentration and communication," Warren said. "If we do those two things well, we won't have problems adjusting to what they do. We've simplified things to where we're down to a bare minimum. I don't know if that's the right thing to do, but I know that what we've done the last two or three years wasn't the right thing either. We'll do this and let things fall where they may."