Troy travels to Cameron with playoffs on the line

With a 41-0 victory over Academy this past week, the Cameron Yoemen extended their perfect record over Academy to 8-0. In the regular season finale from Yoe Field on Friday night, the plan is for Cameron to remain perfect against another Bell County district rival - the Troy Trojans.

Though the winner of this game is not guaranteed a playoff spot, the chances are victor will be moving on to the postseason.

“There is a whole lot riding on this game,” said Yoe coach Tommy Brashear. “The winner of this game is sitting pretty for the playoffs. As a team, our playoffs started last week with Academy because we have to win out to get in. If we lose, we are done. That is the same scenario here.” 

Troy currently sits at 3-5 on the season an 2-2 in 10-3A. Wins in district have come over Jarrell (60-0) and Little River Academy (16-0) while defeats have come at the hands of Rockdale (49-10) and Franklin (41-10).

Non district results include a win over Marlin (19-14) and loses to Salado (33-0), Robinson (34-28) and China Spring (56-3).

Cameron and Troy first played back in 1992, with the Yoemen dominating, 53-3. The Yoemen also have wins in 1993 (41-14), 2002 (26-13), 2003 (21-16), 2010 (48-14), 2011 (38-7), 2012 (42-6), 2013 (41-0), 2014 (42-3), 2015 (51-3) and 2016 (56-20).

The most notable win was possibly in 2003 when the Yoemen prevented their only winless season in program history with a 1-9 record.

Offense

Troy has returned a total of 5 starters from last year’s team that averaged 22.4 points per ball game. That average through eight games is down to 18.3.

Much like a Gatesville team Cameron played earlier this season, Troy is expected to line up in a variety of formations.

“Troy will get after you,” Brashear said. “They used to be simple in years past and just pound you. Offensively, they are going to give you a bunch of different formations and have evolved to that over the past few years.” They really want to run it at you. They are going to try to get the blocking angles on you where they can have a good play.”

Defense

Troy’s strength is the defense where the averaged from 2016 to 2017 has dipped slightly from 33.9 points per game to 28.4 points given up.

Much like the offense, Troy could line up in just about every defensive front you could imagine seeing.

“Their defense shows you a lot of different fronts,” Brashear said. “They will show you a 3-3 stack, 3-2 or 3-4 front like us, or even a 4-2 or 4-3 front. They mix it up with their looks. What they are good at is not giving up big plays. They are going to be back there deep with their safeties and corners at times and they try to keep everything in front of them. They swarm and do a good job of tackling. They make you earn it.”

The defensive front for Troy has a few playmakers that Yoe fans will need to keep an eye on throughout the night.

“Outside linebacker Anthony Avila was first team all-district last year,” Brashear said. “Nose Guard Alex Falcon gave us fits last year by shooting gaps and slanting and things like that. We have to account for those guys and know where they're at. They have some guys we have to keep an eye.”

Tiebreaker Scenarios

The main thing to remember this week is that if Cameron wins by 7 or more, they will get into the playoffs. If they were to win by less than that mark, Troy could turn around and beat McGregor by a certain amount of points and those two would be in the playoffs and Cameron would be left sitting at home.

9-3A is the district that 10-3A will play in the bi-district round. Malakoff will sew up the number one seed in the district this week with a win over Teague. The only way Malakoff is not the number one seed is if Teague were to win that game this week by 13 points. That scenario would give the number one seed back to West.