Rested Tigers to take on Rusk

The 2018 football season has brought with it plenty of uncertainty for teams across East Texas as wild weather throughout the first 10 weeks has caused games to be rescheduled, delayed or outright cancelled.

Despite the upheaval, Wills Point finds itself in a familiar position entering the final week of the season as the Tigers are already locked into a playoff position and now just a win away from a third consecutive district championship.

The road to another title will not be easy with the Tigers scheduled to host a talented Rusk Eagles team at Ken Autry Davis Field Nov. 9.

Rusk opened the season with a deceptive 0-6 start due largely to both a difficult schedule as well as narrow loss to four area teams including an eight-point loss to Fairfield, a one-point loss to Athens, and three-point losses to both Palestine and Spring Hill.

Since the start of District 7-4A play the Eagles have strung together three consecutive wins including a 49-12 rout of Bullard, a 28-14 victory over Brownsboro and a 48-28 win over and injury-depleted Canton team just last week.

For the season, Rusk is averaging just shy of 30 points per game (29.44) while allowing virutally the same total per game (29.77).

The winner between the Tigers and Eagles will finish as the District 7-4A champion and top-seed entering the playoffs. A loss by Wills Point coupled with a win by Bullard over Canton on the final night of the regular season would result in the Tigers, Panthers and Brownsboro Bears all being tied at 2-2 overall. Should that scenario unfold, a series of tie-breakers will be utilized to finalize the second, third and fourth seeds.

District 7-4A playoff representatives will be paired with District 8-4A teams once the playoffs begin. Current standings for that district include Lorena in first at 4-1, followed by Fairfield, Robinson and Connally tied for second at 3-2, Madisonville alone in fifth at 3-3, Salado in sixth at 2-3 and Mexia in seventh at 0-5.

Season stats

The Wills Point Tigers have hit the field eight times entering the final Friday night o the 2018 regular season, going 5-3 overall including 2-1 in District 7-4A play.

Through those eight contests the Tigers have averaged almost 29 points per game (28.875) while allowing an average of 27.5 points per game.

Demontre Hill leads Wills Point in both passing and rushing this season, totaling more than 2,000 yards overall. Hill has completed 57/102 passes for 977 yards, nine touchdowns and six interceptions while also adding a team-best 130 carries for 1260 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns.

Stephon Bradley has also been a threat in the running game for the Tigers, carrying the ball 127 times for 623 yards and eight scores.

Jaquez Thompson has been Wills Point's top threat in the receiving game catching 34 psses for 607 yards and four touchdowns. Thompson has also carried the ball six times for 89 yards and three touchdowns, and gone 1/1 in the passing game with a 32 yard completion.

Defensively, the Tigers have two players over the century mark in total tackles and four players overall with more than 80 tackles this season.

Justin Edwards enters play against Rusk with 102 total tackles including four for a loss, Savion Kellum has 100 tackles with two tackles for a loss, Aaron Hardman has 84 tackles with two tackles for a loss and Jaden Huff has 80 tackles including eight for a loss.

Wills Point has averaged an interception per game this season led by Josh Davis with three overall, Klayton Spencer with two, and Dylan Autry, Aaron Hardman and Justin Edwards with one interception each.

Justin Perez and Alberto Ibarra have split kicking duties for the Tigers this season with Perez hitting on 11/12 PAT attempts and Ibarra connecting on 10/15 PAT attempts.