Published: October 28, 2009 10:00 am      

‘Horns with heart

Eighth-ranked Alex travels down Highway 81 Friday night for a big showdown with the unbeaten and fourth-ranked Ryan Cowboys. The ‘Pokes are 6-0 so far and on top of the district standings, while the Longhorns are one game back at 5-1.

This is a kind of Homecoming for Alex coach Justin Savage, who grew up in Ryan and coached there for three years early in his career. The hometown loyalty stops Friday.

His ‘Horns need this game with No. 10 Fox and No. 11 Caddo (4-2 each) nipping at their heels. Both will be getting mulligans this week with Cyril and Central High and should go into Week 10 at 5-2, making this game huge for all four squads’ playoff standings.

Ryan returns just about the entire team that won the district championship last year and is even more solid and experienced this year. The Cowboys have put up some huge numbers so far with big wins over Fox (24-0), Caddo (42-14) and Class C’s fourth-ranked Temple (60-22).

“They’re as quick as anyone we’ve seen so far,” Savage said. “They’re a very complete team and play with a great deal of intensity.”

Both teams are coming off good wins – Alex knocked off Fox 34-28 at home and the ‘Pokes got out of Allen up just 32-26 – and this has real barn-burner potential.

Alex is on a roll, putting up big numbers with their “three-headed monster” – quarterback Wayne Heffington, running back Randy Alexander and freshman coach’s kid Dakota Savage, who is quickly establishing himself as a premier receiver.

Ryan is basically a run team. The Cowboys can throw when they want or need, but the coach describes them as an “old-fashioned smash-mouth football team.”

“Colby Barrett, their quarterback, is a big, stout kid (6-1, 200) who’s as hard-nosed as they come,” Savage said. “Some of these small colleges need to be looking at him.

“Bettis (junior RB Trevor) is the exact opposite - a little guy (5-6, 160) who is a very elusive runner. It’s hard to get a hand on him. Weist (sophomore RB Zach) is about in the middle size-wise and complements both of them well.”

The main key, according to the coach, will be “our level of aggression and intensity. We’ll have to match theirs if we hope to beat them.”

On paper, the teams seem very evenly matched and this could come down to a mistake or an assignment breakdown. It’s going to be a tough loss for one of them.

The Fox win makes this week’s game with the defending district champion even bigger now.

“We’ve got a chance now to win a district championship,” Savage said, “but if we want to win it, we’ll have to be able to go on the road and take it away from them.”