The Milano Eagles were scheduled to play their second home game of the season against the Iola Bulldogs on Friday,. But like many Friday night football games in Central Texas, bad weather and the sight of lightning forced the officials to cancel the Eagles’ last contest before starting district 13-2A D1 play.
“We thought were going to get a chance to play,” said Chad Lagrone, Milano High School head football coach. “But once lightning hit for the first time and we kept seeing it, we knew we probably weren’t going to play.”
Lagrone said despite the cancellation the Eagle players are excited and ready for district play.
“We do a great job of staying motivated,” he said. “We have our first district game coming up. The guys know that all that games we’ve had so far don’t count. They know the games we’re about to play are the ones that matter in regards to our standings and goal of winning a district championship.”
The Eagles will be on the road for the first district game of season. The district opener will be against the Thrall Tigers, an old Highway 79 foe that the Eagles have had close matchups in the past.
“We have a history with Thrall, it’s always been a battle,” said Lagrone. “We played them last year on the second game of the season, and beat them in a 7-6 ball game. A lot of our players remember that.”
After the intense showdown, Thrall went on to be co-district champions with Rosebud-Lott in the 2017 season. The Tigers also made it to the second round of the playoffs before losing to Yorktown 34-26 in the area final game.
DNP This season, the Thrall Tigers have gone 1-3 in W preD-district play and have five starters returning from last season’s team.
“I haven’t really looked at their record,” Lagrone said. “We try to prepare for every team based on what they run, and that’s what we do with all our opponents.
“(Thrall) has a really good passing game, so we will have to work with our secondary quite a lot this week,” he said.
The Eagles take on the Tigers in Thrall on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Milano Junior High defeated Iola 30-0 on Thursday.
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