The Rematch

For the second straight year, Rockdale is playing Grandview in the opening round of the state football playoffs.

The difference between this year and last year, the Zebras are the defending state champions.

RHS head coach Jeff Miller said the game reminds him of 2017 when the Tigers faced Malakoff in the bi-district game.

“It’s like when we played Malakoff, who we thought was the best team, in 2017,” Miller said. “That game could’ve easily been a one-and-done as good as they were and we figured out a way to win it.

“Last year against Grand-view, we were in that ballgame with six minutes to go. If we make the plays that we need to put us over the top last year, we might’ve made a run and won several ballgames.”

Miller also said that stiff competition in Region III is why the Tigers are in this situation once again.

“When you end up in Region III every (realignment0, you’re going to face some really good teams,” he said. “This is the same as the last six or seven years honestly.”

GRANDVEW–When the two teams faced last year, third-seed Rockdale went up against a Zebra team that ended up in second after losing their 2018 district opener in 42-41. After that, GHS went on to beat their other five district opponents by an average of 41 points.

On Saturday, Nov. 17, they beat the Tigers 45-21 in a game that Grandview led 24-21 with six minutes left in the game.

“In our mind, this was the best team coming out of that district(9-3A-1),” Miller told The Reporter last year. “They had that hiccup against West earlier in the season but played really well after that.”

GHS, led by then sophomores Dane Jentsch and Elijah Golden, went on to beat Woodville 42-14, Franklin 24-21, East Chambers 36-35, and Yoakum 28-14 before beating Malakoff 35-21 for the second time that season.

THIS SEASON–Even after Rockdale was slated to finish third in District 10-3A-I again after losing to Troy and Cameron, most publications assumed the Tigers would face Whitney in the opening round of the playoffs, the team Texas Football picked second after the Zebras.

That all changed on Friday, Nov. 1, when Whitney erased Grandview’s 21-7 lead with 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win 26-21 over the Zebras and the first-seed in District 9-3A-I.

Miller said his team’s response the morning after was that his team was excited and wanted the chance to play Grandview again.

The Zebras have all but four starters returning from the 2018 squad.

“ If we’ll be concerned about team success over individual success,” he said. “I think we’ll be in good shape.

“We talk all the time about trusting the process and trusting that they’ll believe that they’re in a good situation. We’re putting them in a good situation, we just need to go out and execute with confidence.”

Miller also talked about the things his team needed to work on going into the Grandview game.

“We still have to clean some special teams stuff,” he said. “We also have to tackle really well and we have to play extremely hard on defense.”

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m., Tiger Field in Belton.