CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The KRIS 6 week five Game Night South Texas matchup features two teams with a 2-2 record, the Ingleside Mustangs and the Ray Texans.
Catch the game live on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at Buccaneer Stadium or watch the game on our sister station KDF, on our website and on our YouTube page KRIS 6+.
Recently the Texans have found the keys to success because they've won 2 straight.
"I think our energy and our confidence as a team is way better than last year," said Ray junior quarterback Tripp Thompson. "We've proven that we can win, and I think that's boosted our confidence. We're just playing at a higher level."
Last year Ray started the season 0-6 and still found way to make playoffs. The Texans returned a lot of offensive starters that are building on their success.
"With Tripp, Brian (McCullum), all of our receiving corps and the o-line has really stuck out," said Ray football head coach Craig Charlton. "We're able to do a really good job running the ball. That gives you a lot of weapons that you can attack a defense, so we're not just one dimensional."
The best word to describe the Texans defense is tenacious. The past two weeks they have not allowed a touchdown. Nico Hill-Zanoni has 4 of Ray's 9 interceptions and Jaycen Elmore leads the Texans with 44 tackles and 1 sack.
"Defense is doing their stuff," said Elmore. "I mean Nico (Hill-Zanoni) with his interceptions and we're getting stop after stop. It's really all clicking together very well."
This matchup ended in favor of Ingleside last fall 25-21. Now they're rebuilding around young talent, and giving sophomore quarterback Landon Younk plenty of options.
"Our tight ends can catch as well as our running backs out of the backfield, so we're comfortable throwing to any position on the field," said Ingleside football head coach Travis Chrisman. "These guys worked hard over the summer. They put in good time."
Younk's stats after 4 games are 67 completions for 668 yards, 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. His top targets are fellow sophomores Jayden Techur and Julius Sierra.
"We're all close and that's what helped us out, especially since we got a bunch of sophomores on this team and seniors," said Younk. "We all mesh pretty well."
Ingleside's defense has racked up 7 interceptions. Techur and Sierra each have 3.
"We're pretty good, so we can just go get the ball and get those interceptions," said Ingleside sophomore slot receiver and safety Julius Sierra. "We're young too. A lot of us play both ways, so we've just to got to like iron man football and just tough it up."
Thank you to Thomas J. Henry for supporting Coastal Bend athletes and Game Night South Texas.
