CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The KRIS 6 Game Night South Texas live TV matchup this Thursday features the Moody Trojans and King Mustangs. It's a 5A-DII District 14 duel that's been in favor of Moody in three of the last five meetings. The Trojans are not out of playoffs yet. Then need to win these last two games, plus they need a little extra help.
"There's a lot of ways to get into the playoffs and our kids understand that," said Moody football head coach Michael Cantu.
If Ray outscores Carroll on Friday, then playoff seeding will come down to week 11 when Moody battles the Tigers. First, the Trojans have to hold off King.
"We're playing every game as a playoff atmosphere game for us, so they understand the magnitude of Thursday," Cantu said. "Then after Thursday we can't control anything. We'll just see what happens."
Through 8 games four different Trojans have rushed for over 300 yards, led by senior Romeo Castillo with 692 yards and 7 touchdowns.
"There's a lot of us. We're all good," Castillo said. "We all run the ball, and you can give it to any one of us and we'll get yards."
The Trojans were missing Kayden Dufour for 5 games. The junior returned last week against Ray rushing for 141 yards and 1 touchdown with a cast on his left hand.
"It felt amazing. It felt welcoming and I felt happy that I'm back on the team helping them," Dufour said. "Trying to win with them too."
Moody's slot-t creates chaos, but King's defense is ready. While the Mustangs have allowed 2,261 passing yards, they've only given up 443 rushing yards.
"We're really good at filling gaps, taking on lead blockers, getting over, being in our positions and putting each other in the right spots that we need to be put in," said King junior linebacker Josiah Garza.
King's offense flows through their young passing game.
"To be able to score some points and we've been able to kind of move the ball fairly successfully," said King football head coach Austin Menner. "I know it can be a struggle with our record, but I do know that it's a good thing to kind of build on towards the future."
Sophomore quarterback Tatum Emerson has thrown for 2,247 yards and his junior receiver Damon Smith has 1,125 yards. Both have broken single-season school records.
"Tatum coming in I didn't know him at all," Smith said. "He was just like a little scrawny kid, but then over time I was like dang this is really like the guy. I could trust on him and he could trust on me."
King and Moody kickoff our Game Night South Texas TV matchup on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at Cabaniss Stadium. You can watch the game live on our sister station KDF, on our website and on our YouTube KRIS 6+.
UIL 5A-DII District 14 Standings
Gregory-Portland (3-0, 7-1)
Miller (3-0, 3-5)
Ray (2-1, 5-3)
Carroll (1-2, 4-4)
Moody (0-3, 3-5)
King (0-3, 0-8)
