A pair of 2-0 teams will clash Friday night in Montgomery when the Sealy Tigers face off against the Lake Creek Lions.

Sealy Head Football Coach Shane Mobley spoke on the importance of punching above your weight class and looked forward to seeing his 4A Tigers battle the 5A Lions.

“I like scheduling at least one, if we can find a bigger school,” Mobley said. “(Lake Creek Head Coach Pat Kennedy’s) got the mentality as well because we have a reputation of, we may not be very big, but our kids get after it. This is one of those games that there's no rivalry, but it's just a good test to go and let the kids to get after it. And I like the fact that the coaches respect the Tigers and the fact that they know that no matter who shows up and who's playing, they're going to get after it.”

The teams were supposed to meet in last year’s non-district season but the delay in the start of the campaign for the two bigger classifications forced a schedule shuffling. In 2021, both teams enter the contest undefeated and Mobley sees the early-season road trip to a big facility a positive.

“For us personally, we're going to their stadium, their place – which is a nice complex – so if we make the playoffs and we get to get in that type of environment, that would be good to get the young kids out there to play at a bigger stadium in a different type of setting,” Mobley said.

In the bigger environment, Mobley said a key will be focusing on the players on the field and not the large contingency waiting on the sideline.

“I want the kids to see where they have 40, 50, 60 kids on the sidelines. They're only going to put 11 in at a time so you’ve got to play those 11, you're not playing the sideline,” Mobley said. “I think every coach always does what they can to prepare early on and then you fight your way through district. Then if you make the playoffs, you always want to go back and refer, ‘Hey y'all remember when we played in this stadium?’ OK, that's what it's similar to. ‘Hey y'all remember this many kids on the sideline?’ OK, this is what it looks like.”

The head coach sees the battle on the field being a good one between a pair of spread offenses and defenses that can just as easily take the ball away.

“They're very sound offensively, they’re spread and do some H-back stuff. Defensively they're a 3-4 and change up their zone coverage,” Mobley said. “Really and truly, they're kind of a unique team because they're not just senior heavy but they do have a couple of kids that are sophomores and juniors that are mixed in with their starting group that are very talented. They do have a lot more kids than what we do, but I think it just makes for a great environment in the preseason to go play somebody bigger, check out the physicality of the team and see how physical we can be. They've got guys that just play one side of the ball so for our kids that go both ways, it's going to be a good way for us to get in game shape.”

Stay tuned to The Sealy News’ social media accounts for updates from the game and pick up a paper for the full story.