Vernon Lions hosts Bowie in District action Friday

Daniel Walker
Vernon Record
The Lions face Bowie this week, after a productive bye week.
Vernon coach Kevin Sherrill said the bye week came at a good time, halfway through the district slate, with the Lions at 2-1 and sitting in 2nd place with three games to play.
“We got some guys healthy, hopefully we will have AD (Adarius Williams) back for Bowie,” Coach Sherrill said. Williams, an offensive and defensive starter and team leader, has been out with a hamstring injury for the past four weeks.
Coach Sherrill said that with fall break, the players got Thursday and Friday off, but they practiced like a game week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Typically, we don’t pad up during the bye week. But with taking Thursday and Friday off, we wanted to get something out of it, and I feel like we did. We practiced very similarly to a regular game week,” Coach Sherrill said.
The Vernon and Bowie teams have met 25 times with Vernon leading the series 22-3, in a series dating back to 1929. Vernon has won the last two games, including 42-7 last season.
“This is not the Bowie of old. Bowie is vastly improved from last year, they are very physical and athletic where you want to be athletic at the skill positions,” Coach Sherrill said.
The Jackrabbits defeated Boyd 25-18 last week, despite being outgained 345 to 280 total yards – thanks to the defense grabbing three interceptions. Justin Clark led the Rabbits with 20 carries for 72 yards while Bowie Mann was 10 of 18 for 160 yards and two scores. He also ran 7 times for 48 yards. Justin Clark ran 20 times for 72 yards.
“They had their chances to run away from Boyd. They had Ponder down 20-6 before Ponder made a big run. Peaster just snuck by them by a point. We could be talking about them leading the district with just a few things going their way. This is a very competitive district and you can’t take anyone lightly. We will have our work cut out for us,” Coach Sherrill said.
“Defensively they will be in mostly an odd front against us. They will bring the house with seven in the box to stop the run and man up and run with the receivers. They are very similar, copying Paradise. We saw the same from Ponder and Boyd, and now Bowie,” Coach Sherrill said.
District Standings
Standings District Differential
Paradise 6-2 4-0 +60
Vernon 5-2 2-1 +3
Peaster 5-2 2-1 +1
Ponder 5-3 2-2 +16
Iowa Park 2-5 1-2 -24
Bowie 4-4 1-3 -29
Boyd 1-6 0-3 -37
Last week: Paradise 35, Peaster 14; Iowa Park 26, Ponder 20; Boyd at Bowie 25, Boyd 18. Vernon had the bye.
This week: Bowie is at Vernon; Peaster at Ponder; Iowa Park at Boyd; Paradise has the bye.