By Todd Wills
A few football message board posters in East Texas this week have reminded fans of what to expect from a Phil Castles’ coached football team.
Castles developed a reputation in stops at Elysian Fields and Tyler Chapel Hill of mentoring teams that don’t beat themselves. Of teams that minimize turnovers and play fundamentally sound football.
The Tigers in their first year under Castles are living up to the scouting report of the Kilgore native. Corsicana will face Marshall in a Division II 4A-Region II area-round playoff game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Tyler Rose Stadium.
Castles teams haven’t turned the ball over much as the games have gotten more important, especially the last two weeks with only one interception in must-win victories over Cleburne to get into the playoffs and against West Mesquite to advance in the playoffs.
Corsicana (6-5) has a plus-three turnover margin for the season playing in a district that produced four playoff winners last week.
“It’s the million-dollar question, how do you avoid turnovers?,” Castles said. “For us it is going through all the reps we do in practice. We’re still doing our ball drills in practice. We always are going back to the fundamentals.”
At a practice last week before Friday’s 32-21 victory over West Mesquite, the Tigers’ defensive players worked exclusively on ball skills — specifically the linebackers and defensive backs catching the ball. The running backs go through drills to protect the football, and the player that touches the ball the most for the Tigers, running back Cody Evans, rarely puts the ball on the turf.
Castles said the Tigers will have to play mistake free to beat a Marshall team that has a dominant offensive line and a fast defense. Marshall played No. 2 Longview tough, trailing 23-22 at halftime before losing, 47-30.
“It’s easy to get away from these drills,” Castles said. “But the kids know we have to for an opponent like Marshall.”
Marshall (8-3) will run multiple formations at the Tigers — Castles said the Mavericks will remind Corsicana fans of the Cleburne team that lost to the Tigers, 29-13, a few weeks ago.
Marshall appears to be one-dimensional team with the idea of only throwing the ball a dozen times a game, but the various formations serve as an equalizer. Running backs Jamal Anderson and JC Haigwood are a difficult tandem to stop.
“They’re a physical, physical team,” Castles said. “That offensive line is one of the best we’ve seen,” comparing the Mavericks up front to Waxahachie.
Marshall will run some play action in the passing game and even line up in spread formations to create mismatches. But the Mavericks want to run it and run it a lot.
“It’s going to be a tough football team,” Castles said.
The Tigers should be a difficult out for Marshall. Corsicana has a win over then No. 3 Waco Midway and could very easily have knocked off now No. 3 Waxahachie, losing 21-14 at Lumpkins Stadium.
That loss to the Indians is the game that has turned the Tigers into an underrated team, with the defense proving it can stop teams if they can make them one dimensional.
Will that happen Friday night?
“We’re a confident team, ever since the Waxahachie game,” Castles said. “We’ve been getting better from week to week.”
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Corsicana vs. Marshall
Division II Region II-4A Area Playoffs
7:30 p.m. , Friday (1340 KAND-AM)
At Tyler’s Rose Stadium
RECORDS: Corsicana is 6-5 and unranked. Marshall is 8-3 and unranked.
ROAD IN THE PLAYOFFS: Corsicana: Bi-district, defeated West Mesquite, 32-21. Marshall: Bi-district, defeated Kilgore, 43-7.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Corsicana: OL Ben Caton, OL Garrett Morehead, DE Ike Hunter, FS Ostin Anderson. Marshall: RB Jamal Anderson, RB JC Haigwood, LB Sam Oney, LB Aaron Franklin.
UPDATE: The two teams have met six times, each winning three. The Tigers have won three of the last four meetings, but all six were in succession from 1980-’85. In 1984, Marshall — then a 5A — won 23-13 in a season-opener in which Corsicana was 4A’s preseason state No. 1 ... Scoring first continues to be crucial to the Tigers and winning games. Corsicana is 5-2 when scoring first and 1-3 when their opponent scores first ... Corsicana is 2-0 at neutral sites with last week's win over West Mesquite at DeSoto Eagle Stadium and a regular-season win over then No. 3-ranked Waco Midway at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco. The Tigers won those two games by 11 and 9 points respectively ... Tigers RB Cody Evans is the third-leading rusher in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with 1,621 yards. He had Corsicana playoff records of 44 carries and 267 yards in last Friday's 32-21 win over West Mesquite ... The Mavericks model Waxahachie in that they will use several different running backs. JC Haigwood has 18 TDs. Jamal Anderson has over 1,000 yards. Demarques Sadler and Anthony Davenport also will get carries ... LBs Oney, Franklin and Jaquan Kelly are very good. Kelly is Marshall's leading tackler ... The Mavericks' pass defense has struggled at times this season.
— Todd Wills
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Region II-4A Area
Here is how the Tigers’ portion of the Class 4A Division II bracket is shaping up:
Denison (10-1) vs. Dallas Conrad (5-5),
7:30 p.m. Friday, Mesquite’s Hanby Stadium
Marshall (8-2) vs. Corsicana (6-5),
7:30 p.m. Friday, Tyler’s Rose Stadium
Frisco Liberty (6-5) vs. Dallas Lincoln (10-1),
7:30 p.m. Friday, Mesquite’s Memorial Stadium
Sulphur Springs (8-3) vs. Waco University (7-4),
7 p.m. Friday, Corsicana
