Vandals To Meet Quinlan In First Round Playoff Game

After finishing in second place in the District 14-3A standings, the Van Vandals are now preparing for post-season play for the second straight year.

Van will begin their playoff run when they take on the Quinlan Ford Panthers in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Thursday (tonight) at Royse City in the bidistrict round of the Class 3-A state playoffs.

Coach Brady Pennington’s Vandals enter post-season action with an overall record of 7-3 while the Panthers bring in a 3-6 record.

Quinlan Ford opened the season with a 0-4 mark in non-district play before finishing District 13-3A play with a 3-2 mark.

The Panthers qualified for the playoffs after defeating Nevada Community Friday night to earn third place in District 13-3A.

"Quinlan Ford is well-coached and they are a very physical football team," said Vandal head coach Brady Pennington.

Offensively, the Panthers will give the Vandals a different look from what they have seen during the regular season.

"They run a shotgun formation with three running backs in the backfield which we have not seen this season," pointed out Pennington.

Defensively, the Panthers utilize an eight-man front.

"Offensively, we will need to work on our play action passing game to get ready to face their eight-man front," emphasized Pennington.

The Vandal head coach sees no advantage or disadvantage for either team to be playing Thursday night.

This will be the second time Van has played on Thursday this season as they opened the 2009 campaign with a dominating victory over the Grand Saline Indians in Van’s first game in their new stadium.

Despite an impressive 40-7 regular season ending victory on the road against the Eustace Bulldogs Friday night, the Vandals did not come out of that game injury-free.

Senior Chase Rabe, the starting running back and linebacker, injured his shoulder late in the first half against Eustace and did not return.

Pennington said that Rabe is listed as "questionable" for Thursday night’s bidistrict game with a shoulder fracture.

If Rabe plays, it will more than likely be on offense only, according to Pennington.

Starting offensive guard Clay Hendon has been ruled out of the game Thursday night with a foot injury.

Hendon will be replaced in the starting lineup by Tim Moore.

The good news on the injury front is that running back and receiver Michael Terry, who missed the last two regular season games due to illness, is listed as "probable" for the contest against Quinlan Ford.

"I feel good about where we are as a football team right now," said Pennington. "We pretty much had to rebuild our team during the season with all of the injuries that we have had. Defensively, we have been consistent and our offense is now finishing drives. We have been running more power offensively and less spread and I think that has helped us."

In addition to the Van/Quinlan Ford matchup Thursday night, the District 14-3A champion Wills Point Tigers will be in action Friday night as they will take on Lucas Lovejoy, the District 13-3A runnerup, in Greenville while the Eustace Bulldogs, the third place team in District 14-3A, will meet District 13-3A champion Farmersville Friday night in Mesquite.

"I believe that our District 14-3A teams all have a chance to win this week and will be very competitive," summarized Pennington. "We should have some great bidistrict round games this week."