In the final two weeks of the season the Vidor Pirates can control their playoff destiny, but they need a Crosby loss to achieve it. Jeff Mathews's squad hosts a dangerous Baytown Lee team Friday night with both teams tied for fifth place with identical 2-3 district records.
The loser will be out of the playoff hunt, the winner moves into the last week still alive. The final playoff seed currently belongs to Crosby (3-2) who has a tough home matchup with Nederland (4-1) Friday night.
"We told our kids congratulations you're in the playoffs," said Mathews, at Vidor since 1999.
"If we lose either week we're out but we're concentrating on Baytown Lee for this week. I'm old school and not smart enough to look a week ahead."
Vidor has the top defense in District 12-5A (D2), allowing only 215 yards a game. A big advantage for the Pirate defense is the Pirate offense, a run-heavy attack that is designed for long, time-consuming drives. Senior running back Brad Nunez leads the district in rushing with 728 yards through 9 games.
"In 2005 we came to the realization that most teams were going to have better athletes than us so we had to figure out how to help our defense. Most teams put their best athletes on defense so if we could limit their time on the field by keeping the ball we could help our defense."
Vidor has churned out 1,700 yards rushing through nine games and will be going up against a Lee defense that is next to last in the district. Lee gives up an average of 135 yards a game on the ground.
Next weeks matchups have Vidor traveling Dayton (0-5) with Lee hosting Crosby.
To listen to a podcast interview with Vidor head coach Jeff Mathews click on the play button below.