JUNIOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMEDAY Week 5

GAME: Trinity Valley at Navarro

KICKOFF:  1 p.m. CDT Saturday, October 12

VENUE: Tiger Field at CNB&T Stadium, Corsicana, Tx

TICKETS: Purchase tickets online in advance at Hometown Ticketing through the navarrobulldogs.com website.   Link:  Purchase Navarro Tickets

HOMECOMING:  Pre-game tailgating begins at 1pm Saturday at the stadium.

GAMEDAY WEATHER:  High temperatures will approach 92 degrees om this sunny Saturday.  South winds from 7 miles per hour may gust to speeds of 23.  Humidity of 29 percent and dewpoint of 64 is anticipated.  No precipitation is forecast.

BROADCASTS:  Watch livestream coverage of the Trinity Valley-Navarro game on Navarro Sports You Tube Channel with Scott Batts on play-by-play and Michael Busby providing color commentary.  Pre-game coverage begins at  12:45  PM with Richey Cutrer and coach Ryan Taylor "In The Red Zone.  Navarro Sports link:   Football - Navarro vs Trinity Valley.

TVCC's livestream will air on the SHN Sports Network on YouTube with Joey Snowden on play-by-play, Marcus Dowell and Benny Rogers on color commentary.

SERIES HISTORY:   The great-grandaddy of Texas junior college football rivalries began in 1947 with a 29-0 TVCC win.  It's continued through the days of the Texas Junior College Football Federation, The Texas Junior College Football Conference, and another 29 years in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference.  They've opposed each other three times for SWJCFC Championships – once, in the 1999 Red River Bowl at Bedford's Pennington Stadium.   Three times, they've met consecutive Saturdays to end the regular season and start the playoffs (1998, 2011 and 2019). 

MORE HISTORY:   Saturday's meeting will be No. 105.  The Bulldogs lead the series 58-44-2, following a split of games during the 2023 season at Athens.  Navarro avenged a 41-24 regular-season loss at Bruce Field when it won the SWJCFC Semifinal Playoff, 30-29.

TELL ME MORE…:  In eight game since 2018, the teams are 4-4.  Four of the last seven games were decided by six points or less, and three of them of the outcomes were one- or two-point decisions.. Curiously, the series has evolved into one for the road warriors.   Mavarro;s last four wins have been in Athens; TVCC's won four in a row at Corsicana, dating back to 2017.  Each team has won 17 games in this series decided by seven points or less

WHAT?!  The Bulldogs last defeated the Cardinals in Corsicana during the 2010 NJCAA Championship season when they posted wins of 27-25 in the regular season and 52-27 in the SWJCFC Championship Game.  Navarro is 70-21 since the 2006 opening of Corsicana ISD's Tiger Stadium – and TVCC's accounted for seven of those losses.

OVER / UNDER: Saturday's combined score will be more than 5 points (Navarro, 3-2 in 1977) and loss than 122 (TVCC, 72-50 in 2015).

THE LAST MEETING:  Navarro's 30-29 SWJCFC Semifinal win at Athens marked the 16^th gam of the series determined by a field goal or less.  Quarterback Dane Jentsch threw for 371 yards and three touchdowns.  Braylon Finney and Bryan Spotwood totaled 100-plus receiving yards and scored, as did 100-yard rusher D'Tyrian McCoy.  The Bulldogs erased a 13-9 halftime deficit and scored twice in the final period to advance to the SWJCFC Championship Game.


COACHES:  The two head coaches have deep-seeded roots in SWJCFC football history.   Sherrard Poteete, now in the eighth year of his second tour of duty at TVCC.  He is the fifth winningest coach in TVCC football history.  Poteete quarterbacked NEO to the 1999 SWJCFC Championship and later was the Gayewau conference's Newcomer of the Year at Southern Illinois. Ryan Taylor is 25-16 overall in five SWJCFC seasons and 14-11 in his third year at Navarro. Taylor, a former offensive lineman at Denison High School, Tyler Junior College and UCLA, guided Cisco to SWJCFC Championship in Spring, 2021.

RECORDS AND RANKINGS:  Neither team is ranked among the NJCAA;s Top 15, but they are receiving votes this week.  The stakes in playoff futures are rising by the day for the Bulldogs and Cardinals – a pair of teams fighting for their post-season lives now with two conference losses

NAVARRO LAST WEEK:  It has been a tough three weeks for the Bulldogs, who have spent the last seven days making adjustments and fine-tuning their product.   In bouncing back from a 23-13 loss to Kilgore, Navarro tripled its total offensive output with 611 yards and a whopping 760 total yards, but found issues elsewhere as Blinn erased a 27-point, third-quarter deficit to win 44-43 with 426 passing, 640 total offense and 790 totak yards.

TVCC  LAST WEEK: Quarterback Champ Harris completed 24-of-34 passes for 259 yards with touchdowns of 41 to Jaquan Lowman and 13 to tight end Antony Shelton as the cardinals edged Blinn 13-10. 

TEAM NUMBERS:  Navarro averages 34.5 points and 370 yards offense.  The Bulldogs rush 38 percent (143 per game) and pass 62 percent (227 per game).  Navarro's defense surrenders 27 points and 412 yards per contest – 213 rushing and 199 passing per game …..TVCC averages 27 points and 447 yards, with ratios of 73 percent pass and 27 percent rush.  The Cards use as many as nine receivers and throw for 328 yards per game.  TVCC, which gained only 37 rushing yards from 31 tries last week, averages 122 on the ground.   The Cardinals' defensive unit yields only 206 yards  -- just 86 on the ground.

BULLDOG WATCH:  QB Mason Shorb (30-55-542-4), RBs Clay Thevenin (69-322-2) and D'Tyrian McCoy  (12-93-1 rush and 6-66-0 receiving), WRs Chris Lewis (7-117-1), Aaron Woods (7-82-1), Braylon Finney (9-95-1), Shawn Brown (6-95-1and Tim Burns (20-391-4), DL Taurean Crawford, LBs Aubrey Smith and Cormury Butts, DBs Mumu Bin-Wahad, JP Patterson and Kaleb Miles, and K Haden Tessier.

SWJCFC WEEKEND:  Conference games Saturday include New Mexico Military Institute at Cisco (Noon), and Tyler at Blinn (3pm).

BIG KICKS:  Navarro freshman Haden Tessier became the 15^th kicker in SWJCFC history to hit a field goal from 50 yards or longer.  In doing so, he became the first Bulldog on the list, surpassing team marks of 48 by Patrick O'Brien in 2015 and Patrick Sohrt in 2012.  On the SWJCFC 50 list, only Blinn's Kurt Walker (59 in 2012 and 56 in 2011) and TVCC's Jake Gaster (54 in 2021 and 52 in 2022) appear twice.  Gaster and NMMI's William Testa were the last SWJCFC kickers to hit 50-yard-plus field goals.   After four games, Tessier has 36 kick-scoring points (7-of-10 FGs and 15-of-17 extras).  Five of his seven field goals are 42 yards or longer (42, 46, 48, 48 and 50).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
EXTRA POINTS:  Mason Shorb's 406 passing yards was the most by a Bulldog quarterback since Qua Gray threw for 412 against Blinn during a 56-49 loss at Midlothian ISD Stadium on October 9, 2021. Navarro's 760 total yards against Blinn was its ninth highest in school history, surpassing a 758-yard effort from coach Ray Woodard's team during a 54-28 SWJCFC Championship win in 2007. Blinn's 27-point fourth quarter is the most by an opponent since New Mexico Military Institute scored 28 second-period points during a 56-37 win April 3, 2021 at Seminole High School's Wigwam Stadium. The Buccaners ran 81 plays against NC, the most since September, 2021, when Tyler ran 85 during a 69-57 win as quarterback General Booty passed for 528 yards and eight TDs at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium.