SAN ANGELO, TX — Despite all of the progress the San Angelo Central football team has made this season, the Bobcats won’t be rewarded with a trip to the playoffs.
Central has already been eliminated from playoff contention heading into its home finale at 7 p.m. Friday against Odessa High at San Angelo Stadium.
Even if the Bobcats were to win their final two games, they simply don’t own any tiebreaker scenarios.
However, this Central team has already turned the tide after last year’s 1-9 season. The Bobcats (3-5) have played five common opponents from last year, and they’ve improved in every single game.
A win over Odessa High would be another important step for the program.
“Definitely this group has laid the foundation for the standard of football here, and that’s a big thing,” Central head coach Mark Smith said. “The work habits, the work ethic, what it takes to be successful. … There’s always that group that kind of establishes that as the culture of how things are going to operate within a program, and this group has certainly done that.”
Last year, Central lost to Midland Legacy, Odessa Permian and Midland High by a combined 88 points.
This year, they lost those games by a combined 17 points.
However, Central has still lost 11 district games in a row, a streak that dates back to its win over Odessa High in 2022.
The Bobcats lost a wild 71-70 overtime against Odessa High last year.
“We had a great practice (Monday) morning, maybe one of the better ones of the season, and that shows me this team is hungry and ready to go win,” Smith said.
Odessa High (2-5) has struggled this year, losing all of its district games by at least 24 points.
The Broncos also lost their starting quarterback, Mikey Cota, to a season-ending injury two weeks ago.
Santi Medrano moved over from wide receiver to QB in last week’s 56-7 loss to Frenship. He threw for 174 yards and a touchdown on 14-of-26 passing with one interception. He also had nine carries for 74 yards.
Medrano had 28 catches for 572 yards this year, so the Bronchos have lost that production with him at QB. They still have a big threat in Kobi Baldonado, who has 52 catches for 668 yards and five TDs.
Central is coming off a 56-47 loss to Midland High in which the Bobcats could never get a handle on the Bulldogs’ explosive rushing attack.
UTEP commit Elijah McCoy had 34 carries for 354 yards and seven TDs.
The Bobcats stormed back with 30 fourth-quarter points, which included a spectacular one-handed 46-yard TD catch by Jimmy Edwards, who continued his breakout season with seven catches for 118 yards.
“We caught fire offensively there, but we were playing catch-up the whole time, and we never could get quite all the way back,” Smith said. “But it was another never-give-up performance from the guys.”
Central will close out its season next week on the road at District 2-6A leader Frenship.
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