Vandals host rival Lindale for Homecoming Friday, Sept. 9
DAVID BARBER
Two old East Texas rivals will do battle once again Friday, Sept. 9 as the Van Vandals host the Lindale Eagles on Homecoming night at Van’s Memorial Stadium.
Van is undefeated at 2-0 while Lindale is 1-1 entering the contest. Both teams have defeated the Pine Tree Pirates as Van registered a 28-14 win at Longview in their regular season opener Aug. 26 while the Eagles blew past the Pirates, 40-17, Sept. 2, at Lindale. The Eagles lost to Kaufman on the road, 24-17, Aug. 26.
The Vandals are coming off an exciting come-from-behind 23-17 win over the Chapel Hill Bulldogs Sept. 2 at Van’s Memorial Stadium.
Van has won five out of the last six meetings against Lindale including last year’s 35-31 thrilling comeback victory after trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter.
In the last 16 meetings, Lindale has won nine times while the Vandals have been victorious on seven occasions.
“Lindale is similar to us in some ways,” pointed out Vandal Head Coach Jared Moffatt. “Offensively, they are playing some guys that haven’t played much yet. They are inexperienced, just like us. That doesn’t mean they are not going to be good. They just haven’t been good yet. You can already see their young players getting better from their first game to their second game. They have a new quarterback. He has been running well in the first two weeks of the season. Their offensive line is the strength of their offense. One of their linemen will be back in their lineup this week. He is a Division 1 college prospect.
“I have been real impressed over the past four or five years at what Coach Cochran has done with their program,” continued Moffatt. “They have an identity offensively. They are good at what they do, even with changing personnel.
“Defensively, they have made a change,” emphasized the Vandal head coach. “They have shown an even front in the past, but they have now gone to a 3-3 stack. Their secondary has shown some different looks. This will be another exciting Van/Lindale football game with a great crowd in the stands. It is like being in a playoff-type atmosphere.”
Moffatt believes that the Homecoming festivities surrounding the game will not play a factor in his team’s preparation for the matchup against Lindale.
“Homecoming has become less of a distraction over the last few years,” said Moffatt. “We now do our Homecoming parade on Wednesday night instead of Thursday night. The pep rally is at the end of the day on Friday instead of at lunch time. We have some football players nominated for Homecoming King. Yes, there are things that will go on this week that normally do not occur. Our guys have handled potential Homecoming distractions pretty well over the years.
“Homecoming or not, we are playing Lindale this week and the winner will be talking about it for the next 365 days,” summarized Moffatt. “There is motivation to win on both sides. Our guys will be focused and ready to go.”
The Vandals received some disappointing news on the injury front as they will be without the services of junior offensive tackle Jose Suarez and junior defensive lineman Logan Fattig for a number of weeks after both were injured in the Sept. 2 victory over Chapel Hill.
Suarez, who has started on the varsity team since he was a freshman, suffered a broken leg and will be out six weeks, according to Moffatt.
Fattig broke his collarbone in the fourth quarter against Chapel Hill and will be out of the Vandal lineup for at least four weeks, according to the Vandal head coach.
“Defensively, we have been playing three defensive ends including Tuff Arozamena,” said Moffatt. “Losing Logan is a huge loss, but we do have a guy that has been playing that position when Logan was not in the game. We were rotating those guys, but we can’t do that now.
“Offensively, we will be moving another junior, Bruce Shaw, in to play right tackle and we will be bringing up sophomore Cooper Hullum from the junior varsity team as well,” pointed out Moffatt. “He has played every down on J.V. for us. Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game. We have now had four significant injuries on our team up to this point.”
The Vandal junior high football teams will take the field for the first time in 2022 as they will host Lindale Thursday, Sept. 8.
The seventh grade ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams will be playing in a scrimmage format starting at 4:30 p.m. The eighth grade ‘B’ team game will start at approximately 5:15 p.m. with the eighth grade ‘A’ team game to follow afterwards.
Van’s freshmen and junior varsity teams will travel to Lindale Thursday, Sept. 8 with the freshmen game beginning at 5 p.m. followed by the J. V. contest at approximately 6:30 p.m.
For results of Van’s Homecoming game against Lindale and a preview of the Vandals’ final non-district contest at Paris Friday, Sept. 16, check out www.vanzandtnews.com.