West Rusk, Lions hope to stay alive

The high school football playoffs continue this weekend for the West Rusk Raiders, and begin for the six-man Leverett’s Chapel Lions.

West Rusk (8-2) was to face Linden-Kildare (7-4) Friday night at Gilmer’s Buckeye Stadium. The Raiders are coming off a trouncing of Rosebud-Lott in last week’s Class 2A bidistrict round, a game that saw a different quarterback for coach John Frazier’s team. Due to an injury to Josh Medford, Dominique Smith took the wheel of the Raiders’ offense and did well, passing for a pair of touchdowns — both to Tony Gordon — and then on defense, collecting two picks and getting a fumble recovery.

Dwayne Fisher also scored for West Rusk, and gained 115 rushing yards along the way.

Linden-Kildare defeated Harleton, 22-8, to get to this 2A area round game.

The West Rusk/ L-K winner will face either Buna or Newton next weekend.

Leverett’s Chapel’s Lions, coached by Matt Everett, were to play a football game for the first time in three weeks on Friday night, and had a heck of a task: knocking off heretoundefeated Sidney (11-0), having to travel to West ISD Stadium to do so.

Leverett’s Chapel has been off since finishing the regular season Oct. 30. The Lions had an open date the final week of the regular season, and then had a bye in the opening round of the playoffs. Sidney, for some reason, did not have a bye, and defeated Paint Rock, 71-42.

LC is 8-2 on the season so far, and the winner of this game will play either Walnut Springs — one of the few teams to beat the Lions this year — or Panther Creek.

See coverage of both of these games online this weekend at kilgorenewsherald.com, and in Wednesday’s sports section.