EARLY – The Early Longhorns have already secured their first postseason berth since 2008, now they will attempt to improve upon their seeding as they visit the Wall Hawks in Friday night’s District 3-3A Division I and regular season finale.

Kickoff between the Longhorns (5-4, 2-2) and Hawks (5-3, 3-1) is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Wall.

According to Early first-year head coach Daniel Price, a Longhorns’ 12-point victory over Wall would net the Longhorns the district’s third playoff seed, while a 14-point win would put Early as the No. 2 seed. A win of 11 points or less, or a loss, would keep the Longhorns in their current position as the district’s No. 4 playoff seed.

“We have an opportunity depending on points to end up third or second, so there’s a lot of things that can still shake out,” Price said. “More importantly, I want to see our kids play well and compete. We haven’t been in a conversation where we felt confident about going into Wall and having a chance to actually win since I’ve been here. But we like our chances, and we like what we’re doing. They’re a good football team with a lot of tradition but our boys are excited to have an opportunity to compete with them and see where the chips fall when it’s over.”

Early clinched a playoff berth its first playoff berth since 2008 with last week’s 52-6 win over San Angelo TLCA in the home finale.

“I’m very proud of our boys, very proud of the way we played, and very proud of the progress I’ve seen them make,” Price said. “To finally go out and get through that barrier, to get over the playoff drought has been phenomenal. We’ve had a great week of work. They’re excited about Friday night and the chance to go play Wall and those are things we haven’t seen around here since I’ve been here.”

The Longhorns enter the contest averaging 25 points and 295 yards – 191 rushing and 104 passing – per outing.

Quarterback Jaxyn Price has completed 65 of 168 passes for 860 yards with eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while John-Stewart Gordon has connected on all four of his pass attempts for 77 yards.

On the ground, Alex Jacobs (881 yards, 7 TDs), Tre Beam (467 yards, 7 TDs) and Price (248 yards 3 TDs) lead the way.

Top receivers include Caleb McCullough (15-94, TD), Jacobs (10-186, 2 TDs), Beam (10-185, TD), Tyson Tyler (9-138), Rylie Hill (7-73, 2 TDs), Gordon (5-113, 2 TDs), Hayden Schroeder (5-82, TD), Jeremy Brown (3-36) and Caydon Laird (3-26).

Wall counters with a defense that allows just 16 points per game with 11 takeaways and six sacks on the season.

Standouts include Bryson Ballard (60 tackles, 9 for loss), Morrison (54 tackles, 7 for loss), Taven Espinosa (44 tackles, 7 for loss, 3 INTs), Kenneth Russell (42 tackles, 4 for loss), and Baylor commit Josh Balcomb (40 tackles, 11 for loss, 3 sacks).

“They are really good up front defensively with the kid that’s going to Baylor that starts at defensive tackle,” Price said. “You worry about protection and hopefully staying on schedule for us offensively, which would be helpful. We’ve got to a find way to score points, that’s a big deal, and we want to see no turnovers. Interceptions and fumbles happen, but we had two fumbles and an interception last week in a game where we shouldn’t have had that. We have to take care of the ball, ball security is definitely something we want to see.”

Wall’s offense is producing 30 points and 303 yards – 270 rushing and 33 passing – per contest.

The ground game is anchored by Dominic Garcia (796 rushing yards, 8 TDs), Chase Rios (593 yards, 8 TDs), Drew Morrison (549 yards, 8 TDs), Kye Herbert (281 yards, 3 TDs), and quarterback Gabe Haskins (168 yards, 2 TDs).

Haskins has thrown for just 192 yards with two touchdowns while leading receivers include Jacob Richardson (5-79) and Braden Jumper (4-92, TD).

Early’s defense gives up 21 points and 255 yards – 131 rushing and 124 passing – per outing.

Standouts include Beam (81 tackles, 15 for loss, 5 sacks), Marcus Morelan (75 tackles, 10 for loss, 2 sacks), Bradon Schwartz (47 tackles, 7 for loss, 2 sacks), McCullough (44 tackles, 1 FR), Korbin Hall (39 tackles, 3 for loss, 1 sack), Franky Villarreal (38 tackles, 2 for loss, 1 sack), Tucker Hale (35 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 INT, 1 FR), Tyler (28 tackles, 1 INT), Cole Miller (23 tackles, 1 for loss), Brown (19 tackles, 2 INTs), Gordon (17 tackles, 4 INTs), Casey Moseley (15 tackles) and Hill (15 tackles, 2 INTs).

“Wall is huge, they’ve always been big and they have a lot of skill players that are fast,” Price said. “It’s a wing-T, flexbone offense that you have to prepare for and it’s hard to get a good look at that during the week and that first possession is always hard on the defense because you don’t see that pace of play until you show up Friday night, so that kind of worries me.

“But defensively we match up well, they’re big up front but we are, too. I don’t know about stopping them, cause they are really good, but we should at least be able to slow them down a little bit. I’d like to see us run and tackle a little better, at times we were a little lax in that department last Friday against TLCA.”

According to Harris Ratings Weekly, Early is a 35-point underdog.

Early Longhorns 2020 Football Stats

Through 9 Games (5-4, 2-2)

TEAM OFFENSE
24.7 points per game (222)

294.7 yards per game (2,652)
190.6 rushing yards per game (1,715)
104.1 passing yards per game (937)

PASSING
‒ Jaxyn Price
65 of 168 for 860 yards, 8 TDs, 10 INTs

‒ John-Stewart Gordon
4 of 4 for 77 yards

RUSHING
‒ Alex Jacobs
881 yards on 161 carries, 7 TDs

‒ Tre Beam
467 yards on 69 carries, 7 TDs

‒ Jaxyn Price
248 yards on 80 carries, 3 TDs

‒ Wade Kennedy
55 yards on 12 carries

‒ Kaleb Ozuna
23 yards on 5 carries, 1 TD

‒ Tucker Hale
32 yards on 4 carries

‒ Franky Villarreal
5 yards on 3 carries

‒ Rylie Hill
4 yards on 1 carry

‒ Caleb McCullough
0 yards on 1 carry

RECEIVING
‒ Caleb McCullough
15 catches for 94 yards, 1 TD

‒ Alex Jacobs
10 catches for 186 yards, 2 TDs

‒ Tre Beam
10 catches for 185 yards, 1 TD

‒ Tyson Tyler
9 catches for 138 yards

‒ Rylie Hill
7 catches for 73 yards, 2 TDs

‒ John-Stewart Gordon
5 catches for 113 yards, 2 TDs

‒ Hayden Schroeder
5 catches for 82 yards, 1 TD

‒ Jeremy Brown
3 catches for 36 yards

‒ Caydon Laird
3 catches for 26 yards

‒ Jake Simpson
1 catch for 10 yards

TEAM DEFENSE
21.4 points per game (193)
255.4 yards per game (2,299)

131.6 rushing yards per game (1,184)
123.8 passing yards per game (1,115)

TACKLES

‒ Tre Beam
81 tackles, 15 for loss, 5 sacks

‒ Marcus Morelan
75 tackles, 10 for loss, 2 sacks

‒ Bradon Schwartz
47 tackles, 7 for loss, 2 sack

‒ Caleb McCullough
44 tackles, 1 FR

‒ Korbin Hall
39 tackles, 3 for loss, 1 sack

‒ Franky Villarreal
38 tackles, 2 for loss, 1 sack

‒ Tucker Hale
35 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 INT, 1 FR

‒ Tyson Tyler
28 tackles, 1 INT

‒ Cole Miller
23 tackles, 1 for loss

‒ Jeremy Brown

19 tackles, 2 INTs

‒ John-Stewart Gordon
17 tackles, 4 INTs

‒ Casey Moseley
15 tackles

‒ Rylie Hill
15 tackles, 2 INTs

‒ Wade Kennedy
14 tackles, 1 sack, 1 FR

‒ Dowton Taylor
10 tackles, 1 for loss

‒ Adan Aleman
7 tackles

‒ Jaxyn Price
4 tackles

‒ Caydon Laird
3 tackles

‒ Kaleb Ozuna
2 tackles

‒ Chris Fernandez
2 tackles

‒ Alex Jacobs
1.5 tackles

‒ Bradly Roman
.5 tackle

‒ Ryan Parisi
.5 tackle