MAY – Two seasons ago, the May Tigers’ postseason march was halted at the hands of the Leakey Eagles. At 6 p.m. Friday in Ozona, No. 4 May (11-1) attempts to return the favor in its first meeting with No. 8 Leakey (11-1) since the 2018 playoffs as the Class A Division I Region IV championship is at stake.

Reflecting on the meeting with Leakey two years ago, May 17th-year head coach Craig Steele said, “They’ve got three starters that started that night still playing, and we have four that started that night. We are a little bit bigger than we were then, but they’re just as fast as they were then. All six of their kids can run, they’re all skilled, so it’ll definitely be a challenge for us defensively to contain them.”

Leakey is led by former Zephyr head coach Shannon Williams, and his son Hunter Williams is “as good of a kid as you’ll find in the state for six-man football, there’s no doubt about that,” Steele said.

The Eagles are averaging 64 points and 406 yards – 241 rushing and 165 passing – per game. Williams has rushed for 1,453 yards and 22 touchdowns while passing for 1,261 yards and 16 scores with no interceptions. Williams isn’t the lone weapon for Leakey offense, however.

Roger Garcia has contributed 645 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns along with 17 receptions for 293 yards and two scores; Abel Montaya has chipped in 636 passing yards with 18 touchdowns and three interceptions and 20 catches for 248 yards and three touchdowns; Jacob Rubio leads Leakey with 24 receptions for 649 yards and 18 scores; and Michael Downum has grabbed eight catches for 231 yards with six trips to the end zone.

May counters with a defense that allows just 15 points per game with 30 takeaways – 17 fumble recoveries and 13 interceptions – including eight returned for touchdowns.

Standouts include Hayden King (110 tackles, 29.5 for loss, 3 FRs), Isidro Salinas (82 tackles, 12.5 for loss, 1 INT), Chris Flenniken (68 tackles, 17 for loss, 2 FRs, 2 INTs), Rory Bustamante (51 tackles, 2.5 for loss, 4 INTs, 2 FRs), Brian Kunkel (48 tackles, 8.5 for loss, 3 FRs), Kaden Halk (47 tackles, 1 for loss, 5 INTs, 1 FR), Blake Harrell (39 tackles, 2 for loss, 1 FR), Damian Salinas (35 tackles, 2.5 for loss, 1 FR, 1 INT), and Aaron McGinn (28 tackles, 1 for loss,1 INT, 2 FRs).

“Defensively, it’s all going to be about open field tackling,” Steele said. “They’re going to put us in space and use their speed. We’re going to have opportunities, and I have full in confidence that Coach (Chad) Dail will put the kids in position to make plays, we just have to make the plays and make the tackles when they’re available to us.”

On the flip side of the ball, May enters the contest averaging 57 points and 313 yards per game – 221 rushing and 92 passing.

The ground attack is led by Bustamante (659 rushing yards, 13 TDs), Isidro Salinas (530 rushing yards, 11 TDs), Halk (505 rushing yards, 12 TDs), McGinn (306 yards, 5 TDs), and Damian Salinas (276 rushing yards, 6 TDs).

Through the air, Bustamante has thrown for 592 yards with 11 touchdowns and one interception while Blake Harrell has added 497 yards with nine scoring tosses and one pick.

Leading receivers include Flenniken (12-267, 5 TDs), Halk (11-245, 4TDs), King (8-252, 5 TDs), Isidro Salinas (6-125, 2 TDs), and Keith Cross (5-114, 3 TDs).

Meanwhile, Leakey’s defense is yielding 28 points per game with 23 takeaways – 14 fumble recoveries and nine interceptions.

Top tacklers for the Eagles are Williams (139 tackles, 14 for loss, 2 FRs), Downum (96 tackles, 13 for loss,4 FRs ), Montaya (85 tackles, 5 for loss, 4 INTs, 2 FRs), Rey Rodriguez (72 tackles, 1 for loss), Rubio (56 tackles, 13 for loss), and Garcia (56 tackles, 5 for loss).

“Offensively, it sounds cliche but we really have to take care of the ball,” Steele said. “That’s what did us in two years ago against Leakey, we had four turnovers and they had none. We really have to take care of the ball, execute and stay ahead of the chains and not get in a situation where they can put us in a bind with blitzes and things like that.”

The Tigers have defeated Irion County (46-0) and Jonesboro (62-16) in playoff action, while the Eagles have knocked off Lometa (79-30) and Water Valley (64-46).

“We were cautiously optimistic we would be at this point,” Steele said of the Tigers’ appearance in the third round of the playoffs. “We knew last week was going to be a big one, we knew Jonesboro was going to be good and I thought the kids were real focused and ready for that game I thought we played well. But there’s no easy games this deep in the playoffs.”

The lone losses for each team occurred against top 5 teams as No. 1 Sterling City edged May (44-40) on Sept. 4, while No. 5 Rankin nipped Leakey (98-97) on Sept. 18.

“At one time I thought we might have got a little complacent after we played Sterling City,” Steele said. “We played that team really well and the kids thought maybe we should have won it, so maybe they thought we were a little better than what we were and we took a couple of teams lightly. But we refocused and got our feet back on the ground and since then I haven’t seen any of that so I’m happy about that part.”

Regarding any extra motivation to reverse the result from two years ago with so many players from returning from that game, Steele said, “The kids have talked about it, it’s in the back of their minds, but if you’re a perennial playoff team you’re going meet people that have knocked you out and that you’ve knocked out. That’s pretty normal, so I don’t think there’s a ton of extra motivation, but it is in the backs of their minds.”

Friday’s winner will face the Region III champion – either reigning state champion Blum (8-3) or No. 9 Union Hill (11-0) – in the state semifinals next week.

According to sixmanfootball.com, May is a 22-point favorite.