The battle between Brown County rivals again kicks off the high school football season as the Bangs Dragons look to build on last year’s postseason appearance – the program’s first since 2014 – while the Early Longhorns are attempting to snap a playoff drought that dates to 2008.

Bangs head coach Kyle Maxfield is entering his third season with the Dragons. The two teams split their meetings during his previous two seasons.

“Our first year at Bangs they took it to us pretty good and last year we were unknown and got all the breaks and had a good game against them,” Maxfield said. “This is the third year for us as a staff and both communities are pretty fired up, but unfortunately it’s not going to be as big of a crowd as we’ve had in the past with COVID going on.”

At Early, Daniel Price is taking over as head coach, but has experienced the rivalry as the Longhorns’ former defensive coordinator.

“It’s always fun,” Price said of playing Bangs. “Being a transplant to the area it was all new to me when I got here. It’s been the first week since I’ve been here, the kids get excited, they want to beat Bangs and that’s what they talk about all week, and for the couple of weeks leading up to this one. I know it’s probably the same at Bangs. We’re excited and I love that rivalry idea, that was one our biggest crowds last year. There probably won’t see as many people in the stands this year, but I know the community really gets behind it so it should be a good time.”

Living in the COVID-19 era, the virus has had different impacts on each program. While Bangs has been as much business as usual as it can be in these times, Early’s scrimmage with Eastland last week was canceled after a Longhorn student-athlete tested positive. The impact of Bangs holding a scrimmage while Early didn’t remains to be seen.

“I told the coaching staff I can’t remember playing an opponent where we didn’t have some type of film on this season and have to really solely on last season,” Maxfield said. “They’re going to have some new faces, new players that can make plays and we’re going to have to figure out who that is pretty quick.

“With them staying inside with the head job with Coach Price, I think they’ll run similar schemes but I could be totally wrong. I know our kids and their kids talk a lot but it’s not necessarily about schemes. We expect to see similar stuff on offense and defense from last year.”

Price said, “Missing the scrimmage put us a little bit behind but we’ve gone a little more good on good and we’re trying to get as much live work as we can out of practice. It has looked a little bit different to replace the scrimmage we didn’t get to play last week, but I like where we’re at. They haven’t seen what we’re rolling out, so there’s a little advantage there, but at the same time there’s that problem that we have a lot of sophomores that haven’t seen live varsity action. It’s a give and take in that department.”

In Bangs’ scrimmage against Goldthwaite and Menard last week, the Dragons scored on every offensive possession and allowed just one touchdown.

“We were anxious to get out on the field against someone in a different colored jersey,” Maxfield said. “It was really good for us to get a look at Menard and Goldthwaite because it was two different schemes on both sides of the ball. I thought our guys responded well because they got thrown in there pretty quick.”

Among the brightest takeaways from the scrimmage, Maxfield said, were, “Seeing our offense come together as unit. We still have a long ways to go but with Ethan Cortez taking the snaps and taking the leadership role, we were able to move some guys around like Brayton Wedeman. With him at receiver that really gives us a deep threat, a big target and a good weapon. Then Guy Powell and Ethan Sanchez give us a 1-2 punch in the backfield. The o-line started slow but got better as the scrimmage went on. That’s going to be a big key for us, to handle the line of scrimmage.

“It was good seeing the defense with the new scheme fly to the ball,” Maxfield continued. “We were getting eight or nine guys to the ball. We’re not at 11 yet but we’ll get there. The tempo on both sides of the ball was good.”

While Bangs returns multiple contributors from last season’s squad, Early’s roster consists of several new faces.

“The first thing is I just want to see them compete, play to the best of their ability, have a great attitude and give great effort,” Price said of his goals for the Longhorns in the season opener. “I would love to see us score a few touchdowns and maybe get a few stops, but the big thing here is I want to see them compete and gel. We’ve done a pretty good job to this point but until you get in that first battle you really don’t know what you’re working with as far as how much they’ve come together. This will be a good opportunity to see that and hopefully they’ll rally around each other and have some camaraderie.”

For Early, key returnees are running back/defensive back Alex Jacobs (453 rushing yards, 4 TDs; 7 catches, 51 yards, 1 TD); running back/linebacker Tre Beam (433 rushing yards, 5 TDs; 11 catches, 81 yards; 106 tackles); second-team all-district defensive lineman Marcus Morelan; receiver/defensive back Tyson Tyler (48 tackles); defensive end Bradon Schwartz; receiver/defensive back Rylie Hill; and cornerback John-Stewart Gordon.

New additions to the roster include quarterbacks Tucker Hale and Jaxyn Price, who are vying for playing time along with Ryan Parisi.

The rest of the offense will feature a combination of Chris Crawford, Chris Fernandez, Bradly Roman, Casey Moseley, Korbin Hall, Cole Martin and Morelan along the front line. Additional skill players include Jeremy Brown, Caydon Laird, Hayden Schroeder, Caleb McCullough, Jake Simpson, and Adan Aleman.

On defense, the front will consist on a rotation of Bradon Schwartz, Hall, Morelan, Crawford, Fernandez, Roman and Moseley. Linebacker candidates are Dowton Taylor, Beam, Schroeder, and McCullough, while the secondary will include Jacobs, Gordon, Hill, Simpson and Aleman.

Bangs’ offense will feature Sanchez (1,200 rushing yards, 18 TDs) and Powell (750 all-purpose yards) in the backfield, while Wedemen, Damien Santillanes, Trevor Bowers and Wyatt Lykins will line up in the receiver spots. The front line consists of Logan Bishop and Azreal Escebedo at left tackle, left guard Warren Theriaque, center Samuel Packer, right guard Trey Ivey, and right tackle Charlie Smith, and Cortez has taken over at quarterback.

On the defensive side of the ball, Powell, Cortez and Wedeman will rotate at the safeties, while cornerbacks include Evan Belez, back after ACL tears in consecutive seasons, and Bowers. Trevor Lorah, Lykins, Santillanes and Sanchez (80 tackles) will man the linebacker positions, while the trenches will feature a combination of Donovan Ruiz, Braden Montgomery, Bishop, and Escobedo at the ends and Ivey, Smith, Packer, Theriaque and Luke Duncan at the tackles.

Keys to a victory for the Longhorns, according to Price, are, “We can’t beat ourselves. I know there are going to be penalties the first week and we didn’t have the scrimmage. We have to limit penalties, take care of the football, don’t turn it over and tackle well. If we do those things I think we can build on that. Hopefully we have some success early, get a big play or two to get us started, get those sophomores some confidence and I think we’ll be OK.”

In order for Bangs to be successful, Maxfield said, “We’d like to start fast and finish fast. One thing we need to use to our advantage is depth and try to stay as fresh as we can. It’s going to be hot Friday and that’s where Early is going to be at a disadvantage not having that scrimmage. I know they’ve probably tried to make up for it in different ways, but when they turn the lights on Friday night nobody really cares about scrimmages anyway.

“We need to execute on both sides of the ball and see how we react to adversity because you know it’s going to happen that first week. The really big thing in Week 1 is doing well in the kicking game, taking care of the ball and having as few penalties as possible. If we can do those three things, especially early in the season, I like our chances.”

According to Harris Ratings Weekly, Bangs is an 11-point favorite. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Bangs.