PORT NECHES — PORT NECHES – Legend has it that the term “pomp and circumstance” was first coined to describe Mid-County Madness. There are big games and then there are big games. The annual matchup between Nederland and Port Neches-Groves is always a circumstance with a lot of pomp surrounding it.



The football is usually pretty good too. Both coaching staffs are intimately aware that the magnitude jumps up during Madness week.



“On the Saturday after our last game, I knew it as Port Neches week,” Nederland head coach Larry Neumann said. “For the players, the regimen is the same, but the coaches grind a little harder. It’s not a regular game. It’s a rivalry game. We never approach it as a normal game. It’s such a unique experience.

“You could get argument from people around the state, but if anyone sees this game Friday night and compares it to anything else, you can make a good argument about who has the most jazz around a rivalry. That’s with jazz defined as town talk between each other, coverage of the media and the closeness of the communities. It all creates an atmosphere that is very, very unique.”



On paper, the matchup of a 5-1 Nederland team that has won 13 straight district games with a 2-4 PN-G team that has lost four of its last five games seems off-balance. But, rivalry games tend to even the scales, and the history of this series has borne that out.



Nederland has won nine of the last 12 meetings with PN-G, but only outscored the Indians 311-261 over that stretch. That’s an average victory margin of 9.6 per game since 2000. Seven of those 12 meetings were decided by a touchdown or less. The biggest victory margin was 32 points by Nederland in a 42-10 victory in 2001.



PN-G hasn’t won consecutive games in the series since 1998-99. If Nederland wins this year, it will be the fourth time the Bulldogs have won three straight games in the series since 1993.



“I can’t tell the kids anything they don’t already know this week,” PN-G head coach Brandon Faircloth said. “They know what week it is. We’re very lucky to have this game. As a coach, you’re very lucky to have it because you don’t have to worry about getting your team ready to play.

“They know Nederland is the seventh-ranked team in the state. With the internet these days, I can’t tell them anything they haven’t already seen about Nederland. They grew up with those kids over there and know how good they are. It’s a football game against our rival and we have to find a way to beat the seventh-ranked team in Texas.”



The Indians are coming off their best offensive outing of the season in a 56-50 shootout loss to Beaumont Central. That’s the second straight loss for the Indians after they kicked off the District 20-4A portion of their schedule with a win over Lumberton.



PN-G gained 400 yards of offense and had a season-high with 179 passing yards.



“I’m sure it was an entertaining game for our fans,” Faircloth said. “Our kids played very hard for all 48 minutes and that’s all you can ask as a coach. It was a wild, wild game with a lot of big plays. I was real proud of our kids. We just ran out of time.”



That success through the air will be put to the test by a very tough Nederland pass defense. The Bulldogs have 10 interceptions already this season and have returned four of those for TDs. Colton Kimler leads the defense with five INTs, one more than last year’s team leader Trey Broussard.



According to defensive coordinator Delbert Spell, the most interceptions the Bulldogs have had under Neumann were 13. Neumann says the reason for that success lies in a number of areas, starting up front with the defensive line.



“It’s been a really good year,” Neumann said. “That’s a major highlight of our season so far. They’ve been coming in clumps. We’re proud of it. We want to intercept every pass. It all works together. The guys who have got them have had great drops, have made athletic plays, great reaction and absolutely, there is pressure from our front on the quarterback. Those are variables that when in place, they can create an interception.”



Speaking of that defensive line, consisting of junior defensive end De Shawn Washington, junior defensive tackle Caleb Malveaux, senior tackle Brock Pryor and senior end Koby Couron, the size of the four guys up front has certainly gotten the attention of the PN-G coaching staff.



“They’ve got three kids over 270 pounds on the defensive line,” Faircloth said. “I’ve played against Euless Trinity and I don’t think their line was that big. They weren’t any bigger, I can promise that. I’ve coached in 5A football and haven’t seen many lines that big. That’s the strength of that team, no doubt about it.”



Nederland’s offense may not be setting records this season (though the Bulldogs are on pace to score more points than they did last season), but it is proving to be very explosive. Receiver Michael Shaw has scored touchdowns on a 50-yard run and 40-yard and 33-yard passes already this season.



That’s not to mention the reverses, double passes and the like that have cropped up in recent weeks. Of course, for Neumann, his team still needs to improve in certain areas of execution.



“Looking at our performance last week, we have to get better in certain aspects of our game,” Neumann said. “None of our coaches or players is satisfied with the consistency of the better part of our performance. We’re striving to achieve that. It’s going to be a goal every week from here on out. How do you do that? Concentrate on the little things. We need to focus on some of the more technical aspects of the game. We had some needless penalties and some poor judgments on some plays that we need to get cleaned up.”



With the Indians on offense, things have been less than settled in the past few weeks. Because of injuries and ineffectiveness, PN-G has moved players around all over the offense. That has made the scouting process a little more difficult for the Nederland coaching staff, but not impossible.



“They are diverse in how they use their personnel, so they can get guys in the right position to get the ball,” Neumann said. “Looking at them, we have to be very sound defensively or they will expose us. We work hard on recognizing formations, reading our keys and getting prepared for Friday night. We spend a lot of time each week on matchups.

“They’ve had a lot of personnel changes and we’ve seen some of that. We absolutely put weight on matchups. When you have different people there, all you have is a little indecision about the opponent matchup each week. It won’t make any different in our scheme, though. They know us pretty well and we know them, too.”