GALENA PARK -- Ray Zepeda looked as if he picked the wrong point in Galena Park's football season to be riding in the direction of Louisiana's borders.

When the 37-year-old Yellow Jackets head football coach examined his recent luck, Zepeda concluded most of it had been bad. In fact, the second-year GP mentor probably could recite all the words of the late Buck Owens' song on Hee-Haw.

If it weren't for bad luck, Zepeda would feel he had no luck at all.

Zepeda has amassed an impressive 15-5 head coaching record and Galena Park has qualified for back-to-back playoff berths for the first time in 40 years. That coaching record was 15-3 and his 2007 team was 7-0 at the end of October.

Galena Park's war of attrition had depleted the Yellow Jackets' personnel severely by then. Four offensive starters and three defensive starters from the season's first two months are no longer able to play due to injuries.

Zepeda is not trying to moan and groan but that's just the way it is... just as in the outcomes of those coin tosses 10 days ago in Winnie. Port Neches-Groves (7-3) had the good luck. Galena Park (7-2) had the bad luck. And it's as simple as that.

"I've lost about as many coin flips as you can lose," Zepeda said, as some of his walking wounded filed into GP's training room. "That's how my luck has been.

"We will be as far away from being 100 percent healthy as you can possibly get. The bottom line is we have a lot different team than three or four weeks ago. And that's part of football.

“We're no where close to being full strength. And that's contributed a lot to the two losses we've had. But we will go over there Friday night and we will play hard, I'll promise you that."

The Jackets have been good for about 27 points a game but they have been unable to offer the same potent, diverse offense in recent weeks because they lost senior tailback Lester Bush midway through the New Caney game with a season-ending knee injury.

That arguably may have been the point in this season when Zepeda felt that his luck went south.

Regarded as a Division 1 major college running back prospect, Bush was the Greater Houston 4A area leader with an average of 8.6 yards a carry prior to being sidelined. The 5-10, 200-pound tailback carried 124 times for 1,053 yards and 14 touchdowns in 6 1/2 games.

With Bush and blue-chip quarterback Ghan McGaffie taking turns, Galena Park has run the ball 82.5 percent of the time. That's 357 rushes and 76 pass attempts in 433 plays.

Yet when the University of Missouri pledge (McGaffie) guides Galena Park to The Reservation for Friday night's 4A Division 1 bidistrict game, the Indians' defense figures to see a more balanced attack.

The balance may have to do with whether or not McGaffie runs or throws the football. He tends to do both successfully and frequently. A 5-11, 180-pound senior, McGaffie was named Greater Houston's male student athlete of the week just a couple of days ago for the second time this season by the Houston Chronicle.

Ghan displayed his many skills in last week's 35-30 loss at Barbers Hill. McGaffie ran 36 times for 321 yards and four touchdowns while he hit 10 of 17 passes for 108 yards.

"That was an incredible accomplishment," Zepeda said. "It's probably unfair to him what we've come to expect from him lately. Ghan is a tremendous athlete and a great young man."

Zepeda doubts that McGaffie shows much physical improvement from last year. Yet there are signs of Ghan's added maturity and experience in the mental aspect of the game.

"I don't know how much he's really improved physically but there are some intangibles which indicate that he's better," GP's coach said. "His leadership, the way he manages teammates."

About half of McGaffie's supporting cast has returned from the squad which ended its playoff run with a bidistrict loss to Nederland, 48-7. Three offensive and four defensive regulars return from the lineup which started against Nederland.

Zepeda regarded his team as the obvious underdog prior to that Nederland game. He believed that same status applied this time.

"Unfortunately so... and you know how that turned out last year. We obviously have a lot of respect for both of those programs in Mid-County. This will be a good experience for our players to see what a class program is like."



GALENA PARK YELLOW JACKETS

2007 SEASON GAME-BY-GAME



GP 28, Channel 20

GP 37, Katy Seven Lakes 26

GP 35, C.E. King 13*

GP 28, Huffman 10*

GP 28, Forest Brook 6*

GP 24, Crosby 20*

GP 19, New Caney 0*

Smiley 21, GP 14*

Barbers Hill 35, GP 30*

*Denotes District 21-4A games