WINNIE — After battling a severe ankle sprain for over two weeks, East Chamber blue chip quarterback/safety Tramain Thomas appears near 100 percent healthy this week as the Bucs begin their quest for a Class 2A championship with a bidistrict matchup against Corrigan-Camden.

Obstacle No. 1 on the Bucs road to a title is the Bulldogs, an 8-2 team that placed third in District 23-2A. The game is set for Sheppard High School Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

EC finished the regular season with a 9-1 record and a 5-1 mark in 24-2A. It enters the playoffs as the top seed out of district. But the key, as is always the case for EC, is the health of Thomas. It appears his ankle is well and he’ll finally be almost back to normal.

With Thomas healthy and back in the fold, the Bucs are loaded and are a team to be reckoned with. But in the Bulldogs, EC will meet a football team steeped in tradition and with lots of athletes.

Just five seasons (2002), Corrigan-Camden captured the Class 2A state championship. A year ago, the Bulldogs made it four games deep into the playoffs before losing out in the state quarterfinals.

“They are a perennial 2A football powerhouse,” said Bucs coach Tony Valastro.

“Corrigan is probably the second best team in their district behind Newton, but they slipped up against Hemphill (a 16-14 loss), as we did against Kountze two weeks ago.”

Running the wing sweep, the Bulldogs don’t throw much. But this is a team that attempts to pound the football all night long. Leading the running game for Corrigan-Camden is Damine Horace, while quarterback Chris Drayton throws the ball just enough to keep defenses from ganging up at the line of scrimmage.

“They run student body left or student body right. They try to get you going one way and then theyíll hit you with some misdirection,” Valastro stated.

“Our defense will be challenged because Corrigan will be a difficult team to stop."

When asked the keys to advancing to the second round of the playoffs against the Crawford-Centerville winner, Valastro was quick to say, “controlling the tempo of the game, and eliminating turnovers.”

“If we donít turn it over, we feel we can move the football on anybody.”

Both teams have ample offensive firepower. C-C comes in averaging 33.7 points a game, while giving up just 11.7 per outing. The Bulldogs have also thrown three shutouts.

EC, on the other hand, with a healthy Thomas leading the way on both sides of the line of scrimmage, scores at a 31.7 points per game clip and give up 13.7 points a game.

Defensively, Valastro noted that Corrigan has lots of athletes who run to the football.

The difference maker in this game may be Tramain Thomas, who?l be one of the area? most recruited athletes — both in football and basketball.

??e been coaching a long time and I’ve never been around a team that one kid (Tramain) can make that much of a difference in the outcome of a game,” Valastro said.

“Simply, when he’s in the game, weíve got a chance to win.”

Even with the season on the line and a playoff berth at stake, Thomas was not expected to play against Hardin last week due to his bad ankle. But on the eighth play of the game, he came in and threw a touchdown pass on his first play from scrimmage.

He finished the night with 95 yards rushing on just nine carries and scored on an 18-yard run. Thomas’ season stats, even though rarely playing offense in the second half in most of the Bucs’ games, are 1,107 yards rushing (20 TDs).

He’s also thrown for 759 yards, five scores and has been intercepted on five times in 83 attempts.

On top of all that, he’s the defensive leader with 10 interceptions.

“We had expected him to just hand the ball off, but he did a great job, along with Donte Raymond, running the football,” the EC coach said. “Our other quarterback was doing a good job, but when Tramain came in on the eighth play of our first series, it provided our team with a spark. Just his presence on the football field gave our team more confidence.