Gabriel Pruett
CNHI
BRIDGE CITY —
BRIDGE CITY — It is another week and another big challenge for the Vidor Pirates.
It is also a big challenge for the Bridge City Cardinals.
The Pirates will invade Larry B. Ward Stadium at 7:30 p.m. tonight to take on the Redbirds.
Vidor (0-1) is coming off a 48-41 double-overtime loss to Texas High of Texarkana while Bridge City destroyed Shepherd 50-0.
The Cardinals lead the all-time series 14-11-1. The Cardinals won the first ever meeting 15-6 in 1962. The two teams last played in 2001, a 24-21 Pirates’ win.
Bridge City coach Cris Stump was impressed with Vidor, even though the Pirates lost.
“They played well,” Stump said. “They played hard right down to the end. Vidor had their chances to win but it just fell through. Coach (Jeff) Mathews and his staff do a great job every year getting the best out of those players.”
Mathews was equally as impressed with the Cardinals’ (1-0) opening win.
“Bridge City is a good football team,” Mathews said. “I watched the (quarterback Matt) Menard kid on film and he is a phenomenal football player. He can hurt you in so many ways. We have our work cut out for us.”
Menard rushed for 134 yards on nine carries with three touchdowns last week and was 3-for-5 passing for 94 yards with two touchdowns.
Mathews knows the Pirates will also have to deal with slowing down Bridge City receivers Mitchell Hubbard and Cameron Dishon. Yet Mathews is more worried about another aspect of the Cardinals’ offense just as much.
“Their offensive line is nasty,” Mathews said. “As a coach you want your guys to play with heart and emotion and you also kind of want your line to be a little mean. Those guys over that have that. They can play some football.”
The Pirates had two running backs go over 100 yards last week, as Brentyn Clark led the team with 140 yards on 22 carries. David Bolinger had 116 yards on 16 carries.
“Coach (Dan) Hooks claims you can never find the ball when Vidor is running their offense,” Stump said. “We will have to find it and tackle the guy in a hurry. It is going to be a challenge for us.”
The Shepherd offense did not do too much damage on the Cardinals last week. Shepherd had 57 total yards of offense, including a minus 1 on the ground, in the shutout loss.
Bridge City led 41-0 at the half.
