CARTHAGE & HENDERSON - The Carthage and Henderson football teams know each other really well. They've been district rivals for several years, but this rivalry goes deeper than that.
For the 3rd straight year, the Bulldogs and Lions are getting ready to meet in the playoffs.
Last year, they met in the state quarterfinals, and Carthage went on to win 35-0 en route to their 2nd straight state title,
This year, the Bulldogs are favored to win another title, but they're just trying to focus on their next opponent, whether it's a district rival or not.
Carthage head coach Scott Surratt says, "We don't care who we're playing right now. We just want to survive and advance. That's what we did last Friday and I hope we can do that this Friday."
On the other side, Henderson has lost 5 straight games in this series. In the last 2 games in this series (state quarterfinals in 2017, regular season in 2018), the Lions were shut out by the Bulldogs. And even though they're the underdogs again, that's a role they're embracing.
Henderson head coach Phil Castles says, "We've kind of had to embrace the underdog mentality. We were the underdogs last week, we weren't expected to win that one...we're kinda used to being the underdog."
The 6th meeting between these two teams in the last 3 years will take place on Friday night. Kickoff is at 7:30 PM at Lobo Stadium in Longview.