The Comfort High football team has won its last two district games and given itself at least a chance at a playoff spot as the Bobcats enter the regular-season finale.
Comfort visits Blanco on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff and must win by 18 points.
Poth (5-0) and Stockdale (5-1) have the top two spots locked up in District 15-3A DII, but behind them, Blanco (3-2), Nixon- Smiley ( 2- 3) and Comfort (2-3) are fighting for the last two spots.
A loss by Nixon-Smiley at Karnes City will get Comfort in if they win, but if the Mustangs win at Karnes City, then Comfort will need a lot to go its way. It starts with a win at Blanco by at least 18 points.
If Comfort beats Blanco by 18, then Comfort, Blanco and Nixon-Smiley would be tied at 3-3 and none of them would have the head-to-head advantage because Comfort would have beaten Blanco; Blanco beat Nixon-Smiley and Nixon- Smiley beat Comfort.
The first tiebreaker is point differential or margin of victory and the most points they can claim in a tiebreaker situation is 18, to keep teams from running up the score.
Rieken said if Comfort, Blanco and Nixon-Smiley are tied, he assumes all three coaches would meet, flip a coin and the odd man out is out of the playoffs. In other words, all three would flip a coin and if two are heads then the one with tails is out or vice versa.
“I’ve read about coin tosses, but I’ve never been involved with a coin flip like that,” he said. “I might be on the road Friday night to meet the other two coaches to flip a coin.”
Not only do the Bobcats have to win, but they need to win by 18 if Nixon-Smiley wins, so Rieken said they have to be aggressive.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel, but I think we have a decent plan in,” he said. “The defense has to play well and we can’t turn the ball over. We have to manufacture points and do it quickly and take advantage of every opportunity they give us. We might have to go for two (after a touchdown) a bunch and keep taking that extra point.”
Comfort is coming off a 73-6 win and they scored just about every way possible.
“We had a safety, a punt returned for a touchdown, an interception returned for a touchdown and a kickoff returned for a touchdown,” Rieken said. “We only ran 24 offensive plays from scrimmage.”
Comfort also had rushing and passing TDs as Jared Valadez, Omar Rivera, Mason Judkins, Gabe Gonzalez, Mason Judkins, Cole Young, Seth Stransky, Cash Barrett, Aiden King and Travis Gwaltney all scored touchdowns.
