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Two top 4A power teams face off against one another in an early season match-up when the Kennedale Wildcats (1-0) travels to play Midlothian Heritage. Game time 7:30 p.m. at Midlothian Heritage. {{more: continue …}}?
The Cats needed a good start last week because they will be facing Midlothian Heritage, a team with a party crashing reputation and a chip on its shoulder.
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there is history …?
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Heritage is a four year old school that is only now playing its 3rd full season of football. The last two years it has had a 23-3 record under Head Coach Lee Wiginton, making the playoff each of those years. The team that stopped Hertiage’s playoff run each of those two years and owns 2 of those 3 losses for Heritage is Kennedale. For Heritage there is no need for the Jaguar coaches to build motivation for this game.?
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In 2016, it was a 49-47 lost to the Wildcats that eliminated Heritage from the playoffs in the third round, despite Heritage rolling up 537 yards of offense that night.
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In 2017, it was a nail-bitting thriller with Heritage scoring with 33 seconds left to play to take what seemed to be the game winning score 42-41 into the locker room. It was their first lead of the game and it seemed a wrap until Kennedale dusted off a half-back pass play that saw DJ Kirven heave a 40 yarder down field to Jaden Smith that set up a successful field goal attempt for the Cats with just 12 seconds left. Kevin Tiero split the uprights to give the game to Kennedale by a score of 45-42.
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3 year starters for both teams …?
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Each team has several key players that have faced each other from their sophomore years including QB Evan Jowers, RB DJ Kirven, WR Jaden Smith and DB Kade Stephenson for Kennedale. For Heritage it is QB Landon Ledbetter, WR/DB Noah Parker, DB Brayden Wright, DB Dre Washington and DL Jon Sanders.
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Last week, while Kennedale was playing Decatur, Heritage was beating Gatesville 21-6. QB Landon Ledbetter (Sr) was 16/25 for 178 yards passing with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He also had 2 carries for 11 yards. The team had 171 yards rushing and 173 in the air for a total of 349 yards. Lead rusher was Dre Washington (Sr) with 93 yards followed by Langston Anderson (Sr) with 54 yards. Anderson also added 99 yards on 7 receptions and 2 touchdowns for the night.?backstory on Heritage …?
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Midlothian Heritage is a 4A Division 1 school playing in District 9/4A out of Region III. They are expected to win their district which includes Crandall, Life Waxahachie, Mabank, Quinlan Ford and Athens. Like Kennedale, Heritage lost a number of starters last year to graduation and will be returning 5 on offense and 6 on defense. Last year QB Ledbetter passed for over 2,800 yards for 34 touchdowns while WR Anderson and WR Jay Wilkerson combined for 1,588 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns. DB Parker who saw action against Kennedale two years ago as a receiver has switch over to defense where he had 106 tackles and 5 interceptions last year. He is joined by LB Konner Jones who had 109 tackles, 2 sacks and 1 interceptions last year.?what the polls say …??In early pre-season predictions, Texas Football had Midlothian Heritage at #6 while Kennedale was pegged at #7. In the latest AP 4A poll (minus Division 2 teams), Kennedale comes in at #5 while Heritage is #7.
