Cats take on Wilmer Hutchins in 1st round Friday

Playoffs start tonight @ Cedar Hill HS

 

The Kennedale Wildcat football team is once again in the playoffs and in a familiar role as the favorite, at least in this game. {{more: Read more…}}

 

Cedar Hill is approximately 30 minutes away, travelling south on 287 and the north on 65. Directions

Hutchins finished behind Midlothian Heritage (9-1, 5-0), Alvarado (8-2, 4-1) and Carrollton Ranchview 7-3, 3-2) in a strong district.

 

backstory …

Three years ago in 2013, the Wildcats were in a similar situation struggling through pre-district against a very strong schedule before sweeping district play against the same teams as this year, finishing the regular season at 6-4. That team when on to win the first round game against Burkburnett 57-28 but lost the area game against Burnet 55-35.

Kennedale played Wilmer- Hutchins in a pre-district game that year, coming away with a 50-28 win. Then in 2014, Kennedale met Wilmer-Hutchins in a first round bi-district game, winning that one also 62-20.

Kennedale has gone three deep in the playoffs the past two years, each ending with a loss against Argyle which in turn lost in the state championship finals both years.

 

Wilmer-Hutchins has gone to the playoffs the last three year, losing in the area round in 2013 and then losing first round games in 2014 and 2015.

 

this year …

 

Their only common opponent this year has been Alvarado with Kennedale losing 21-14 and Hutchins losing 48-28.

 

Hutchins has produced a star in recent weeks in the form of a sophomore quarterback/running back named Kenndre McKnight. Last week in a game against District 6-4A leader Midlothian Heritage, #11 McKnight passed for 465 yards adding another 64 yards on the ground. He accounted for all but 55 yards that Hutchins had on offense that night. In the two weeks prior to the Midlothian, McKnight rushed for 152 and 132 yards.

For the season, Hutchins, as a team, has passed for 1,908 yards and rushed for 1,578 for an average of 348.6 yards per game. Over all, they have scored 42 touchdowns, have average 93.1 tackles per game and have had recorded 34 sacks and 14 interceptions.

Kennedale over the same period has passed for 383 yards and rushed for 3608 yards for an average of 399.1 yards per game. Overall, the Cats have scored 53 touchdowns, averaged 51.4 tackles per game, recorded 10 sacks and 7 interceptions.

 

Kennedale is coming off of a 49-0 win over Lake Worth last week. Hutchins lost last week to Midlothian Heritage 48-34.

 

The winner of this game will play the winner of the Terrell/North Lamar game in area round action next week. UIL 4A Division I playoff bracket

 

Game time is 7:30 p.m. Directions