North Texas-UTSA, private school showdown highlight Slovacek's I-35 Showdowns

Slovacek's logoTo honor the loyal football fans that travel great distances to support their favorite team, DCTF and our friends from Slovacek’s in West, Texas are proud to present The Slovacek’s I-35 Showdowns of the Week. North Texas (0-7) vs. UTSA (1-6) 6:00 p.m. Saturday at Apogee Stadium in Denton Two years ago, the sky appeared to be the limit for these two schools. UTSA, in just their third season of football, finished the season 7-5 with road wins over Tulsa and UTEP. North Texas claimed their first bowl victory in twelve years and finished with nine wins. It’s been difficult period of humility and soul-searching for both the Roadrunners and Mean Green since then, though, as the two will meet Saturday night in Denton with just one victory between them on the season. Things started decently enough for the Roadrunners, who held their own in a tightly contested road loss to Arizona in which they actually outgained the Wildcats by more than 100 yards. Their inability to seal the deal in a winnable game cropped up again in close defeats at the hands of Colorado State and Louisiana Tech. For North Texas, the 2015 season started with a complete 4^th quarter collapse against rival SMU in the opener, then got worse. Lopsided road losses at Iowa and Southern Miss preceded the Mean Green’s arrival at rock bottom: a 66-7 home loss to FCS school Portland State that resulted in Dan McCarney’s immediate dismissal as head coach. As both squads look to find new footing on Halloween night, UTSA may want to look to their ground game, where junior Jarveon Williams has averaged over five yards per carry while racking up 618 yards and four touchdowns through seven contests. Looking to stop him will be a Mean Green rushing defense that ranks 121^st in the nation, yielding more than 255 yards per game. Dallas St. Mark’s (6-3) vs. Houston Kinkaid (6-3) 12:00 p.m. Saturday at Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium in Dallas While most of the high school football community greatly anticipates the upcoming UIL playoffs, postseason football actually gets underway this weekend as a spot in the SPC large-school title game is on the line when Houston Kinkaid travels to Dallas to take on St. Mark’s in a state semifinal. For Kinkaid, the name to know is Michael Goldak. The senior quarterback led the Falcons in both passing and rushing during the regular season, which he ended with an impressive display against St. John’s- completing 71% of his pass attempts and rushing for 92 yards and three touchdowns. St. Mark’s will be defending not just their home field, but a four-game winning streak as well. During that stretch, the Lions have been led by a triumvirate of senior playmakers - quarterback Matthew Placide, tailback Jackson Cole and wide receiver Zackary Houillion. Cole exploded for 208 yards on 25 carries in last week’s regular season finale victory over Greenhill.