The backup duties fall on a handful of sophomores who displayed remarkable poise last Friday night. Tyler Smith completed 7 of 13 for 92 yards and guided Big Ned to a pair of touchdown drives. A big part of that had to do with the determined blocking of Nick Smith and Stefan Huber on the right side and the hearty runs of Wareall Grogan and Grant Lovelady.

While Nederland tries to balance runs and passes, Magnolia keeps its passes to a bare minimum. Sexton determined two years ago upon his arrival in Montgomery County that the Wishbone suited his type of athletes. Neumann agreed with him, too.

The teams have differed IN another respect as well. Nederland enters its 10th game at zero on the giveaway-takeaway chart. Neumann's group has yielded 13 turnovers and acquired the same number. Magnolia is a whopping plus 23, including five interceptions in last week's 26-14 bidistrict victory at Buda Hays.

"Our defense is doing a great job of taking away the ball," Sexton said. "We have no heroes and no superstars, but they like playing. We don't have any one standout lineman. We've got three seniors and two juniors on the offensive line and they're all buddies. We split it up a lot on running the ball, too."

Magnolia led 18-4A with 333.4 yards a game, running for 2,685 yards and throwing for only 316. Junior quarterback Dennis Dunbar led all rushers with 925 yards on 96 carries. Senior fullback Arnold Nevarez followed with 123 tries for 734 yards.

The MHS defense placed third among 18-4A defensive numbers allowing 231.1 yards a game, 1,418 on the ground and 662 in the air. Although Magnolia has corraled 17 interceptions in 10 games, the Dogs' meat-and-potatoes senior leader has to be middle linebacker Sean McKeown.

By the later stages of this afternoon, Neumann will determine Magnolia's degree of flashiness by how much the Moorhead Stadium scoreboard flashes.

"I believe we're going to win the football game, unless in the course of the game, they just overpower us," the Nederland coach said. "Our bottom line is staying focused and executing. Execution is everything."

But Larry did like his chances that his injured bodies figured to play and play well.

NEDERLAND VS. MAGNOLIA

When: Saturday, 1 p.m.

Where: Moorhead Stadium, Conroe

Records: Nederland 5-4, 4-3; Magnolia 7-3, 5-2

At Stake: Class 4A Division I area playoffs