• When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

• Where: Bear Stadium, Little Cypress

• Records: Nederland 2-1, 2-0; LC-M 0-3, 0-2

• Series: Nederland leads 15-6

• Last year: Nederland, 35-7

• Radio: KLVI-AM (560)

• Internet: www.klvi.com

• Bulldogs capsule: Steady improvement from game to game is the main idea so far at Nederland as head coach Larry Neumann brings a 20-4A co-leader to Orange County with a newly found offense . . . Tackle leaders so far have been Adrian Pina (10 and 3), Anthony Maddox (10 and 2) and Jimmy Swain (9 and 5), but NHS ranks next-to-last in 20-4A total defense, allowing 397.5 yards a game…. QB Kirby Bellow is superb, leading 20-4A passers with 598 yards and an excellent TD-INT ratio (6:1)…. RB Wareall Grogan (57 carries for 403 yards) has moved to fourth among 20-4A rushers…. Add Jude Vidrine to Neumann’s list of star receivers after a brilliant performance against PN-G with back-to-back important touchdown catches.

• Bears capsule: Coach Todd Moody’s fourth season has contained much adversity because the ultra-young LC-M club has started eight sophomores and a freshman…. Moody likes the future for soph QB Hunter Gonzales but the LC-M passer has thrown three interceptions in three games while LC-M’s defense has non picks against three high-quality foes to date — WO-S, PN-G and Central… Soph RB Blake Perry dashed 12 times for 58 yards against Central last week while freshman Preston Armstrong hauled in two passes for 54 yards…. LC-M also has to guard against falling lower than its current minus 3 turnover ratio.

• Neumann says: “If I had more games under our belt, I would feel more secure about the way we’re progressing as a team… I think we got a little better at tackling by the PN-G game and I think we did a better job on offense and defense of taking advantage of our opportunities. We weren’t 100 percent but we were a lot better. It’s more important for us to continue to improve in a consistent manner… LC-M has been mismatched in some of their games and they have a lot of inexperienced players. They look pretty good at times on offense but they have so many sophomores and you can’t substitute experience or time. Their defense has not been real consistent.”

• Moody says: “Nederland is the exact opposite of what we had to deal with a week ago. Nederland can throw the ball around with (Kirby) Bellow or they have a big back (Wareall Grogan) that can run it. They have threats all over the field… Grogan is a tough guy to tackle. With him in the backfield, you canít just play the pass…. The No. 1 thing I ask the kids to do is to continue to get better… I ask them to line up and do what they have been coached to do. It has been a relief this week to be back on normal schedule. We were happy to have a routine. Some of the kids have said it is the first regular week we have had all year and it is Oct. 9. We are a very young team that starts eight sophomores and one freshman so I have been very pleased with the way they have responded.”

NEDERLAND OFFENSE

WR — Ryan Brady (7)

IR — Brent Salenga (4)

LT — Ben Jones (62)

LG — Khoby Moore (60)

C — Trey Terracina (56)

RG — Nick Smith (53)

RT — Stefan Huber (54)

IR — Jude Vidrine (5)

WR — Asa Cardenas (21)

QB — Kirby Bellow (3)

RB — Wareall Grogan (2)

LC-M DEFENSE

LE — Gregg Gravett (88)

LT — Clay Dunn (62)

RT — Nathan Sonnenberg (55)

or Chad Humphrey (30)

RE — Aubrey Dunlap (61)

SLB — Preston Armstrong (80)

MLB — Howard Griffith (44)

WLB — Blake Perry (34)

LCB — Michael Green (48)

RCB — Zac Blanchard (22)

ROV — Hunter Gonzales (20)

FS — Zack Sonnier (23)

LC-M OFFENSE

SE — Sam Burton (83)

LT — Eric Blem (70)

LG — Jacob Boaz (67)

C — Frank Snoddy (50)

RG — Kris Borel (66)

RT — Clay Dunn (62)

TE — Gregg Gravett (88)

QB — Hunter Gonzales (20)

FB — Tevvin Jones (36)

TB — Howard Griffith (44)

FL — Daniel Harrison (85)

NEDERLAND DEFENSE

SE — Anthony Maddox (26)

LT — Marcus Louvier (55)

NT — Shelby Clark (48)

WE — Dionte Forney (10)

SLB — Grant Lovelady (40)

WLB — Jordan Landry (8)

BAN — Nick Cardenas (33)

LCB — Jimmy Swain (24)

RCB — Michael Roebuck (14)

LS — Adrian Pina (25)

RS — Jake Kemp (20)