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NEDERLAND — After a last second, 21-20 loss to Port Neches-Groves, the Nederland Bulldogs are looking for a different outcome against an opponent with the same nickname in Santa Fe.

The Bulldogs (1-2, 0-1 in n District 12-5A Division II) will travel to Santa Fe’s Indian Stadium with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Nederland head coach Monte Barrow said this week is about not losing to the Indians twice, both literally and metaphorically.

“The first thing I told them was that they can’t lose twice to the same team,” he said. “You can’t have a carry over of feelings from last week. They understand that. This will be a long bus ride to Santa Fe. We’ll get up there and be ready to play. … In this district, you have to be ready to play every Friday. If you are worried about the previous Friday or next Friday, you are going to get back on the bus not feeling too good.”

Barrow said his team is trying to wash off the tough loss against PNG and move on.

“Young people are resilient,” he said. “I’m not going to go in there and tell them how to deal with it. Everyone deals with it their own way. You have to process things. I just told them that if there is something still in them from that game to find a way to channel it in a positive way for our game this week.”

The Santa Fe Indians (1-3, 0-1) will also look to bounce back from a 31-6 loss to Texas City. Santa Fe has lost to Brazoswood and Baytown Lee but defeated South Houston.

Barrow said his team will watch tape to improve but also acknowledged the rivalry provided a unique experience for the Bulldogs.

“We are not 100 percent well-oiled and as good as we are going to be, I hope,” he said. “We’ve only played two games prior to that. We are going to turn on the video and see what we need to work on. The rest of the games might not be like that because it’s not that emotion. I challenged them to find that level of emotion when it’s not the rivalry game. If you can, you can go out and play to a level that you played the other night. Both teams played well and it came down to what we all talked about — the last play.”

Barrow said he tries to not carry a tough loss with him and keep perspective.

“The kids and players feed off what we do as well,” he said. “I try not to make my family too miserable over the weekend. I tell them the same thing. There are still things outside of this game even though we are invested in this tremendously. We are going to move on at some point. When it passes, we will be better for it.”

NEDERLAND (1-2, 0-1) AT SANTA FE (1-3, 0-1) 12-5A-II FOOTBALL; 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, INDIAN STADIUM, 16000 TEXAS 6; KLVI-AM 560

 

District 12-5A

Division II standings

 

Team                          Dist.    Over.

Crosby                            1-0      2-2

PNG                             1-0      2-2

Barbers Hill                   1-0      1-2

Texas City                      1-0      1-2

Nederland                 0-1      1-2

Kingwood Park            0-1      1-3

Santa Fe                        0-1      1-3

Dayton                           0-1      0-4

 

This week

Nederland at Santa Fe

Kingwood Park at Texas City

Dayton at Port Neches-Groves

Barbers Hill at Crosby