This truly is uncharted territory for the Lancaster football team. On Friday, Christopher Gilbert's talented Tigers will play for a state title for the first team in school history when they square off against Cedar Park in the Class 4A Division II title game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Cedar Park is another school seeking its first state title but Lancaster has shown itself time and time again this season to be a team no one should ever count out until the final gun has sounded. The Tigers' only loss this season came in Week Seven against Red Oak, a game which finished 17-10. Lancaster has won seven in a row since then and now sits on the brink of a potential state title, something which has the program's head coach ripe with anticipation.
How does it feel to know you're going to play for a state title this week?
Gilbert: It's real exciting. I don't know how many people who have said that we'd be at the final game at the beginning of the season. We're kind of not known for playing football here at Lancaster, but it's been special. Our community has rallied around our team. Our school district is supporting our team and it's a really fun time for our players here at the school.
What do you know about your opponent, Cedar Park?
Gilbert: Other than they're really good? They are really good. They are a really sound football team. They seem to be physically strong. They play a disciplined brand of football and they definitely have some great athletes. That No. 7, Ethan [Fry] and the quarterback [Nate] Grimm, those guys are good players. I think the most impressive thing about the team in my opinion is their line of scrimmage, o-line and d-line I think they're both really strong. They're strong technically as well. I think they're a real sound football team.
Can you quantify how much Demarcus Ayers means to your team?
Gilbert: Demarcus means everything to our offense. Between Demarcus, Nick Harvey and Joseph Paden, we've got some guys, Paden is a guy that sometimes a lot of folks forget about. He's a good player. With Demarcus, he's one of those do-it-all kind of guys, really has good football instincts. He can turn some busted plays into positive plays. He knows the offense really well and he understands defense. He's just a good football guy. I can see this kid doing really well at the next level because he really eats, sleeps and drinks football.
Nick Harvey is also a big contributor for you guys on offense. Talk about him.
Gilbert: Harvey, what he brings to our team is he plays just about every skill position on the field, both sides of the ball. When we put him in the game at quarterback, we really don't consider him a Wildcat quarterback. He does the same package that Demarcus [Ayers] does. They're two different style players. I think Harvey kind of has a more downhill running style and I think they're both really good but Harvey is just a do-it-all. We can line him up at several places and he makes plays.
Over on defense, Daeshon Hall is truly a force to be reckoned with. Discuss how much he means to that side of the ball.
Gilbert: Well, he disrupts opposing offenses. He's a guy that's hard to deal with as a rush end and he plays the run a lot better than folks give him credit for. His size and length are something that a lot of teams struggle with. Because he's quick and he has those long limbs, he can kind of keep blockers off of him. But he's very athletic and we've been using him on offense as well. For the past few weeks, he's been playing tight end and has scored like three touchdowns last few weeks. Great athlete, we're going to have our best guys out there.
Your team has had some close games en route to reaching the title game. Talk about the road you've taken thus far.
Gilbert: I think we've probably had one of the toughest roads to get here. All the teams we played were so good. We didn't care how we came out in the end. We just wanted to win it. Those games have allowed us to create some stripes and being in those kinds of games and in those environments we played in really matured our team quickly. This is all new to us so those tough playoff games, third, fourth and fifth-round games that we hadn't seen before. That really gave us some confidence. We know that we can win a close game. We know that if something goes wrong, we recover from it. We really are a mentally tough team at this point.
As good as your offense is, your defense might be the key to your success. Talk about that group and what they've done this season.
Gilbert: Our defense has really been the heart of our team. Our defense sets the tone. I think the thing that most teams have to get used to the first time they play us is the speed of our defense. We get to the ball really well. Our defensive coordinator, Coach Adams, has done a really good job along with the rest of our defensive staff in preparing them. We would not be where we are right now if it wasn't for how those guys on defense have played. I think they've averaged giving 15, 16 points a game or something like that. That allows us on offense to say hey, if we can get three scores we've got a chance to win this thing. Our defense, sometimes they have given up more yards but in the end, they end up keeping them out of the end zone. They've had a lot of goal line stands and a lot of big-time fourth-down stops and all those kinds of things that great defenses do. They've been doing those things.
Since no other Lancaster team has made it this far, what would mean for your team to finish the job and win state?
Gilbert: Well, I told the kids the other day, I said before we played in the pregame speech that everybody knows we don't have a whole lot of football tradition. What I told our kids was that's fine. If there's anything that is better than having tradition, it's being the first group to start tradition. I think they've bought into that and it means a lot to them to be the first team to do what they're doing and they'll go down in history as the best football team ever to come through this high school. That's something that's very special and we're looking forward to the challenge.
