Bobcats host archrival Blanco to close out the regular season

Playoff-bound Comfort High will host archrival Blanco to close out the regular season Friday.

Bobcats coach Jay Rieken said his team is looking forward to playing the Panthers.

“They’ve been Comfort’s rival for years,” he said. “I told the seniors, what better way than to end the regular season at home than by playing against your rivals?”

The rivalry has been lopsided recently, with Comfort’s last win coming in 2019 at Blanco, 24-21. Rieken said they hope to end the drought against the Panthers team which has a new coach in Kent Walker, who came from Liberty Hill.

Blanco has responded to the new coach and is 3-0 in district (7-2 overall), the only undefeated team in 13-3A DII so far. Walker led Liberty Hill to the state championship game in 2021, and Rieken said he has the Panthers playing well.

“Blanco has always been good and aggressive; they get after it and play hard,” he said. “(Walker) has brought in the speed factor. They come off the ball well offensively and run the ball, but the big change is that they’re playing faster.”

Regardless of Friday’s outcome, Comfort has made the playoffs. The Bobcats (5-4 overall) were hoping for a win last week at Lexington to control their own destiny but were defeated 54-0. That meant Comfort needed Thrall to lose to Rogers, and that happened.

Even though things didn’t work out like they hoped last Friday with an outright win, Rieken said the bottom line is they qualified for the playoffs. They last made it in 2023 when they faced Taft in the first round, so they ended a one-year drought.

“The first thing this year’s group set out to do was to make the playoffs,” he said. “We wished we could have done it better, but we achieved our first goal of the year. Our next goal is to win the first one in the playoffs.”

Blanco (3-0) will be the No. 1 seed out of the district regardless of Friday’s outcome with Comfort, while Lexington (2-1) and Rogers (2-1) play Friday for the second and third seed, and Comfort (1-2) is locked in as the No. 4 seed.

The Bobcats will face either Tidehaven or East Bernard in the first round, both undefeated in district heading into Friday’s matchup between the two.

Rieken said they were looking at the Seguin or Bastrop area as potential host sites but would know more after this Friday.