Texas high school football: The Woodlands Highlanders head back to Waco

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- What are you up to Saturday night?

Well, if you’re exhausted from all the holiday shopping craziness, why not make yourself a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers and tune in right here to see if The Woodlands Highlanders can extend this dream season one more time?

Tune in right here for a live broadcast of Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. third-round postseason game between the Highlanders and the Austin Bowie Bulldogs from Baylor’s McLane Stadium.

What does The Woodlands need to do to bounce the Bulldogs out of the playoffs? All season long, the Highlanders have relied on a balanced offense to confound their opponents. They will once again turn to their multifaceted passing attack and a diminished-but-still potent running game.

Last week in Waco, The Woodlands faced their toughest test and actually found themselves on the short end of the scoreboard in the fourth quarter for the first time all season. It speaks volumes about this team that rather than panic in the face of a new challenge, they stared down adversity and scored two touchdowns in the last eight minutes.

They prevailed despite being without their leading rusher, Jordan Talford, who suffered a knee injury the week before.

Running back Carlos Ramos and quarterback Eric Schmid helped pick up the slack. The two have rushed for a combined 1,200 yards this season and scored 16 touchdowns.

In the air, Schmid had one of his greatest games of a nearly flawless season. He was 29-for-35 for 417 yards and three touchdowns. He has now thrown for more than 2,500 yards this year with 37 touchdowns and just one interception.

Schmid’s success is directly linked to the fact that he has the luxury of three explosive targets, Kesean Carter, Chris Stewart and Dylan Casey. Every secondary the Highlanders face can’t contain them all, and the offensive line gives Schmid the time to find the open man.

Carter has 45 catches for 14 touchdowns. He’s practically guaranteed to go past the 900-yard mark on Saturday and has an outside chance to make it a 1,000-yard season.

Stewart has 38 catches for 642 yards and 11 touchdowns. Casey’s numbers are nearly identical, 35, 656 and 8. Two of Casey’s touchdowns came in last week’s win, including the go- ahead score in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs have a similar balance, which means this could be another shootout -- they’ve averaged 49 points per game over the last five weeks.

Bowie quarterback Wade Smith completed just 15 passes last week, but he delivered a lot of bang for the buck with 281 passing yards and four touchdowns.

His top receivers are Elijah Higgins and Aizayaha Santiago. Higgins caught two touchdowns in the first quarter to stake the Bulldogs to a 13-0 lead. Santiago, a 5-8 spitfire, finished the game with 187 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He averaged more than 23 yards per catch.