high school football season strong, but the grind of District 3-5A play slowed the Broncos’ progress over the last few weeks.

They have one more chance to get a shot in the arm as they head into the playoffs next week with a big rivalry game today against Barbe.

“Obviously we want to go into playoffs off of a win with some momentum and some confidence,” Broncos assistant coach Mason Martin said. “It’s a big game being Sam Houston and Barbe.

“It is always close and competitive and both sides will be fired up, ready to play. It’s senior night for us, too, so we’ve got a bunch of seniors that have played a bunch of football here.”

The game will start at 7 p.m. at Wayne Hooper Memorial Stadium Moss Bluff.

Sam Houston (5-4 3-3) lost three of its last four games, including a 42-7 road loss to Class 5A No. 3 Acadiana last week. Barbe has plenty of momentum with a three-game win streak after beating Sulphur 28-13 last week.

“Our whole district’s tough,” Martin said. “There aren’t many easy wins in there when you look week by week. You’ve got to be ready to play, or if you’re not, it’s hard to get wins.

“The biggest thing for us is we just want to focus on ourselves and make sure we do the things we need to do throughout the week to put ourselves in a position to be successful on Friday. We feel like if we do that, we have the talent to compete and win games.

“So it’s about us. It’s never about who we play. It’s always about how we play, what we do leading up to the game to be successful.”

Until recently Barbe (6-3, 4-2) dominated the series. Sam Houston has won three of the last four meetings, including 36-22 at Buc Stadium.

“When we play a complete game, we can play with anybody, and so the focus is on just us clicking offense, defense, special teams, everybody doing their part to try to come out successful,” Martin said.

Offensively, Barbe and Sam Houston are quite similar. Sam Houston senior quarterback Gavin Stout has thrown for 1,541 yards and 13 touchdowns, while Barbe sophomore Jelandon Gray has 1,452 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Luke Leger (636 yds., 11 TDs) is the Bucs’ top receiver, while Sam Houston has two with more than 400 yards in Drew Dronet and Ayden Rose.

While Sam Houston relies heavily on Drew Bailey (1,481 yds., 21 TDs) in the run game, the Bucs have two backs in Eric Jones (710 yds., 9 TDs) and Jordin Griffin (531 yds., 4 TDs).

“We do a lot of similar things. They’re really talented,” Martin said of the Bucs. “They have a really good group up front on the O-line. The quarterback, who is a sophomore who played last year as a freshman, is a great athlete and makes some incredible plays.

“They’ve got two really good running backs and then receivers, tight ends, and everybody else kind of has their roles and makes plays as well. So they’re hard to defend.”