Arlington Lamar's .500 record still makes them playoff-worthy

By Greg Bogomol

Special to the Star-Telegram

Arlington Lamar is one of those teams who enter the playoffs with a less than a stellar record at 5-5, but don't that let confuse you.

Among the Vikings' five losses, four are to playoff teams. That's something coach Trent Fuller hopes will pay off this week when the team opens the playoffs at 9 p.m. Thursday in a battle with Justin Northwest (8-2) at Cowboy Stadium in a Class 5A Region I Division II bi district contest.

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"Our record isn't the best, but we feel like the teams we have played are quality opponents," Fuller said. "We haven't completed as well as we could in some of those games, but I feel we lost to good teams."

The strength of their schedule was in preparation for what lies ahead in the coming weeks.

"Hopefully our schedule helps us pull out a win," Fuller said. "Sometimes when you play a tough schedule and you look at your record it can bug you down, but our kids have been there before. All of our games this year except for one have been a blowout one way or the other."

One thing Fuller is hoping his team can do this week is play smart and alert for 48 minutes.

"The biggest key for us is to be consistent from start to finish," Fuller said. "We haven't done that all year. In games we have either been too late to get things going or we start strong and can't finish. We can't have that happen again this week and be successful."

The key in being consistent starts at quarterback, where senior Charlie Baird will take his first post-season snap after being the backup a year ago. Baird has completed 74 percent of his passes for 1,466 yards and 17 touchdowns.

"He's very coachable and makes good decisions," Fuller said. "He has a lot of weapons and he has done of good job of distributing the ball well."

Baird who missed almost three games due to an illness has started to find his groove. In last week's 61-28 victory over Paschal, he completed 28 of 32 passes for 294 yards and four scores.

"It was my last game so I actually set a goal of completing 100 percent of my passes," Baird said. "My line has done a great job of giving me time to find the open guy. We just have to make sure we go out and execute this week and play like we have been. If we play like we can and execute we should do well."

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