The football team will play its first district game against Marcus at The Marcus Marauder Stadium on Sept. 22 at 7:00 p.m.

“The non-district season has [had] its ups and downs for the team,” senior quarterback Evan Enderlin said. “We started strong against Jesuit, and we slowed down a little bit against Wylie, but we finished strong against Eaton. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from [the non-district] season, and we are hoping to bring those [lessons] with us into the district season.”

Last year, the team lost 21-23 against Marcus at Hebron’s homecoming game. Head coach John Towels said the turning point in that game was when the team gave up a turnover for a touchdown. He said he believes that if the team doesn’t make the same mistake this year, they will win.

“We are [not] going into this game expecting that we can’t play with them or beat them,” Towels said. “They’re big [and] they’re physical. They’re going to line up and run at [us], but we can’t take anyone for granted in districts, so we’re going to play everyone the same way.”

In the non-district season, the team won two games and lost one. They won against Dallas Jesuit with a score of 39-34 and Eaton with 21-17. They lost against Wylie with a score of 21-16.

“Mistakes are the only thing that kills us,” junior defensive lineman Daylon Owens said. “We really only hurt ourselves with penalties and not scoring, [but] I have high hopes for this season. We have some great players. Over the past couple weeks, we’ve had some guys go down, but I’m confident in the ones that have stepped up in practice and showed that they can play on Friday.”

Marcus has lost every game in their non-district season this year, losing 56-24 to Highland Park, 57-15 against Southlake Carroll and 59-49 against Trinity.

“It’s obviously a heated rivalry,” junior outside linebacker Luke Sharp said. “We always have lots of energy going into the game and [I’m] just excited to see what happens this week. [Marcus is] not necessarily the biggest or most athletic, but they are well coached and disciplined.”

In the past five years, the team has played against Marcus four times, only not playing them in the 2020-2021 season. The last time they won against Marcus was in their 2018-2019 season, by a score of 35-20.

“The biggest hope is just to go in and get a win against Marcus,” Enderlin said. “I want to hope that we do it in a way where we limit our mistakes, and we can start seeing the team really come together. The goal is to go in and get a win because, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”