After the 13-6 loss to Marcus on Friday, the Farmers [3-4 overall, 1-1 district] will be heading to Denton’s C.H. Collins Athletic Complex Friday tonight to take on the Denton Ryan Raiders [5-1, 1-1] at 7:30 p.m.

Head coach Gregg Miller said Denton Ryan will be a handful if the Farmers are not ready both offensively and defensively, seeing as the Raiders were state champions recently and are almost always in the playoffs.

“Their front four guys are really good, big old kids, and they really play hard and get after it,” Miller said. “They have a really good running back, a really good receiver, and their quarterback is a game changer. [The quarterback] can do a lot of things that can get you in a bind. They’re just big and physical, and very, very fast.”

Last year’s close game resulted in a 28-24 loss for the Farmers, and senior running back Metrick Buhler expects the same close game this year, but also expects to come out on top.

“I’m expecting a win this time instead of coming close,” Buhler said. “We came in close a lot last year and we came close this year, but we’re actually winning this time, so I feel like we can win this one too.”

Besides trying to come out on top in the close games, Miller said that the team is working on other ways to win.

“Maintaining our gap integrity on defense and staying with stuff on offense, and being patient and not trying to do more than what we’re supposed to do [is what we need to do to win],” Miller said.

The Farmers are preparing for a close game, Miller said, after seeing many close games these past couple of seasons.

“We play and play hard and make you beat us, or we play and play hard and we take the win away from you,” Miller said. “We’re very capable of beating them. They’re probably one of the more talented teams we’ve seen, but we’ve seen the scheme and we know how to fit on it, if we can control the ball a little bit, keep them off the field and put points on the board.”

Miller said the team has bounced back from the loss against Marcus, despite the huge letdown after leading early.

“We’re getting tired of the close losses, and we’ve had some close wins this year, and we’ve improved a lot,” Miller said. “We’ve really been playing some better football. It drains onto kids mentally sometimes, but the practice yesterday was up tempo, and they’re so resilient and they want to win and they understand that they can. They just have a few things that they have to overcome this week.”

Despite the pressure and the intensity of the game against the Marauders, Miller said the team never gave up trying to fight for the axe.

“The whole history with Marcus is tough on our kids because we’re battling it out and we’ve got a lot of things to be proud of, and it’s hard for them to be proud of themselves when they lose the axe,” Miller said. “It’s hard to take pride in [the game], almost. It was a great battle. It was an honorable game for our kids. They never lost hope.”

During the open week, Miller took the opportunity to move Buhler from tight end to running back. Buhler has rushed for 212 yards on 49 carries with one touchdown, according to stats on the Dallas Morning News website. Buhler said he is content with his new position.

“It’s a lot better than playing tight end, because I didn’t feel like I had a role in the team as a tight end, because all I did was block, and now I feel like a star,” Buhler said.

Miller was impressed with Buhler’s performance, 87 yards rushing on 19 carries, against Marcus.

“He does a good job. He’s a very strong and physical kid and that helps him,” Miller said. “That’s what we needed.”