A first district win is at stake tonight as the Farmers [1-1] face rival school Marcus [1-1] in the district opener at 7:30 p.m at Marauder Stadium in Flower Mound.

Head Coach Gregg Miller said the importance of tonight’s matchup, also known as The Battle of the Axe, to the team and the school is obvious.

“Everybody knows what rides on this game,” Miller said. “There is no point in drilling [the team] to death. There is no one out there at practice who doesn’t understand what this means to our school and our community.”

With loads of hype and pressure put on just one game, support from the community could be transformed into a distraction. Miller said it will not become one to his team though.

“We’re pretty focused,” Miller said. “[The team] doesn’t talk about it much. They just wanna play. On weeks like this, you wanna get your preparation in, and then get to 7:30. It’s the anticipation that kills you, not necessarily the hype.”

Marcus has had much talk about their passing game, but has a more productive running game. As a team in the last two weeks they have rushed for 448 yards. Junior running back C.J. Respass is responsible for 139 of those yards.

“In philosophy they want to throw the ball,” Miller said. “ [But] they are going to make their living running the football. They’re not fooling us.”

Junior quarterback Andrew Parish has passed for 261 yards for the Marauders this season with a 62.5 percent passing accuracy.

Just like the Farmers, Marcus opened the season with a loss at home, falling to Mansfield 29-16. But they also bounced back last week with a road win over Arlington, 39-17.

Miller said the biggest struggle in tonight’s game will be maintaining composure. In the last two years the Farmers have lead going into the fourth quarter before suffering last-minute losses [24-21 and 13-6]. The Farmers have not won the Axe game since 2006.

“We started getting nervous,” Miller said “Instead of going out and finishing them off.”

Senior captain and second team all-district defensive back Kori Williams feels that won’t be the case this year.

“It’s our last year, and we haven’t had the axe in I don’t know how long,” Williams said. “We can actually win this thing, and we can be the class to take it back.”

Senior captain and starting quarterback Adrian Villarreal said the has a positive attitude following a blowout 47-21 win last Thursday against Richland.

“Everyone is excited, but we have to keep working hard and not let that win get to our heads,” Villarreal said. “We have a big game this week, so we pretty much have to forget about last week’s game and focus on this week’s game. It’s our first district game so we have to win that to enter a road to the playoffs.”

The Farmers built a 41-14 first half lead last week with two rushing touchdowns from senior Carl McGhee and another by senior Trinity Benson. The Farmers also got some help on defense and special teams with a fumble and a blocked punt both returned for touchdowns in the first half.

The axe has not been its original home for the last seven years, and all the boys on the team are eager to bring it back. Senior captain Oscar Salinas said it’s been in his thoughts daily.

“Every morning that I’ve been waking up this past week, I have been thinking about that,” Salinas said. “It really makes me want to go out and play hard for my team and my school.”

Win or lose, however, the Farmers know that there is still a lot of football left to play.

“[If we win the axe] I would be ecstatic,” Salinas said. “But to be honest, if we win the axe, come Monday, we’re ready to work and get another win.”