By Brice Cherry and Chad Conine

Tribune-Herald staff writers

Before the season ever started, Waco High coach Johnny Tusa made like Nostradamus.

“The toughest district in the state is the one you played in,” Tusa said. “I’ve never been in a district where I didn’t think, ‘This is as tough as it gets.’”

In Tusa’s case, he was absolutely right.

Heading into the fifth round of the Texas schoolboy football playoffs, District 16-4A boasts the best record of any district in any classification in the state at 11-1.

The district’s three playoff representatives — Waco High, Brownwood and Copperas Cove — were the only trio from the same loop still around last week, when Waco High defeated Brownwood, 44-13, in the Division II regional final and Cove turned back Aledo, 35-12, in the Division I state semifinals.

After 16-4A, the district with the second-best win-loss record in the playoffs is also a local district. District 26-2A’s Lexington, Somerville and Hearne went 9-2 in the postseason, with Lexington beating Somerville, 26-0, in the regional final Saturday.

In all, 10 districts across the state had two teams still alive last week. This week, 16-4A is the only one still with that designation.

Welcome back, Salubi

The Waco High running game clicked along just fine during the first three weeks of the playoffs, when feature back Jarred Salubi was nursing a sprained left ankle.

But the Lions showed what they could do with Salubi going full force on Saturday against Brownwood at Floyd Casey Stadium.

Salubi carried 22 times for 177 yards, leading Waco High to 371 yards on 56 carries. The Lions came into the Brownwood game running for 244 yards per contest on the ground, but raised that average to 253 with their best rushing game of the playoffs by 107 yards. The previous best was 264 in bi-district against Corsicana.

Rockets still working in blue

For the fifth time in five playoff games, the Robinson Rockets will wear their home blue uniforms on Saturday in their Class 3A Division I state championship battle against Texarkana Liberty-Eylau.

In negotiating the site and time of the game with the Liberty-Eylau coaches, Robinson coach Brian Lewis, whose first preference was to play on Friday night, agreed to a Saturday game as long as his team could be the home squad.

Superstitious? A little.

“At this point of the game, we sure didn’t want to take any chances,” Lewis said. “Putting on those old blue jerseys one more time certainly couldn’t hurt.”

Mart-Lexington subplots

As if the state semifinal war between top-ranked Mart (13-1) and No. 3 Lexington (12-2) needed any added intensity, close ties amp the intensity.

Lexington coach Jason Holcomb was an assistant coach at Mart from 1995-1999, helping guide the Panthers to the 1999 state championship in his final season.

Eagles defensive coordinator Kirk Muhl graduated from Mart in 1993 and was an all-district and all-state performer for the Panthers. He was also a member of former Mart head coach Terry Cron’s staff for the ‘99 championship season, and his father played on Mart’s Class 1A championship team in 1969.

Pirates track win No. 13

With a win over Lovelady in Friday’s Class 1A Division II state semifinals, the Chilton Pirates will once again hit the lucky No. 13.

Chilton has three previous 13-win seasons — in 1972, 2003 and 2005. That 1972 year remains Chilton’s only trip to the state final, where they defeated Windthorst, 6-0. The Pirates could potentially play Windthorst, the No. 1-ranked team in 1A, next week.

Chilton is also the only playoff team in any classification that has yet to surrender a point in the postseason, having pitched shutouts against Thrall, Rocksprings and Thorndale.

Staff writer Jason Becker contributed to this story.