When Fox Sport Southwest announced this summer that Rudder's game at state power Navasota would be a DQ Big Game of the Week, there were some snickers of laughter.

Nobody's laughing now. With the Rangers' second straight victory, it looks like DQ got a dilly.

It remains to be seen whether Rudder is a contender, but in their second season of varsity football, there is little doubt that the Rangers are no longer pushovers. Their 49-14 victory over Hearne proved that.

The Rangers evened offered up a successful onside kick this week, a maneuver that allowed them to extend their lead.

"The other side of the coin is, if you don't get it, what kind of a bind are you putting your defense in?" Rudder coach C.M. Pier said. "Our defense was playing pretty good and we felt confident in them. A big advantage you can have is in the kicking game. That's something we work on and believe in. We've got good kickers and need to use them."

And Rudder continues to show marked improvement on defense. The Rangers held Hearne to 218 total yards and forced three turnovers. One of them was a 99-yard interception return from Domonique Robison.

"They've got a better grasp of what we want them to do, and they are trying hard to do that," Pier said. "Now when the back is coming at us, we are strong and quick enough to get him down, whereas last year we couldn't. Last year, there were times when we grabbed ahold and couldn't hang on."

On offense, junior Kyle Danford continues to improve at quarterback. He hit 6 of 12 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown to complement a night when he rushed for Rudder's first three touchdowns.

"There are still some mechanical things we need to work on with Kyle, his reads and such," Pier said. "He wants to do things so well that sometimes he rushes things and doesn't see things like he should, but overall I'm happy with the way he's playing. There's no doubt we've got to improve in some areas, but he's starting to come on."

Rudder avoided what might have been an awkward situation when Danford took over the quarterback spot from Tre Hammond, who held the job until suffering an injury late last season.

"Tre and I talked and Kyle and I talked about it," Pier said. "Any move we make is going to be for the team first, not the individual. They understood that, and they like the roles they are in right now."

Hammond scored a touchdown in the win, while running back Restevin Anderson led the attack with 19 carries for 142 yards and a touchdown.

"Restevin has come on and been a real bright spot up until this point, so everything is fitting together," Pier said.

The game in Navasota on Friday is the District 24-3A opener for both teams, with ninth-ranked Navasota fresh off a 24-14 victory at No. 6 Bellville.

"We draw Navasota right out of the box in district play, one of the better teams in the state of Texas," Pier said. "That's going to be tough, but it doesn't get any easier as you go through our district schedule. It's a really good football district."

Now Pier's Rangers are helping to prove that point.