Baseball players hate seeing a knuckleballer and a guy with a 90-mph fastball back-to-back. The change in speed throws their timing off.

The Rudder football team is seeing the football equivalent. After facing one of the better running attacks in Class 3A last week, the Rangers face an aerial circus Friday against Brookshire-Royal at Merrill Green Stadium.

Brookshire-Royal put up 393 yards of total offense against Hempstead in Week 0, with quarterback Eric Mathews completing 66 percent of his passes for 303 yards. Two Falcon receivers went over 100 yards, and Brandon Williams caught 11 passes.

Of course, that's to be expected for an offense that sports many four-wideout looks and lists three receivers and two quarterbacks among their projected starters.

"They're going to throw the ball," Rudder coach C.M. Pier said. "They've got four receivers and if you get to locking up on this guy, this other one will beat you. I was at the track meet when their running back [Brandon Williams] ran a 10.3[-second 100-meter dash] or whatever he did. They've got a big offensive line and their defense is scary because they fly to the football. They've got runners over there."

The stark contrast will test Rudder's defense. Last week's opponent, Cleveland, attempted just four passes and ran the ball 46 times. Royal's run-to-pass percentage is much closer to 40/60, as against Hempstead the Falcons ran the ball 25 times and passed 36 times. Receiver Shane Alexander caught nine passes for 102 yards in that game after being named to the all-district team in 2008.

"I like his game," Pier said. "He's an aggressive kid, he's very athletic and fast. He's just hard to deal with. He plays both sides of the football for them."

The Rangers' secondary played well last week. The two leading tacklers against Cleveland were safety Trent Mitchell (12 tackles) and cornerback Domonique Robison (10). Safety Austin Baron also had an interception near the goal line to stop a potential Cleveland scoring drive.

Linebacker Kody Burton rounded out the defensive leaders against the Indians, making six tackles and blocking an extra-point attempt.

"I liked our consistency of play," Pier said. "We actually got out there and did battle with a pretty good football team. We have to work on our mental [game]. When you're out there on Friday, it's physical and it's mental. In this district we're in, if you line up wrong or you read your key wrong, they're gone. You have to be disciplined in what you do, or you'll never have any success."

Rudder's offense did well against Cleveland, but couldn't find the end zone and had to settle for two Will Johnson field goals. Quarterback Kyle Danford had an uneven start in his second game at quarterback for the Rangers. The junior completed 9 of 15 passes for 72 yards with two interceptions.

Danford started in place of last year's starter Tre Hammond after winning the job this fall. Hammond moved to wide receiver and caught one pass for 13 yards.

After spending last season with little to no depth and starting mostly freshman and sophomores, Pier enjoys having two quarterbacks with starting experience.

"He's willing to go the extra mile to help the team," Pier said. "Tre can go to quarterback in a heartbeat. He's so valuable with what he brings to our team with his versatility. He could go back to quarterback and we wouldn't miss a beat. I think before the year is out, both of them will do some great things for this team."

RUDDER FOOTBALL

* Friday's game: Brookshire-Royal (1-0) at Rudder (0-1), 7:30 p.m.

* Radio: KNDE's (95.1 FM) HD-3 and at www.bryanbroadcasting.com/rangers