By Chuck Reherman, Sports Editor – Southwest Covenant will look to add to their district wins Friday as the Patriots return home to host Corn Bible Academy.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Patriot Stadium. The game has been moved back 30 minutes since the SWCS volleyball team plays in the state tournament in Edmond at 3:15 p.m.
The Patriots opened the district season with a 67-22 win over Mountain View-Gotebo and takes on a Corn Bible team that is young and has been struggling. The Crusaders lost to Grandfield 58-20 last week. CBA lost to Tipton 52-0 in their district opener two weeks ago and the Crusaders have not really played anyone close and come in with an 0-5 record.
SWCS does own a 2-1 record over the Crusaders, but lost to CBA 58-38 last year. SWCS owns a 48-0 and 32-26 win in the two previous years.
Despite the 0-5 record, SWCS head coach Trey Cloud said the Crusaders can be a dangerous team and one that his Patriots cannot overlook.
“Corn Bible has a young team, but they are getting better,” Cloud said. “They have some good kids, the fullback and quarterback are pretty good, they like to run a lot of lead and veer plays.
“This is just another district game for us,” added Cloud, who father coached a CBA in the first two meetings between the teams. “They will run the ball a lot, some play action, but mainly a lot of veer option. They will run a 3-2 defense about the whole time.”
Corn Bible lost five seniors off last year’s team, all seniors, and have had to rely on some freshmen. Their roster number is down also with only 10 players going into this game.
Junior Matthew Mann has stepped in as the team’s quarterback and runningback Andre Miller missed most of last year, but ran for over 1,000 yards his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Daniel Koschsky (6-1, 250) and Tristan Miller (6-2, 240) will anchor both the offensive and defensive front lines.
The Patriots have been able to put points on the board all season and did it in fast fashion last week. Runningback Trevor Kelly had five touchdowns last week, four rushing and one kickoff return and will get the lions’ share of carries again this week, after running for 140 in the win over Mountain View-Gotebo.
Quarterback Sam Webb should put the ball in the air more this week. He threw only three times last week and had a string of 100-yard passing games snapped last week.
“We have to be physical in every aspect of our game Friday night,” Cloud said. “We will look to be more balanced this week, I think Sam was a little mad at me for letting him throw the ball only three times last week. But, we kept scoring so fast that we didn’t really need to throw the ball.
“We feel good about our team, we feel are in position to make a run,” he said. “Tipton is going to be a big game in a couple weeks and we know Temple usually has a good bunch. So we need to win games like this to keep pace with those other teams. We would love to get a chance to host a first round playoff game.”
