By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Southwest Covenant takes to the road for the second straight week and the Patriots will be looking for a similar outcome as the first.
And, the Patriots will have a good shot at accomplishing that.
Southwest Covenant will travel to the east side of the state to take on Summit Christian in a 7 p.m. game at Summit Christian in Broken Arrow.
The Patriots, coming off a 36-8 win over Alex last week, enters the game with a 1-1 record, while Summit is 0-2 after falling to Barnsdall 44-42. The Eagles lost their season opener to Garber 76-27.
Summit rolled past the Patriots in their meeting last year on their home field, but the Patriots are looking to put an end to an Eagle win streak.
“Summit has always been a tough test for our players and even though they are 0-2, I expect another tough game Friday night,” Patriot head coach John Jensen said. “They have one player (Jacob Langebartels) they like to get the ball to a lot. They line him up at runningback, inside receiver, outside receiver, they want to get him the ball.
“They will throw about 85 percent of the time,” he said. “We will have to be ready for screen, fades anything they can to get him the ball in space. So the goal of the week is how we stop him and how we contain the quarterback (Carson Banham). He will run a lot of play action passes because their line is not as good as in the past. And, he throws well for as mobile as he has to be.”
The Patriots turned in a solid effort in their win over Alex last week, but Jensen is looking for his team to step up the pace this week.
“Defensively, Summit does enough to give you trouble and we need to really be aggressive up front and need to take the fight to them and not let them play with us,” Jensen said. “They are good enough to hang with us and we need to go and fight them right away.
“We need to practice on being as fast as we can because tempo will be a key to this game,” he said. “Summit is a shotgun team, they like to spread the field and they go fast well. We have been working on our tempo and I feel we will play faster this week.”
Sophomore quarterback Asher Hoover has been settling into the role and passes for 102 yards and a touchdown last week. The Patriots stayed more run heavy in the win over Alex.
Zach Beshears and Gabe Ross combined for over 140 yards rushing last week and Jensen looks to be run heavy again this week.
“We need to play big football on offense, run the ball right at them,” Jensen said. “We need to cut our splits down and run right at them. We feel that is out best chance against them.
“They key for us on defense is we have to find a way to stop Langebartels kid,” Jensen said. “We have to find him on the field and cover him and if we do that, we will be all right. We can’t let him get loose in the open field.”
