Faith Academy can play spoiler against Schertz John Paul II
JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER
MARBLE FALLS — The Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team will close the 2015 season with a road trip to Schertz John Paul II on Nov. 6.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Texas Lutheran University, 1000 W. Court St. in Seguin.
While the Flames (1-9 overall, 1-5 in TAPPS Division III, District 3) will move onto basketball next week, the Guardians (5-4, 2-3) still have a chance at the playoffs, which is the biggest difference between the two teams, Faith head coach Randy Denton said.
“They still have an outside chance to make the playoffs if they win and a couple of other things go well,” he said. “They could finish as high as third in the district and make the playoffs.
The Guardians have to beat Faith and hope San Antonio St. Gerard beats Hallettsville Sacred Heart to qualify.
Denton said coaches have told the Flames they can ruin the Guardians’ playoff hopes by beating them.
In addition, both teams match up well against each other, he said.
John Paul II is led by running back Ryan Grosso, who has 33 carries for 367 yards and seven touchdowns, and Mark Slaughter, who has 24 rushes for 283 yards and two touchdowns. Other running backs are Quinten Rhoder with 17 carries for 208 yards and two touchdowns and Mark Cooper with 28 rushes for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
The Guardians have 1,376 rushing yards with 1,614 yards of total offense.
Denton said John Paul II’s rushing attack incorporates some power-I formations, some double-wing sets and even some single-wing tendencies.
But no matter how they line up, running the football is what the Guardians want to do.
“They run a lot of power,” Denton said. “They really just want to pound it inside just off tackle.”
The Flames enter this contest after losing 50-28 to Temple Central Texas Christian on Oct. 29, a day earlier than scheduled because of projected bad weather.
In that performance, the Flames defense played well against CTC’s rushing attack, the coach said.
“We’ve done a little better job of it as the season has gone on,” he said. “Even last week, we stopped them three out of the first four drives.”
Faith suffered a couple of offensive mistakes that allowed CTC to remain in the contest. One was a dropped touchdown pass that would have given Faith a 14-0 lead in the first half. Instead, CTC seized momentum, scored and never looked back, Denton said.
A win in the final contest this season will help jumpstart the offseason, he said. Therefore, junior quarterback Braden McBride will see some time behind center, though senior quarterback Rich Coleman will log the majority of the minutes.
“We may see some of the younger guys in some of the positions getting ready,” he said, “but we’re going to continue to grow our offense and get more comfortable with our system because it’s an important week of practice and an important game for the building of next year.”
The Flames will say goodbye to 10 seniors. The coach said he appreciates all they’ve done for the program.
“You got guys I’ve been with in one sport or the other since they were freshmen. We’ve got guys who just came this year,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to replace the leadership most of all.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com