Faith faces East Austin College Prep for homecoming
JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER
MARBLE FALLS — After opening the Division III District 3 race last week, the Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team has another equally important game: homecoming.
The Flames (1-4 overall, 0-1 district) welcome East Austin College Prep (1-4) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 to Pony Stadium, 1511 Pony Circle Drive in Marble Falls, in a non-district contest.
East Austin utilizes a spread offense with three- and four-receiver sets, which mirrors, in some ways, what the Flames like to do with junior quarterback Garrett Henderson.
Faith will return to Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools district action next week when it hosts Waco Reicher, a team ranked in the top five in the Class 3A private schools poll.
Flames head coach Stephen Shipley said the staff’s biggest challenge is helping players keep their minds on the homecoming game.
“We have to make sure we’re not looking ahead,” he said. “Reicher is rolling. We have to correct our mistakes. (East Austin) will give us a chance to do that.”
The Flames enter this game after suffering a 27-14 loss to Bryan St. Joseph on Sept. 30 during which they committed six turnovers — four in the second half. A couple of turnovers happened inside St. Joseph’s 20-yard line.
The two teams played to a 14-14 tie after three quarters.
Still, Shipley was encouraged by two stats: Faith’s 320 yards of offense vs. 140 yards for St. Joseph, which told the coach his defensive unit played well. At the half, St. Joseph’s had negative 7 yards of offense.
“The game was very tough,” he said. “We came in with a great game plan, a surprise attack. They didn’t know what we were doing and where we were coming from. But we shot ourselves in the foot.”
In addition to the four fumbled handoffs, penalties also set the Flames behind the chains.
The great lesson Faith learned was that no matter how prepared players are, they can’t have mistakes that end drives, he said.
“It was a really tough loss,” he said. “I think our kids got a lot out of the film; it was good for us to watch it.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com