The Bethlehem Christian Academy football team will look to record its first victory of the season Friday as the Knights travel to Covenant Academy in Macon.
BCA (0-1) fell to Augusta Prep 36-14 last week, a victim of too many turnovers, coach Don Garmon said. Covenant Academy enters the contest 0-2 as both teams will look to get in the win column.
“Defensively, they are going to give us a 3-5 look,” Garmon said. “Their coach was at our game Friday so we know they’ll be ready for us. Offensively, we’ll see more of the Wing T attack. They like to grind it out.”
The BCA coach said he looks for this week’s contest to be more evenly matched as the two programs have approximately the same number of players. Covenant is led by first-year coach Jimbo Hale, who is the program’s third head coach in its five-year history.
Covenant qualified for the state playoffs for the first time in 2011, but fell to eventual state champion Westwood in the opening round 48-7.
“Covenant is a good football team with lots of size,” said BCA offensive coordinator Lance Fendley. “Their defensive line outsizes our offensive line by a lot. Defensively, they will stay in a 3-3-5 look with the two outside guys staying close around the line of scrimmage. They really don’t blitz a lot, because they count on their big front three to create pressure. This will be another good test for our offense, we must eliminate the turnovers that cost us last week we must play faster and we must have better play in all portions of the offense.”
Only three starters returned on both sides of the football for the Covenant Rams in 2012.
BCA defensive coordinator Nick Pou knows it will be another challenge this week.
“Covenant is one of those ground it out teams,” Pou said. “They stay in a similiar formation the entire game and will just get four yards after four yards on you. They run a Wing-T type offense where even the quarterback is a lead blocker. They are huge, there’s no doubt about it. We have to play faster and smarter in order to beat these guys.”
Making improvements overall will be key for the Knights.
“We did some good things last week, but we also have plenty we need to work on,” Garmon said of the BCA team. “We look forward to taking the field again and seeing how we did in our second regular season game.”
