After suffering numerous injuries last Friday night, the Bethlehem Christian Academy football team will look to patch together a team for its trip to Macon this week.
The Knights (0-3 overall) will battle the Central Fellowship Christian Academy Lancers (2-1) in their final non-region game of 2012. BCA coach Don Garmon said Sunday his already thin roster will be tested even more this week.
“The key is for us to be healthy for region,” Garmon said. “This game is important, of course, but we begin region the following week. We really want to be healthy by then.”
The Lancers will use a wishbone attack while the numbers on the rosters for the two programs are similar.
“They are a very well coached team and we don’t expect them to vary much from the wishbone,” Garmon said. “Size-wise, they probably outweigh us across the line.”
Defensively, CFCA will use a 4-3 scheme and also bring a linebacker up close for a 5-3 look. Garmon said he is seeing improvement in certain areas each time his players take the field.
“Central Fellowship is a good football team,” said BCA offensive coordinator Lance Fendley. “They are well coached and have had some success thus far this season. Defensively, they run a loaded box, usually an eight-man front with one high safety. They play very physical up front and rely on their speed to cover sideline to sideline. They will be a challenge for us.”
Now entering their fourth game of 2012, the Knights players are making improvements in various areas, but also still need improvement in others.
“From a scheme standpoint, they get it,” Garmon said. “There are some times, just like with any team, where we miss one assignment and it blows everything up. We have talked a lot about our protection schemes on offense. We need to give our passing game time to develop. We are just trying to work everything out to get better. We are no different from any other team. Being strong up front is where it starts.”
The BCA coaches will look to put in the best personnel groups possible to offset the injuries suffered last week against Westminster (Augusta).
“Central Fellowship appears to be a physical team,” Garmon said. “Offensively, they are going to try and grind it out with their run game. Coach (Nick) Pou will make the necessary adjustments with players being out.”
Said Pou: “It’s another offense like a Wing T where we have to be extremely disciplined as a defense on every single play. The goal of these types of offense isn’t to hit you with one big play, it’s to grind out three to four yards every play and physically and mentally drive you into the ground. Once they see you becoming lazy in an area, that’s when they attack. We have to make sure we stay alert and disciplined the entire 48 minutes.”
P.J. Klein, Kevin Green and Danny Sceviour were missed on the offensive side of the football after being injured last week. However, all three also are vital parts of the Knights defense.
Graham Doolitte recorded several tackles for a loss against Westminster last week and Chandler Garmon, the team’s starting quarterback, filled in at “Mike” linebacker with Matt Masters moving to “Sam” linebacker.
“We don’t normally like playing our quarterback on defense, but we had to,” Coach Garmon said.
Niko Mailloux was also praised for his performance at receiver last week.
“I couldn’t have been any prouder of our team,” Coach Garmon said. “We really battled in the second half against some tough odds.”
