After a bye week to heal and regroup, the Bethlehem Christian Academy football team will be back in action Friday night as the Knights travel to Nathanael Greene Academy in Siloam.
With injuries taking a toll on the BCA team this fall, the coaches spent last week working on reshuffling some players into different positions on the field.
“It was a good week,” coach Don Garmon said. “We moved some players around and worked on fundamentals.”
Kevin Green, who is battling an ankle injury, returned to practice at full speed although Graham Doolittle and Danny Sceviour are both out with injuries.
Garmon said the loss of Doolittle and Sceviour hurt not only in the offensive backfield, but also on the defensive side of the football.
“We feel like we have a good offensive and defensive game plan going into this week,” Garmon said. Our lineup will be different. We’ll have a freshman on the offensive line and move an offensive lineman to tight end and our tight end to fullback. Those are changes we’ll have to make.”
Preston Kelley has also missed practice in the last week due to an injury to his ribs.
The coaching staff hopes to have the wide receiver/corner back ready for Friday night on the road.
The Nathanael Greene Academy Patriots are similar in roster size to the Knights but Garmon said this opponent has the advantage in terms of size up front.
“They are primarily known as a double wing offense, but we have seem where they are not afraid to go to one back and four wides,” Garmon said. “The battle will be won up front where they have the advantage.”
In the last game against Dawson Street Oct. 19, quarterback Chandler Garmon passed for almost 300 yards.
“We had way too many turnovers in that game,” Coach Garmon said. “Defensively, we had a hard time slowing down their fast running back. We still feel confident going in this week. We just need to get our players to learn from their mistakes. Coach (Lance) Fendley and Coach (Nick) Pou have done a great job with our game plans on both sides of the football.”
In the Dawson Street contest, Jacob Fincher had nine catches for 128 yards while Matt Masters had seven catches for 65 yards. P.J. Klein also had a 33-yard touchdown reception in the recent game.
"Nathanael Greene is a good football team with lots of size," said BCA offensive coordinator Lance Fendley. "They will mainly play with a loaded box with one high safety."
