TIOGA BULLDOGS
Still looking for their first win of the season, the Tioga Bulldogs varsity football team is scheduled to hit the road, traveling to Fort Worth to face the Southwest Christian School Eagles.
The Eagles enter the contest with a 1-1 record after opening their season with a 45-0 win over Lake Country Christian on Aug. 21, followed by a last-second 36-35 loss to Trinity Valley on Aug. 28.
“This is our introduction into the private school world, and they have a really good football team, and we knew that when we scheduled them,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “We wanted to find one game in nondistrict that could give us a look and may be as good as Muenster or Alvord to get us ready for district, and this team did nothing but get better this offseason with the hiring of head coach [Steve] Wood from Aledo and adding some new kids, so it's another big-time test for us.”
Southwest Christian rolls into the contest averaging 40 points per game, headlined by quarterback Eli Hufstetler, who has tallied over 400 yards of total offense and 7 touchdowns in two games.
Hufstetler is supported by top weapons, Tre’von Taylor and Bayne Martin, who have combined for over 300 yards and 3 TDs through the air and on the ground.
“They have some bigtime weapons and a lot of guys up front that are going to play college football,' Birdwell said. “… It’s going to be a really good test for us. There’s a good chance that we may not see many teams the rest of the season with a similar amount of size and weapons.”
The Bulldogs will look to get their own offense on track after the unit struggled in the season opener against Collinsville.
“We’ve done a good job of getting a ton of reps, watching film and getting stuff evaluated and corrected so far this week, and that’s been big for us,” Birdwell said. “But our biggest focus is reducing turnovers. … We’re going to play smarter and take care of the football, and that starts with me and our play-calling.'
He added that the Bulldogs are excited to get back on the field and put all their hard work to the test.
“I want to see our defense not take a step back because they played well enough for us to win the other night and well enough to win a whole lot of games this year, and I want to see us execute better, offensively,” Birdwell said. “This early in the season, we know we’re not going to be playing up to our potential, but we need to take a big step forward and make sure we do the [fundamental] things we’ve done here for four years; attacking numbers in the box in the run game and throwing and catching in the pass game.”
Tioga and Southwest Christian School will kick things off at 7 p.m. Friday in Fort Worth.
