TIOGA BULLDOGS
With their season back on track, the 2-2 Tioga Bulldogs go back on the road this Friday to face the 0-5 Carrollton Prince of Peace Eagles.
Despite their opponents' record, Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach, emphasized that the Bulldogs will look to continue building their momentum in their final nondistrict matchup before they head into their bye week.
“[Prince of Peace] is a ball club whose record doesn’t really reflect who they are as a team,” he said. “They’ve battled injuries early on, but they still have some weapons, and the last time we played a private school we were sitting at 0-2, and we decided that we would do whatever it took to be 3-2 rolling into district, and this is the last hurdle.”
Prince of Peace enters the contest still looking for their first win of the season after falling to McKinney Christian Academy 65-14 in Week 5. The Eagles offense is led by quarterback Tripp Wilcoxson, who has thrown for 293 yards and four touchdowns on the season, with receiver Graham Turner, who leads the team with 208 yards receiving, 113 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns, serving as their top weapon.
“They do some really good stuff scheme-wise, and there aren’t too many 2A private schools with a 6-foot-4-inch quarterback, like No. 2, that can run and throw, and not many that have a running back as good as what we’re about to see,” Birdwell said. “They’re a wellcoached team with some good skill players on both sides of the ball.”
Offensively, Birdwell said the Bulldogs are looking to clean things up before they enter district play.
“Right now, we’re viewing our offense the same way we view our defense in that we’re not looking to take any steps back after the progress we showed last week,” he said. “We had an interception and lost a fumble last week, so there are things we can fix because there are going to be games where two turnovers will be too many for us to be able to win in a big game, but last week was a good first step, and we hope to build on that this week.”
Tioga and Carrollton Prince of Peace are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at Eagle Stadium.
