BA travels to #22 in Country St. Xavier (Ohio)

BA vs MU

Williamson County FootballBy: Zachary Harmuth

BA (2-1, 0-1 in AA District 11) looked unbeatable in its first two weeks. In its third week 24-20 loss at Father Ryan, its first district game, BA looked like . . .  an Eagle with broken wings. But hopefully, Coach Cody White can, as that terrible ’80’s song goes, “take . . . these broken wings” to a  good veterinarian he knows.  Because the Eagles mend fast, and fly out for their game this Friday, the second of a five game road trip, against St. Xavier in Cincinnati, OH.

The Eagles will be truly put to the test this week, despite being ranked as the 8th best team in Tenn. For this week, BA travels to (wait, is this correct? Yes.) Cincinnati, Ohio, to play the 22nd ranked high school team in the country: the St. Xavier Bombers (1-1).  BA, incidentally, is ranked 276 nationally, and therefore a big underdog in this game.

To win, the Eagles will have to fly high, fast and on the attack this week – something they did not do, for the most part, against FR. In fact, they have to hope that FR coach Bruce Lussier did not figure out a formula for success against BA for St. X to copy.

Lussier said that his plan was to neutralize BA’s big stars and limit big plays- especially focusing on video game version of wideout C.J. Sanders- who had only 25 receiving and 64 all purpose yards against FR, well below his season average of 66 receiving and 123 all-purpose yards per game this season.

On the bright side, being such an underdog, BA may catch St. X off guard the same way Father Ryan caught BA off guard last week.

Maybe BA was looking ahead to this St. X game when it went to FR last Friday and lost, after a painful almost-comeback. The Fightin’ Irish had a huge home field advantage (their fans are uniquely wild and supportive), and BA had every chance to win the game, coming up short on two 4th down conversions, one a drop by C.J. Sanders in the end-zone that would have surely been a game winner.

BA’s aerial weapons- missile launcher quarterback Tyler Swafford (averaging 229 yards, 3 TDs a game with no picks), fighter-jet reciever C.J. Sanders, and secret weapon Tanner Priest (averaging 101.2 receiving yards per game)- will have to all shop up big for the Eagles to win this won.

On the downside, if BA does not win- they fall to 2-2 overall, with an 0-1 district record, which is not a great position to be in with Father Ryan (2-1, 1-0 in district) playing an over-matched Hillwood this week; and a FR win would put the Irish at 3-1 overall, with a one game district, and 2 game overall,  lead over BA in an already tough district that contains Ensworth (2-0, 0-0 in district): so far ranked 1st in Tenn. and 11th in the country.

The talent is there, and it is up to coach Cody White to right this ship, and prepare his team to be an underdog, and deal with the adversity of losing last week and travelling so far that the game will be in a different time zone. And the pressure of playing the team ranked so high nationally, whose only loss this year is to the team ranked 15h in the country (and 1st in the state of Ohio).