By: Zachary Harmuth
Brentwood Academy was good in week one, and better last week. And this Friday at Father Ryan is game three for the Eagles, and the Fightin’ Irish will do everything in their athletic and intellectual power to prevent BA from playing its best.
For Father Ryan, accomplishing that should be, and I am being very careful not to exaggerate, only slightly more challenging than arm wrestling a back-hoe while simultaneously playing words-with-friends against, say, the dictionary.
BA is heavily favored (ranked 3rd in the state). On defense, Father Ryan has allowed two and a half times as many points as BA this season (35-14). And on offense the Eagles are so good and well coached, by Cody White, that it is almost unfair: they’re averaging more than 40 points a game; FR has barely scored 40 points all season (45).
BA’s superiority so far this season is due to their phenomenally talented athletes, and the steady hand of Cody White, 2nd year head coach. He is the kind of guy who can get angry about poor special teams play in the fourth quarter of a 40-point win, or call the team at best a “work in progress.” What makes him a good coach, though, is that you believe him.
Its star wideout is fast, as in there is a very good chance he is not human; he is more like that supersonic-helicopter Batman uses when he needs to outrun nuclear blasts. For legal reasons, most people call him C.J. Sanders. He is averaging 152.5 all-purpose-yards per game this season, including a 53-yard kick return, a 78-yard punt return, and an 83-yard touchdown reception. He leads the team in scoring, with 5 touchdowns
Then there are the twin bulldozers Shawn Brashers and Jacob Cretin, who are averaging 7.1 and 4.2 yards per rush so far, respectively.
And leading the huddle, there is that BA quarterback, the so-called Tyler Swafford, who most likely is actually a robot a whiz-at-engineering BA student made over the summer. Probably, he grew tired of playing his friends’ in Madden Football, of winning over and over and over, and needed something more challenging. So keep an eye out for anyone on the BA sideline with a video game controller in their hands. Who else but video game characters and, now, apparent football-androids like Swafford, put up stats like: 30 of 40, for 392 yards and 7 touchdowns, with no interceptions, in just two games?
The Eagles are perfect so far this year, going 2-0 in style, with a 36-7 win against Memphis University (8th in TN) in week one and in their home opener last Friday shellacked Liberty Magnet, 45-7 (and it was not even nearly that close: BA lead 45-0 by halftime). BA started the season ranked 8th in Tennessee, then moved to 6th and now ranks 3rd in the state.
Father Ryan (ranked 56th) lost their opener but won 24-7 against Battle Ground Academy (93rd) last week, thanks to 5 BGA turnovers more than to excellent Irish football. But at least they will avoid facing the BA wood chipper while still needing their season’s first win.
It is the first conference game for both teams, so a win or a loss holds even more weight over each team’s future in their division.
