By: Zachary Harmuth
The Brentwood Academy Eagles play the visiting Liberty Technology Magnet Crusaders this Friday at 7:00 p.m. For the second week in a row a home game might not be a home game for the Eagles, who are waiting completion of a new field and played their opener at Vanderbilt. The announcement won’t be made until Wednesday whether this game will be on the new field at BA or at close-by Christ Presbyterian. If BA doesn’t play on their home field this Friday, they won’t be home until October 11th, which raises bigger questions. How will Coach Cody White’s team respond to the adversity of not playing a true home game until October 11?
In the opener last week at Vanderbilt, the 6th ranked Eagles decimated the (now) 7th ranked Memphis University Owls, 36-7. Wideout C.J. Sanders exploded for 156 yards and three scores; and quarterback Thomas Swafford went 15-22 for 241 yards and four touchdowns. And neither played much in the fourth quarter. Will this high-level of performance keep up without the excitement of the season opener and the thrill of playing at a D-I stadium? It was more like a playoff game than the first of the season, for BA, and the question is will reality set in as week two arrives, the second in what is effectively a seven-week road trip, or are the Eagles just this good?
It will be up to Coach White to help the team maintain its focus and intensity as the weeks wear on (though the BA fans should help; they travel well). And with this week’s match-up against the out-of-conference Liberty- a team ranked 91st in TN- the real team the Eagles will be playing against is themselves. We will see how they do.
