Coming off a 21-0 victory against Rose Bud last week, the Cutter Morning Star Eagles' spirits are up and ready to travel to take on the Magazine Rattlers Friday night.
"We had some confidence issues, and obviously moving forward, we got some kids that had a rough season last year that were really young," Eagles head coach T.C. Shamel said. "Not a whole lot of leadership last year, so it's nice to get a non-conference win. Hopefully we can build on that Friday night."
The Eagles (1-1) went 1-9 last year, suffering a 26-50 defeat to Magazine (2-0) after the Rattlers added 22 points before the the break and CMS was unable to catch up.
"It was a 6-6 ball game with two minutes to go here at our place until halftime," he said. "And we turned the ball over inside our five yard line. We wanted to score. In the last 56 seconds before half, they scored. And that was pretty much the tell-tale for the rest of the game. We just never really recovered from that -- mentally. We were a young team last year and adversity set in, and we just didn't overcome it."
Senior Caleb Hyatt and junior Kobe Faughn, both linebackers and running backs for the Rattlers, created havoc at last year's game and Shamel said the plan this Friday is "just stop those two."
"They're a power team," Shamel pointed out. "They like to run the ball. They're double wing, double tight. They'll do a lot of different things. No. 28 [Hyatt], he's their main guy. We're really keying in on him this week. No. 20 [Faughn] is also a good running back. Both these guys are good on both sides of the ball. They're good linebackers; they're good running backs, and they pretty much, we feel, are what makes Magazine click. So obviously they were the main factors last year, and they're both back. I'm sure they'll be the main factors this year, too, for them."
Shamel is relying on a few of his players to help bring the team another win. Daniel Brito, who was unable to play last week due to illness, is back in the game this week. The senior linebacker tallied 31 solo stops with three sacks and five for a loss last season. Classmate Tyler Mace recorded an Eagles team high of three interceptions and 83 tackles.
"We've got a decent senior class. A good junior class," he said. "All these kids played in the game last year. We've got some experienced players. Obviously, Landon Watson's going to be a key on both sides of the ball. He was our Farm Bureau Player of the Game last week. Daniel Brito is our middle linebacker, one of our key offensive linemen. Tyler Mace, a senior linebacker. ... Joe Callaghan on offensive line, defensive line. These guys are gonna have to dig in and get after it. We're counting on big games for these guys."
Shamel is not underestimating the opposing team, saying that his group is going to have to be on top of their game and come ready to play.
"No. 5 [junior Tatum Scott] is not bad," he noted. "They've got some quicker kids, but they're not looking to throw the ball. They're looking to just go three or four yards at a time and just wear the defense out; that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to be physical and just line up and wear you out up front. Hyatt is the guy we gotta stop. And they've got some guys after him that aren't bad also. They're big up front. They've got a big offensive line, good size. We're gonna have to come and play hard, that's for sure."
The team had a few dings last week, but Shamel said that everyone's ready to go health-wise.
"We're looking forward to it. It's our last non-conference game before we get ready to play Mountain Pine the following week. You know, we need to have a good performance and get some confidence and get ready for conference season for sure.
"I think we feel pretty good about it. I just hope they buy in to what the coaches are trying to get them to do on Friday night. We'll see. We'll know real quick what's going to be the outcome."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Shorty Wright Field at Diamondback Stadium.
Sports on 09/19/2019