Two of Texas’ top six private and parochial high school quarterbacks will square off Friday night in San Antonio’s Warrior Stadium when San Antonio Cornerstone Christian’s Lucas Coley and Cedar Hill Trinity Christian’s Shadeur Sanders lead their squads into a marquee week two matchup.
Coley, the Arkansas commit, last week led his team in a come-from-behind 24-20 season opening win on the road against Corpus Christi Calallen, while Sanders picked apart the Irish of Knoxville (Tennessee) Catholic to return to the Lone Star state with a 49-14 win, evening their mark at 1-1.
And the Tigers might have pitched a shutout if it were not for defensive penalties that preserved second quarter scoring drives for Knoxville Catholic.
Cornerstone Christian, who gave up 253 yards and all three Wildcat touchdowns on the ground, will have to fend off an imposing Cedar Hill Trinity Christian offensive line which is anchored by six-foot-four, 350-pound senior Elijah Bowser, a preseason Dave Campbell’s Texas Football offensive line top 40 selection.
The two teams met a year ago in the middle of what proved to be the Tigers’ last run at a TAPPS title, earning Cedar Hill Trinity Christian a 24-0 home shutout win.
After traveling to Wall next week, the Warriors will begin their quest for a Texas Christian Athletic Fellowship (TCAF) championship in two weeks – and one of the teams that they’ll have to get through will be the Legacy School of Sports Sciences in Spring.
The Titans, who move to TCAF after starting in the Texas Christian Athletic League (T-CAL), will square off Friday night in its season opener against the only 11-man team remaining in the San Antonio-based league, Tomball Christian Homeschool.
The two teams met in the 2018 T-CAL state championship with the Titans coming away with the 27-13 title win.
Legacy, which went 3-6 a year ago, aims to bounce back from a 2019 that started off with high hopes against the Warriors, who opened 2020 last Saturday evening with a 26-8 road win over UIL 2A Thrall.
Junior quarterback Noah Rose and sophomore running back Silas Shivers combined for 294 yards of total offense for Tomball Christian against Thrall.
Head coach Chris Criswell’s team is ranked sixth nationally by the National Homeschool Football Association among 22 homeschool 11-man teams from Michigan to Georgia and Virginia to Texas.
Two of Texas’ other top 10 nationally-ranked homeschool teams will pair off Friday night when the second-ranked Cedar Hill DasCHE Spartans (1-0) will face the eighth-ranked Nike Dallas Football Club (1-0).
Known previously as the Blue Angels of Dallas HSAA (Home School Athletic Association) Blue, Nike Dallas FC hasn’t defeated DasCHE since the Spartans’ first year in 2014.
The Spartans hold a seven-game winning streak, including last year’s 50-2 win in the Texas state homeschool championship tilt.
However, the Allen-based program journeyed to Oklahoma City last Friday night and thoroughly handed Patriots Home School a resounding 39-12 defeat.
The Spartans, who have won the last two Texas state homeschool championships, opened with a 41-12 road win against UIL independent Malakoff Cross Roads.
Two of the remaining three 11-man games for Friday will see Malakoff Cross Roads travel to Waco to take on the 0-1 Texas Wind, who lost to Hico in week one, while the Atlas Homeschool Rattlers will be looking for its first win in school history – after an opening year 0-10 mark – against Lewisville Founders Classical Academy.
And the first Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) team -- Oklahoma City Casady School -- will compete on Friday as an independent after the 17-school organization cancelled their fall sports championships two Fridays ago.
The Cyclones will blow into Enid, Oklahoma to take on Oklahoma Bible Academy, who went 6-5 and made the first round of the OSSAA football playoffs a year ago.
Athletic director Steve McCarthy confirmed to LSCSN that the Cyclones are currently scheduled to play six games, including a home and away with Arlington Oakridge School in mid- and late October.
Nineteen games involving 26 non-TAPPS six-man programs are set to take to the gridiron on Friday.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s third-ranked private school squad Bastrop Tribe Consolidated will travel to Avalon on Friday to face the 0-1 Eagles.
The Warriors, led by last week’s Player of the Game Samuel Osborn, opened its season with a 46-0 win over the Brazos Valley Mustangs in TAIAO non-district action.
Three programs hit the road Friday night with the challenge of facing three of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s top ten UIL 1A Division II teams.
The Odessa Permian Basin Athletics CO-OP (0-1) travels to take on the seventh-ranked Grandfalls-Royalty Cowboys (1-0).
Defending UIL 1A Division II state champion Richland Springs will open its season ranked third and hosting the Austin Royals (1-0), while TCAF contender Waco Parkview Christian Academy (0-1) will travel to do battle against second-ranked Calvert (0-1).
Pacers head coach Josh Hayes says that coach Ja’Marcus Ashley’s team is fast and very well-coached.
“It was obvious watching their film against Borden County,” said Hayes. “They play fast, smash-mouth football and I can’t wait for the game.”
Like many other contests in this historic 2020 pandemic season, the Pacers draw Calvert thanks to COVID-19.
After McLennan County put the brakes on in-person instruction, Hayes cleared his schedule only to start adding teams back on when Parkview Christian administration decided it would start on-time, including sports, after Texas’ attorney general stated the private, religious-affiliated schools were not bound by preventative county health orders.
“I called Bluff Dale, but they had just filled the game (with Hayes’ week one opponent Azle Christian) a few minutes before I called,” he said. “So then I got online and saw where Coach Ashley had posted about needing a week two game.”
The order for Parkview is tall and big but so is the Pacers college prospect, CJ Lanehart.
“He is such a big, athletic kid that teams always plan for him,” Hayes said. “We will need big games defensively from DL Jacob Irvin, DL Jotham Craven, LB Josh Gaddy and DBs Gaines Orewiler and Jasper Watson.”
Ten teams, aside from Bastrop Tribe Consolidated, will be looking to extend their record to 2-0, including the only game pitting unbeatens against each other -- Decatur Victory Christian Academy and Haslet Heritage Christian Academy.
And one team – the Conroe Northside Lions – will be making its six-man debut, hosting Houston Texas Christian School, behind a coach with a championship pedigree, Mike Helmer.
Helmer took nine teams to TAPPS 11-man state championship contest between 2000 and 2016 at three different schools.
He led Rockwall Christian Academy to back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002 and more recently, Cedar Hill Trinity Christian to the 2014 Division III title with a 54-18 decision over League City Bay Area Christian.
