This is Week 1 of the football season for Bridge City. The Cardinals will be looking to get a good start for their first year Head Coach Cody McGuire.
With the first game of the season this week McGuire evaluated the Cardinals as being ready to play for the season opener. There are a couple of linemen recuperating from injuries though. Aiden Fukuda and Nick LeJuene maybe ready for Friday, but that will be determined game night.
McGuire was split in his opinion on the two Bridge City scrimmages. The first against Lumberton went well, but the second against Little Cypress-Mauriceville was not as good.
Mistakes got the Cardinals out of their game plan against LC-M. Coach McGuire reminded, “The kids have got to learn when bad things happen to overcome those things.”
Bridge City travels to Buna to kick off the season. McGuire said the Cougars feature some explosive players in their Spread Offense which is a change from the previous Wing T used until the new coach Gary Joe Kinne took over this year.
The Spread fits the skill sets of quarterback Dylan Graffagnino who can throw the football well. Logan Moss will be one of the prime receivers for passes with his exceptional speed and big play potential. Dylan Rogalski is another key player on the Buna offense as a good receiver and is also the backup quarterback.
The Cougars’ offensive line features Trace Marks at tackle and Franklin Renfro at tight end. “The key is to put pressure on the quarterback and make sure he gets the ball out quick and gives us a chance to make a play on the ball,” McGuire emphasized.
Coach McGuire’s philosophy is to dominate Bridge City’s opponent physically, and he hopes the Cardinals can do that in their first game offensively. Buna lines up in a 3-4 on defense.
Establishing the run will be the primary goal for the Cardinals’ offense against the Cougars. McGuire expressed, “One of our goals is always be the most physical team every Friday night, so the O-line is going to have to get after them and open up some holes for us.”
The goal coming into the season for Coach McGuire is to have Bridge City to be the best team on the field every Friday night. This is done according to McGuire through conditioning and being physical.
Turnovers and mistakes can be expected in the first game of the season, but McGuire wants Bridge City to overcome adversity and not panic when something goes wrong. It does not matter when the adversity might occur, the coach is counting on the Cardinals to be able to handle it and win the game.
The second scrimmage saw the very reaction by Bridge City to adversity McGuire wants to avoid. “We don’t need to panic when something bad happens, then everybody starts trying to do other people’s jobs, if everybody just does their job we’ll be fine,” McGuire concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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