The Coppell football team has lost three consecutive games and are in ‘must-win now’ mode for the rest of the season to make the playoffs.

Friday’s District 6-6A clash against Plano East at Buddy Echols Field, with kickoff at 7 p.m., marks the Cowboys’s home finale and senior night for Coppell.

“Our kids have done a great job at responding; if you want to be a playoff team, you have to win out and these are two very winnable games,” Coppell coach Michael DeWitt said. “We have had a great week of practice and we will be ready for this Friday.”

The Panthers (2-6, 1-4 in District 6-6A), who’s area-ranked rushing offense averages 211 yards-per game, features one of the most prolific running backs in the area. Plano East senior running back Ismail Mahdi has been on a tear this season, rushing for 1,362 yards and 14 touchdowns as the area’s third best running back. 

Mahdi, however, had five carries for three yards against Plano where he was forced to the sidelines through injury. Mahdi is set to miss this week’s game as well. Similarly, Plano East sophomore quarterback Drew DeVillier, who has thrown for 1,101 yards and eight touchdowns, will also miss the game through injury.

“[Mahdi] is certainly a good player but [Plano East’s] second back is a good player as well,” DeWitt said. “[The Panthers] have a great scheme, they are very well-coached and our mindset is ‘we need to focus on us and doing our job regardless of who we’re playing, regardless of which kids are on the field’; that’s how we’ve approached this week and that’s how our kids have practiced.”

For Coppell (3-5, 2-3), the stagnation in the level of offensive execution will be a cause for concern coming off the loss to Lewisville last week. On seven of the Cowboys’ nine drives, Coppell fumbled and was forced to punt six times by the Fighting Farmers. 

The Cowboys struggled with running the ball and moving the chains, forcing them to become one-dimensional by passing the ball. Rebounding by effectively running the ball will be crucial to defeating the Panthers.

“Offensively, we have to be able to run the football and that’s certainly been a point of emphasis,” DeWitt said. “Defensively, we have to minimize the explosive plays, we have to create turnovers; those are things we have tried to get better at and really emphasized those this week.” 

Friday’s game marks the last time the Coppell football team’s seniors will play in front of a home crowd.

“We are going to do whatever it takes; it’s going to be senior night and of course we want our seniors to play and it’s going to be the most selfless game we have,” Coppell senior linebacker Jake Roemer said. “Every man needs to play for their backup and their brother next to them, that’s what we need, that’s how we should’ve been playing this whole season and that’s how it’s going to be these next few games to get into the playoffs.”

With two games remaining, three out of four playoff places are set and the Cowboys are still in control of playoff destiny. Two wins against the Panthers this week and Flower Mound next week will put Coppell in pole position to take the fourth and final playoff place. According to DeWitt, the Cowboys have to defeat the Panthers, or else they will not have a chance to make the playoffs.

“Now it is playoff football,” Coppell assistant Karl Pointer said. “This next is going to be our most important game, we have to go 1-0 and Plano East is the only team that matters, we can’t look to Flower Mound. Plano East has to be the focus and that’s the game we need to take care of.”

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