The Friday night lights shone bright at last week’s game, a turning point in the Coppell football team’s season. This marked the first time at this point in the season that the Cowboys have been 5-0 in over a decade.
Coming off its biggest win of the season, the Coppell football team has another key District 6-6A game as it takes on Flower Mound Marcus. It has been years since Coppell took an unbeaten record into October.
The Cowboys (5-0, 2-0 in district) face Marcus (2-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. tomorrow night at Marcus Marauder Stadium in Flower Mound for the Cowboys’ third district game.
According to Coppell coach Antonio Wiley, Marcus is a good football team with a large offensive and defensive line, but the Cowboys are primarily watching out for senior wide receiver Karic Grennan and his speed.
“Our job is to go out and execute at a high level,” Wiley said. “If someone can beat you when you’re executing and doing your job to perfection, then they are the better team. But if we execute at a very high level and take care of our business, we will have a great opportunity to come out on top.”
The defensive struggle the Cowboys have faced throughout the season is beginning to resolve with senior linebacker Caden Cooper, senior defensive end Diallo Hall and senior defensive lineman Momeen Abbasher stepping into new positions as a result of Wiley’s “next-man-up” philosophy.
Wiley’s philosophy pertains to the idea that the Cowboy’s lineup is always flexible, with players constantly moving around.
“We all train for the same goal, but we never have a set lineup,” Coppell senior linebacker Caden Cooper said. “You’re never going to be a backup – you’re just waiting for the right opportunity and the right time to step into the light and show that you are at a higher level. It doesn’t matter where you are, it matters how you’re reacting and playing at your current spot.”
After last week’s 49-28 victory over Lewisville, practice this week has focused on not being overly confident against the Marauders.
“Forget what happened last week, it doesn’t matter,” Wiley said. “You know that saying ‘if what you did yesterday still seems big, you haven’t done anything today’? We’re trying to avoid that trap game and just go out and try to execute the new game plan for the next opponent, then execute it at a very high rate like we have done for the previous five.”
Wiley’s mantra appears to be working.
“The team hasn’t let the Lewisville win get to our head,” Cooper said. “Monday practice was a little rough, but ever since then everyone is clicking back to where we are and capitalizing off of everything that we’ve learned the past couple weeks. We’re locked back in and ready to ruin another homecoming.”
Follow Ava (@avakjohnson4) and @SidekickSports on Twitter.
