On Friday night, the Coppell football team takes on Denton Braswell at Buddy Echols Field at 7 p.m. in District 5-6A action. The Cowboys are 7-0, including a 4-0 district mark, and the Bengals are 2-5.

“Denton Braswell is a 2-5 team, but they’re a 2-5 team that have lost some close games,” Coppell coach Antonio Wiley said. “They have some really good athletes so if we don’t go out and play clean, they could easily come out of it with a win against us.”

According to Wiley, the Bengals offense is a high-powered one with multiple playmakers such as senior running back Brailyn Strickland, junior quarterback Jeremiah Shipp and sophomore wide receiver Christopher Johnson that the Cowboys will look to stifle.

“I don’t expect their guys to have a big night, but I expect them to be somebody we’ve got to account for,” Wiley said. “They’re going to give us a lot of motions and shifts and when they’re doing that we have to make sure we get lined up, don’t be ‘beat at birth’ as we like to say. You have to make sure that you are lined up and ready to go playing assignment football.”

Coppell has not forgotten about the defense, eyeing Brawell’s strong defensive line and secondary.

“Their talented secondary has got some good players in it,” Wiley said. “The defensive line is active. We just have to show up and try to put them in the situations that they haven’t seen before formation-wise and see if we can come out of it on the right side of the scoreboard.”

After last week’s win against Lewisville, Coppell sits atop the district as the only undefeated team. Coppell clinches a playoff berth with a win. 

“There’s a chance that you could drop some games and be out of it,” Wiley said. “But I think we’re in the driver’s seat to have a spot and with this week’s win we will be in. We got to take care of business this week and we got to take care of business next week. The playoffs are too far away to worry about it right now.”

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