If there was anything the Coppell football team garnered from its two-win streak, it’s confidence. Hearing you have to play a No. 2 ranked team in the state could be a daunting message for any team, regardless of 5A or 6A classification. But Coppell is relatively unfazed by such a factor.

Coppell will take on Highland Park at the Highlander Stadium with kickoff tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.

While Friday’s victory 42-35 over Sachse was far from perfect, it showed teams across the Metroplex that Coppell is here to play. Such a result culminated in Coppell receiving a No. 20 ranking as a 6A team in the Dallas area going into this week’s matchup against Highland Park.

However, an advantage that Coppell does have over Highland Park is game time and on-field experience. Highland Park’s football program has been dealing with more delays and game cancellation than most 5A and 6A schools have because it’s program was stricken with multiple COVID-19 cases and quarantine periods.

“[Their lack of game time] is big, they quarantined for two weeks, and we are gonna use [their lack of training] as an advantage for us.” Coppell senior kicker Tyler Reid said.

Obviously a lack of playing time will have an impact on their game plan coming into this matchup against Coppell, but a bigger factor may be their relatively new and experienced personnel on the field.

“Their lack of [game time] may make them more fresh for the game, but they won’t have as much experience,” Coppell senior safety/long snapper Zach Stricker said. “A lot of their players this year are first year varsity guys or returning back ups so they don’t have any experience. Having two games under our belt, two wins, will really help us with experience on the field.” 

The victory over Sachse highlighted one area of concern for Coppell to focus on going into this game: lost concentration leading to busted coverages. Those busted coverages resulted in the game turning into an offensive shootout with a total 77 points scored. 

Coppell cannot allow that to happen in this game.

Unlike Sachse, Highland Park has a 3-star Hawaii commit in Brayden Schager at quarterback and a head coach in Randy Allen who has won four state titles and over 400 games, becoming one of only three Texas high school coaches to reach such a milestone. In addition to a highly-touted quarterback and legendary coach, Highland Park also has talented receivers, a dominant offensive line, and difficult matchups across the board for Coppell. 

Allowing this game to go to a shootout would most definitely spell trouble for Coppell’s defense.

“We are always going to try to score as many points as we can, the goal is to get points on every drive whether it’s a field goal or a touchdown,” Stricker said. “[However] we are going in with a defensive mindset because Highland Park is a team that scores a lot of points, [it’s] a primarily offensive team.” 

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