Fresh from one shootout, St. Paul faces another
Cedric Inglehart, Gonzales Cannon Reporter
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Gonzales Cannon Article | St. Paul Cardinal Football | Shiner Home Page
SHINER -- After surviving an intense shootout last week, the St. Paul Cardinals are reloading again for another playoff game.
St. Paul (10-2) will be taking on Conroe The Woodlands Christian Academy this Saturday at Buffalo Stadium in Giddings, beginning at 7 p.m. The Cardinals advanced by outlasting Garland Christian Academy (GCA) last week 72-63, in a contest that saw them gain 619 total yards and post 46 second-half points.
"It was a pretty crazy game. To be honest with you, I’m still trying to catch my breath," joked St. Paul head coach Paul Johnston. "The GCA coach and I are really close friends and I know all of those kids over there, so it was kind of different for me."
This week the Cardinals will face another challenging opponent in the Warriors (8-4), who advanced by downing Muenster Sacred Heart 33-28.
"They’re good," Johnston said. "They started out the year a little shaky, but they’re on a six-game winning streak now."
Woodlands Christian has a potent offensive attack, spearheaded by a passing game that has accounted for 3,438 yards and 37 touchdowns. The triggerman for the Warriors is quarterback Todd Eaglin, who is completing over 55 percent of his passes and has only thrown nine interceptions in 308 attempts. He also has 876 yards rushing for 15 more scores.
"I think he is more dangerous than the quarterback we faced last week," said Johnston. "He’s got a cannon for an arm and he can really run the ball. He’ll drop back to pass, drop that ball down, tuck it and scramble. He’s hard to contain because he’s very explosive."
The last thing St. Paul’s defense wanted to see this week was another prolific offense. The Cardinals were absolutely porous against GCA last week, when they gave up 672 yards to the Swordsmen.
"You have to give Garland Christian a lot of credit for that," Johnston said. "There’s a reason they’ve averaged 59 points and 650 yards of offense per game all year long. Another thing that was kind of deceiving is they never kicked the ball off deep. They did a bunch of onside kicks and they recovered four of them, so that was extra possessions their offense got to have."
Even though Woodlands Christian will operate primarily out of the spread, Johnston said there are stark contrasts to their version and the type they faced last week.
"They’re both spread offenses, but they’re totally different in their philosophy," he explained. "This team is more of a traditional spread where they have a true running back next to the quarterback. Garland Christian was more gimmicky in that they ran a lot of empty sets with the running back somewhere in the pass pattern."
The Warriors have been largely inconsistent on defense this year. They have held opponents to less than 20 points in four games this year, but have also given up 223 combined points in their four losses.
"They’ve been running a 4-2 Cover 3," said Johnston. "They’ve got some pretty physical linemen, a couple of pretty good linebackers and some guys in the secondary that can really run. They’re pretty athletic."
Johnston said the focus for his team doesn’t lie so much in what Woodlands Christian will do schematically, but instead with their own ability to operate efficiently.
"As much as anything, we’ve just got to execute in what we do," he said. "We have to be smart and make sure we do our jobs. That’s our main emphasis for this game."
The good news is the Cardinals came away from last week’s battle bereft of any major injuries.
"We had a few kids get dinged up with some bumps and bruises, but nothing that’s going to keep anybody out of the game," said Johnston.
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