Dawgs to play host to Midway in district matchup
By SEAN HANEY
Cove Leader-Press
On Friday, the Copperas Cove Dawgs host Midway Panthers for the Pink Out game.
The Panthers are 1-6 (1-2 in district) while the Dawgs are 2-4 (0-2 in district). Both teams are coming off losses this past week, after Cove lost to Weiss 51-20 and Midway lost to Temple 44-10.
Some key players to watch for Midway are QB/WR #2 Junior Thornton who is 21-35 with 248 yards passing, two passing touchdowns and two interceptions, with 64 carries and 592 rushing yards where he tallied six more touchdowns. Thornton also has 18 receptions for 324 yards and two more touchdowns. QB #12 Reid Tedford is 45-100 with 634 passing yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions. RB #9 Dom Hill on the season has had 127 carries for 571 yards and four touchdowns. OL Garrett Morphis, LB Esrom Martinez, LB Kannon Clendenin, DL Jace White, DB Reggie Jones, LB Donovan Jones, DB Adrian Melvin, OL Kooper McCaig-Forbis, WR R. Conway, OL Bryson Brown, DL Nick Wells and DL Parker Evans are all ones to watch.
DB Melvin leads the team in tackles with 43 solo and 27 assists, totaling his tackle count to 70. LB Martinez is not far behind with 56 total tackles. Although this defense has produced no interceptions, they do have three sacks on the season.
Switching sides now, Cove has had some recent changes at QB in the past couple of weeks. First there was Gabriel Rodriguez who is 46-103 with 530 yards, seven touchdown passes and just one sole interception, along with his 35 rushing attempts for 23 yards and three rushing touchdowns. The Dawgs had Blaine Butler take over, and he is 22-45 with 290 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception. Last but not least is Micah Cassone, who is fresh off his transfer from Ellison High School. He is 19-41 with 239 yards passing, two touchdowns and no interceptions. So, Copperas Cove has a lot of solid choices when choosing who they will start versus Midway.
Star RB Craig Brown has found it hard to run these past couple of games as he keeps getting brought down, but he has 94 attempts at rushing for 578 yards and five rushing touchdowns.
Brown is certainly ready for this game where he looks to make a statement once again.
The Dawgs aren’t shy of receivers who they can distribute the ball to. Demetrius Pearce has been the favorite target for all three Quarterbacks as he has racked up 24 receptions for 409 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Trishstin Glass is right up there too with 20 receptions, 272 yards receiving and four touchdowns.
Now even though those are the only receivers on the Dawgs roster that have surpassed 200 yards doesn’t mean that they don’t throw to anyone else.
Daniel Izquierdo has been making some plays on offense as well, as he has 12 receptions for 129 yards and one touchdown. Brown has 14 receptions for 117 yards and one touchdown as well.
The defense has just as many weapons as the offense, with Kevin Pontious coming off a game -ending injury last week that he took in the second quarter. He is looking to make a statement on why he is the leading tackler on this team. The defense has five sacks, five interceptions and five forced fumbles.
This defense is not shy on producing numbers but like Coach Johnson said last week, “We had eight punts. You can’t punt the ball eight times. That’s eight series, your defense has to hold on eventually, and they are going to break.” So the gameplan this week without a doubt is to not punt so many times in the first quarter and take the ball into the endzone more times than last week.