PLAYOFF REGIONAL ROUND PREVIEW: Lubbock Christian vs Brazos Christian

PLAYOFF REGIONAL ROUND PREVIEW: Lubbock Christian vs Brazos Christian

Rewinding back to 356 days ago, Lubbock Christian ended Brazos Christian’s season in the semi-final round last year on a cold, rainy day in Bangs. It was a complete beatdown, with Lubbock Christian winning easily 65-0 (then went on to win last year’s TAPPS Division 4 state championship). However, this year will be a completely different matchup. Lubbock Christian is 9-2 on the season, and coming off of a strong win against Mercy Culture Prep 55-14. Brazos Christian won by an even larger margin last week, beating Waco Bishop Reicher 59-0. The Lubbock Christian Eagles are coached by seventh year head coach Chris Softley, who has led them to the TAPPS Division 3 state championship in 2019, as well as the Division 4 championship last year. The head coach of the Brazos Christian Eagles is Correy Washington, who is in his second season with the Eagles and led them to the state semifinals in his first.

A huge factor in this regional round matchup between the two Eagle teams will be the fact that star QB Welker Horn might not be able to play in this game due to a collarbone injury. Their second string QB is Luke Lee, who was one of Lubbock’s better receivers before he had to switch positions. Last week in their win over Mercy Culture Prep Lee threw for 146 yards and ran for 191 yards, and accounted for the majority of their offensive plays. The other part of Lubbock’s rushing attack comes from freshman Dai Dai Atkins, who in last Friday’s win rushed for 130 yards and 3 touchdowns. Other offensive weapons for this Eagles team are Brylan Cunningham, Josh Rodgers, and Joseph Fernihough. On the other side of the ball, Jackson Doyle and Daniel Grimstead will be important parts of this defense, whose strength is forcing turnovers. Lubbock is a tough, resilient team, and they will be hard to beat. 

This game is especially important to Brazos Christian because Lubbock was the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year, so they will be preparing hard this week and will come ready. Freshman QB Cooper Murr averages 16.1 yards per completion, has totaled 1702 yards passing on the year and 229 yards rushing. Most of Brazos Christian’s offense comes from the quartet of Chance Locker, Jackson Caffey, Isaiah Perkins, and Truett Goodyk. Perkins leads the team in receiving TDs with 12, while Caffey leads in rushing TDs with 7. Defensively, DE Brody Garner ranks third in all of TAPPS for sacks, with 10 on the season. LB Jake Shaddox leads the team in tackles, and CB Perkins leads the team in interceptions. DE Parker Spears, DE Carson Browne, DL Ben Tillery, and LB Ty Urban are also names to watch for this Eagles team on defense. The Eagles are not going down without a fight, and this game will be one of their most formidable tests so far this season. 

As mentioned above, last year’s game was a blowout, but I have a feeling that this year’s matchup between these two teams will be just the opposite. Lubbock’s offense is firing on all cylinders right now, despite having lost their starting QB, while Brazos’ defense has been incredible the second half of the season. These two squads are evenly matched, and it will be a battle to see who comes out on top. Lubbock’s coach, Chris Softley, says he has a lot of respect for what BCS is doing, but that his team will be ready: “Coach Washington has done a great job there at Brazos and his team is playing their best football at the right time of the year. They are very balanced and have great talent at both the skill and on both lines of scrimmage. At this stage of the season there are only great teams remaining and Brazos is certainly one of the top teams in the state at our level. We know we will have our hands full with this team and look forward to the opportunity of getting to play another week!” 

For Brazos, junior LB Jake Shaddox speaks for the Eagles when he says, “[This game] starts up front in the way we come out and fight, we need to be very aggressive at all times and not let up. Playing mistake free will be a very big key Friday and getting 4 quality quarters in…how we respond to adversity will also be a factor in the game, when things might not go our way, we need to come back out and fight to get the momentum back…we need to come back out on the other side of the ball and dominate.” When asked about how important this game is to BCS because of how last season ended, Shaddox also says, “I definitely would say there is a difference in the locker room this week…we all know what this game means to us and [because of] what happened last year, the guys are very ready to get out there and take back what happened to us last year. The beating we took last year is definitely a big fuel for this week. But, we feel very prepared and will go out there Friday and execute what coach gave us, [while] also playing with that chip.” Coach Correy Washington said, “The main key will be to win the special teams battle, [because] they like to onside and go for two after every score. It will be important to recover the onsides to get our offense on the field. Being sound in blocking schemes and playing physical will be keys to success as well. Our mindset is to focus on our team, limit self inflicted mistakes, and most importantly, to compete at a high level! They got after us last year for sure…but again, we are focused on our team and how we can get better…it’s not just another game, it’s a chance to play over Thanksgiving break and that is one of our goals as a team. We want to win no matter who we play.”

 Whoever wins this game will have a great chance at making the state championship game in two weeks, and we will find out just who that is on November 17 in Brownwood at 6 o’clock.