The King Lions started the season at No. 8 in our BCP Sweet 16 Rankings. After a 1-2 start, they are no longer on the board.
The Sickles Gryphons started the season unranked in our BCP Sweet 16 Rankings. After a 2-0 start, they find themselves at No. 14.
King opened the season with a 14-6 win over Wharton before dropping two straight to Tampa Bay Tech (35-28) and Alonso (38-34).
“We have a good football team,” said King HC Alvin Davis stressing that the Lions have to eliminate mistakes.
Under Davis King is 14-15, but is coming off a 7-3 season with wins over Middleton, Freedom, Tampa Bay Tech, East Bay and Bloomingdale (two forfeited wins over Leto and Strawberry Crest).
Since the 2004-2005 season Sickles owns a 4-1 advantage over King, including an 18-17 win in 2008.
The key to the game for Sickles will be to see if they can slow down the passing attack of King. The Gryphons have given up more than 100 yards passing per game and will be facing off against the No. 1 BCP QB (Greg Windam) and the No. 2 BCP WR (Chris Murray). Windham is averaging over 300 passing yards/game.
King also has two TE (Marcus Brown and Zerric Coleman) listed in our BCP Smoke List who could have an impact versus the Sickles defensive backfield. As talked about in our Campus Digest expect Sickles to double-team WR Murray so look for Taylor Gonzalez to have a possible breakout day. Sophomore WR/DB Darian Wright also made his name known last week against Alonso with 5 catches for 100 yards and 1 TD so look for Windham to spread the ball around nicely against Sickles.
Sickles has had a very formidable offensive attack of its own through two games. Junior QB Nate Mills has completed 44% of his passes for 238 yards and 3 TD and has yet to throw an interception. His favorite target is 6-3 junior WR Bilal Salat who has 8 catches for 187 yards and 2 TD.
“We’ve got to stop making mistakes,” King HC Davis said about how to stop the Sickles attack. “We have to stick to our assignments and play our assignments.”
The Gryphons also have another advantage. They are coming off their bye week. Davis knows that because of that extra week to prepare that Sickles will be ready. “They’re going to be ready to play and prepared,” he said.
This game has the potential to be a shootout. With King averaging over 400 yards of total offense in its last two games (versus TBT and Alonso) and Sickles averaging over 320 yards per game this game could come down to whoever makes the fewest mistakes.
Stats and previous records according to maxpreps.com
Game Updates on Twitter: @KyleBennettUT
Email: kbennett.ut@gmail.com
