Crawfordsville football will have their hands full once again in week eight when the Athenians are on the road for a battle with the top team in Sagamore Conference in the No. 5 ranked Tri-West Bruins. The Athenians are coming off a 35-0 loss to Lebanon a week ago while the Bruins handled North Montgomery 38-0. Cville enters the game at 0-7 (0-5 SAC) while Tri-West comes in at 6-1 (5-0 SAC). With a win the Bruins will clinch at least a share of the SAC title.
Last week against Lebanon the Athenians used a 14-play opening drive that got them inside the red-zone but were unable to score. Overall CHS has moved the ball on offense this season but haven’t been able to find the end zone. Cville coach Brad Clark noted how his team is continuing to focus on themselves regardless of who might be across the field from them.
“That’s something that we’re always focusing on with this team,” Clark said. “The opponent for us doesn’t really matter because we’re trying to get better and focus on us. We’ve moved the ball for the most part this season but once we get down in the red zone just haven’t been able to punch it in. I didn’t feel like we tackled very well last week and that’s going to be important this week because Tri-West’s QB is going to have the ball in his hands a ton.”
That QB for the Bruins would be do-it-all senior Malachi Walden. On the season Walden is 77-143 (53.8%) for 885 yards and 11 TD’s. On the ground he’s even more deadly with 115 carries for 895 yards and nine TD’s. Noah Lien and Cole Morgan along with Thaddeus Brown are the top receiving targets.
“We know that Walden is one heck of a player and is going to have the ball in his hands a ton,” Clark said of the Tri-West signal caller. “The great thing about this conference is that you’re going to be tested each and every week and right now there’s no bigger test than Tri-West. We use every game we play as a measuring stick to see where we are as a program. They’re first place in the SAC for a reason. It’s a team that is great in all aspects of the game. Last week against Lebanon I was pleased with how we measured up. I thought it should’ve been 7-7 going into halftime. We did let some things get away from us in the second half, but those games like last week are the ones we need to start playing if we want to take the next step.”
Kaden Patton leads the Sagamore Conference with 1,299 passing yards on 109-220 (49.5%) with seven TD’s. Cville also boasts the SAC’s leading receiver in senior Ethan McLemore who has hauled in 41 catches for 664 yards and six TD’s.
The Athenians and Bruins will kick things off from Tri-West at 7 pm on Friday and you can catch a live broadcast of the game on 103.9 WIMC beginning at 6:30 as Jared McMurry and Deontae Peete will have the call from Lizton.
