Cardinals face stern Newton test
Published 9:15 am Wednesday, September 20, 2017
- Leader Photo by Mark Pachuca Bridge City's Caleb Honeycutt seeks running room against WO-S.
BRIDGE CITY — The Bridge City Cardinals will look to bounce back this week when they welcome in the loaded Newton Eagles to Larry Ward Stadium in non-district action.
The Cardinals (0-1) fell short to the West Orange-Stark Mustangs 39-6 last week.
Bridge City is a hard-nosed three-game non-district stretch as they played WO-S last week and will close their non-district up at Jasper Sept. 29.
Bridge City will look to improve in the coming weeks as they will look to defend their District 10-4A Division I title this season after going 9-3 last year and advancing three rounds into the postseason.
The Cardinals will try to ignite their offense after totaling just 102 yards against a tough WO-S defense last week.
Quarterback Caleb Dubois had a 39-yard touchdown pass to Max Baker against the Mustangs and will look to power the Cardinal arsenal.
The Cardinals will look to rebound behind backs Baker, Hunter Denton and Logan Hamm behind a young offensive line in which all five starters started their first game last week.
The Eagles, meanwhile, are once again off to a flying start, notching wins over both Silsbee (41-17) and Dibnoll (40-20).
While the storied program in Newton always starts a football season with high expectations (4 state championships, now 23 straight playoff appearances), the 2016 season began with high expectations for the Newton Eagles as they were ranked No. 1 in several preseason polls. The Eagles ripped off victories in their first 13 games only to have a sour taste left after a 13-6 loss to Arp in the Regional Finals. That taste remains in the mouths of sixteen returning starters who look to lead the Eagles to a 24th straight playoff appearance and quite possibly the fifth football state championship in school history.
The Eagles are sparked offensively by backs Tamauzia Brown and Darwin Barlow and quarterback Josh Foster.
Eight starters are back on defense led by an all-district front sparked by Ty Seastrunk and Bryson Thomas.
Defensively, the Cardinals allowed 333 total yards to WO-S last week.
