Cards try to slow Swordsmen down
by Jason Chlapek, Gonzales Inquirer Sports
Friday, November 18, 2011
Gonzales Inquirer Article | St. Paul Cardinal Football | Return to Shiner Home Page
SHINER -- Paul Johnston knows his team’s upcoming opponent pretty well.
In fact, he knows Garland Christian very well. Johnston was the Swordsmen’s head coach two years ago.
Two years after leading Garland Christian (10-1) into battle, Johnston will appear on the opposing sideline as he will lead the St. Paul football team into battle against the Swordsmen at 7:30 p.m. today at Birklebach Stadium in Georgetown in a TAPPS Division IV state quarterfinal football game.
Johnston will not only coach against some of his former players, he also will try to match wits with his former offensive coordinator and current Garland Christian head coach Joel Berry.
"I have a lot of respect for Coach Berry," Johnston said. "I enjoyed working with him. He ran the offense and I ran the defense, but we’re both spread guys. We each run the spread, but we both have different wrinkles in our offenses."
If there’s one thing the Swordsmen do well it’s scoring. Garland Christian has scored 607 points in 11 games this season, including a season-high 94 in a 94-66 victory over Dallas Lakehill Prep on Oct. 28.
Quarterback Hayden Burnett has Xbox-like statistics with 3,430 yards passing and 1,673 rushing. He leads the Swordsmen in both categories and also has 65 total touchdowns -- 39 passing, 26 rushing.
Zev Bailey is one of Burnett’s top receiving threats with 52 receptions for 1,267 yards and 18 touchdowns. Running back Jeramee Smith is just as much of a receiving threat (55 receptions, 681 yards, 7 TDs) as he is a rushing threat (94 carries, 774 yards, 8 TDs).
Bailey, Burnett and Smith were all sophomores on Johnston’s 2009 Garland Christian team. He went to a middle school in Wylie for the 2010 season before taking the St. Paul job this summer.
"We have to find a way to stop these guys," Johnston said.
"It’ll come down to us tackling on defense and avoiding turnovers and silly penalties on offense. We also need to execute our blocking assignments."
Defensively, the Swordsmen operate out of a 6-1 alignment. But, Johnston is uncertain if they’ll line up in the same alignment since St. Paul (9-2) operates out of the spread.
"The $54,000 question going into the game is what looks they’ll give us defensively," he said. "They haven’t faced a true spread offense like us yet. They faced primarily-running teams so far this season."
Garland Christian advanced to the state quarterfinals with a 48-27 victory over Fort Worth Lake Christian last Friday. The Cardinals had a little easier path to the state quarters as they were awarded a forfeit victory over Galveston O’Connell because O’Connell used an ineligible player throughout the season.
"The week off didn’t really help us except for keeping everyone from getting hurt," Johnston said. "It threw us off of our routine. I wish (TAPPS) could’ve caught the O’Connell infraction earlier so they could’ve lined up another team for us to play last week, but we can’t do anything about it now except keep playing."
The winner of tonight’s contest faces either The Woodlands Christian or Muenster Sacred Heart in the state semifinal round Nov. 25 or 26.
© Copyright
BaerCom - Shiner, Texas 2011