It’s all come down to this. There’s a lot on the line tonight as the Cody Broncs make the trip to Jackson for the final game of the regular season. A win goes a long way for both these two squads. Winner earns not only a conference title but the Number 1 seed for the playoffs which means if they were to make it to the State Championship they would host the Title game. None of that is possible however without a win tongith. Coming into this match-up the stakes are high, tempers will flare as the best of the best in the West will meet on the gridiron. Head Coach of the Cody Bronc Matt McFadden wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s a good opponent, it’s the last game of the season. It’s every reason to get up. Conference Championship, Jackson v. Cody. Last year we had a great game with them at home. So there’s all those things, home field playoff advantage, all those things on the line. Really I think to us and our kids, its always been about us and it’s just… I want them to relish, and we enjoy good competition and they’re good competition. So we know going down there the challenge is we have to go and we have to play four quarters of football, get off the bus in adverse situation, all that noise and just forget about that and focus on executing football. We’re really excited. They’re a good program. You’ve kind of been seeing this, watching the scores and the standings and we thought this game would be big at the beginning of the year and it turns out it is.”
Entering this game Jackson is the No. 1 Rush offense in Class 3A, Cody is number 2. Jackson is top ranked against the run, Cody is number 3. Coach McFadden on the other Broncs.
“They’re up-tempo. They get a lot of plays in the game. They’re a big play team. You’re going to hold them, hold them, hold them, then they go big. They’re not afraid of trick plays and explosives and things like that. They’re a fun team to watch. They’re a threat to go the distance every play. Running back does a great job and it seems like you have him bottled up and then he pops out and goes for 60. They’re a big play offense and we need to be a big play defense on that and just be consistent. Stop them and then get some turnovers of our own. When you’re playing teams like this, up-tempo, it’s really important to steal possessions.”
One glaring weakness of Jackson is there pass defense. They rank last in class 3A in that category. Coach McFadden on some of Cody’s favorable match-ups there.
“There’s some strengths that we like against them. They’re a fast team as well, their defense. We feel like we’re the fastest team in 3A top to bottom. Gonna see that. Going to see our depth be used. Feel like the passing game can be used against these guys and stretch the field a little bit more. We feel pretty comfortable with that. They’re a great defense and we’re going to have to execute. They’re big up front, their linebackers fill. They can run. We’re going to have to execute and use all of the filed both vertically and horizontally.”
This game also has a different feel than most. While Cody respects every opponent they line up against there is a little more disdain towards Jackson when playing them. Cody’s Tight End/ Outside Linebacker Keaton Stone elaborates on that.
“They definitely think they’re the top dog and they’re probably looking past us to home field advantage next week. So we definitely want to go in there and beat them and show them we’re better than them. Their coach definitely believes that… he thinks they’re the best. From last year we barely beat them and we just want to going in there beating them and shut them down.”
How about a pair of difference makers for Cody. Keaton says look no further than a pair of O-Linemen.
“Reece and Brice our guards. They changed positions from last year and they’re a key part of our O-Line, without them we would not be able to run anything. They have good skill. They’re definitely undersized but they know how to use their body and their weight and their speed to beat anybody, even a huge 300-pound lineman that they’ve faced many times cause many D-Lines are bigger than us.”
Three big keys for this game according to both Coach and Keaton are Ball Security, Time of Possession and the line of scrimmage. And Keaton is more than confident that the O-line will come to play.
“We just need to control the line and we did good last week against Green River. If we can just push that and keep going into this week against Jackson, we’ll definitely, if we run the ball we’ll definitely be able to score and hopefully win.”
It’s the final game of the regular season. Conference title and number 1 seed for the playoffs are on the line. It’s the Broncs vs. the Broncs as Cody travels to Jackson Friday night. Kick-off at 6pm. Join Mac Morey and myself for all the live play-by-play action on KODI with pre-game underway at 5:40.
Link to listen to the game here: https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/index.cfm?stationcallsign=KODI
