Scouting Report: Coweta 35, Bishop McGuinness 28
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Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! Coweta downed Bishop McGuinness 35-28 on the road Friday night to open the season 1-0 after falling to the Irish in the 5A semifinal game less…
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Coweta downed Bishop McGuinness 35-28 on the road Friday night to open the season 1-0 after falling to the Irish in the 5A semifinal game less than a year ago. Read the full report on the game here. Continue reading below for our report on the best players from the week zero match.
Na’Kylan Starks | 5’11″ ATH | Coweta ’23 |
Starks was undoubtedly the most valuable player of the night; the junior caught an interception and scored three touchdowns, including one in the air, Friday night.
It takes great focus to handle as many roles as Starks did against McGuinness. Processing coverage assignments defensively, taking plays out of a diversity of formations both in the back-field and split out offensively, and returning kicks would be a chore for most players, but Starks was up to the challenge. He was even effective in the third phase of the game, including a 56-yard kickoff return early in the game that started the Tigers in the red zone.
Athletically, Starks was among the most elite prospects on the field Friday night. Taking handoffs, he displayed great intuition staying discipled to the hole, trusting his offensive line, and utilizing his intuition and feel for the game to make plays beyond that, indicative of his numerous first-down stretches.mc
Lined up at receiver, Starks’s speed was overwhelming against McGuinness’s secondary, which he displayed in the second quarter when he ran a sharp curl and broke off his defender perfectly to meet a well-timed Gage Hamm Gage Hamm 6'4" | QB Coweta | 2022 State OK pass.
The verdict? Not only does this kid have the athleticism to make defenders miss at every opportunity, but he’s the type of savvy player whom can be trusted with a deep playbook and respond under pressure, mostly devoid of mental errors.
Mike Taffe Mike Taffe 6'0" | 190 lbs | RB Bishop McGuinness | 2023 State OK | 6’0″ RB | Bishop McGuinness ’23 |
Taffe’s two-touchdown, 189-yard rushing performance marked a rare performance: a single player outrushing his team.
The McGuinness Irish, aside from Taffe, rushed for a cumulative -3 yards, giving the Irish a team total of 186 rushing yards. Kudos to the McGuinness offensive line, certainly, but Taffe was uniquely productive as he arguably kept the Irish in contention for most of the game, especially in the first half, when he twice answered a prior Coweta score on his way to the end zone.
Taffe has great patience and intuition when hitting the gap, and his unique combination of acceleration and power helped him to create tough angles for defenders to attack, and even when they did, he was able to absorb contact and often drag the play another half-dozen yards or so.
Andrew Smith | 5’11″ WR | Bishop McGuinness ’22 |
Smith, though he didn’t catch his first pass until late in the third quarter, Smith practically kept the Irish in the game on multiple occasions when all hope seemed lost.
His first catch, a 54-yard reception on a very well-placed ball from River Warren, broke an offensive drought for the Irish, down one score, late in the third quarter and put McGuinness in the Coweta red-zone.
On McGuinness’s final possession of the game, trailing by two scores with two minutes to go, Smith took over for the Irish. He caught three first-down passes on that drive alone, one of which a crucial catch following a broken play on fourth-and-8 when Smith improvised with Warren, breaking back towards the line of scrimmage and catching a pass with a pair of Coweta defenders breathing down his neck.
Smith’s playmaking under pressure, paired with his superb quickness developed from years on the hardwood, make him an excellent weapon for the Irish.
More standouts |
Tyrell Bruner | 5’9″ WR/KR | Bishop McGuinness ’23
- If not for the nights Taffe and Smith had, Bruner would have easily been the most dominant offensive weapon in green, especially in his ability to get in the end zone. He scored twice, including the crucial catch, while double-covered, to put the Irish within one score with ten seconds left on the clock. Bruner has great speed, can reliably return kicks, and can burn defenders in the open field.
River Warren | 6’3″ QB | Bishop McGuinness ’24
- As far as introductory performances go, Warren’s taking of the reigns was a pretty solid night. He passed 15-of-27 for two touchdowns and two interceptions against the No. 5 team in the state. On McGuinness’s last possession of the night, facing a real-time two-minute drill in his first start, Warren was excellent in taking the Irish 89 yards down-field to score. The clock ran out on the Irish comeback attempt, and Warren certainly has some kinks to work out in his game, but it was an overall impressive night from the sophomore gunslinger.
Will Mason | 6’1″ TB | Coweta ’23
- Mason came up with a few big plays for Coweta, including a crucial six-yard fourth-down conversion that led to Coweta’s go-ahead score in the first quarter and a 45-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, again to go ahead by a score. On a score-for-score night, Mason’s contributions were vital for the Tigers.