MORGANTOWN – Sitting at 3-1 on the season and with newly-promoted head coach Mike McKenzie now leading the way, the Trinity Christian Football team will travel to play Millersport, Ohio on Friday night. This game comes as a rematch from earlier in the season when the Warriors defeated the Lakers 50-12 in Morgantown on September 9th.
Formerly the defensive coordinator and associate head coach, McKenzie now takes over the head coaching role after the midseason resignation of Christopher Simpson and aims to continue working toward the exact same goals as before, win games and make the playoffs.
For the team overall, that journey began four weeks ago when they opened the season by defeating Hundred High School 47-24, and it continues Friday night against Millersport. McKenzie says his message to the team now more than ever has been fairly simple: staying together.
“The message to the guys this week was staying together and working as one, we are only taking 14 players to the game this week but we are healthy. First time for that in a while,” McKenzie said on Thursday. “We talked about loyalty, duty, and respect this week. Being in the National Guard I hold some of those values close. With the fourteen players we don’t have a lot of defensive backs so we will go back to the 4-2-5, sort of the bread-and-butter for us.”
The Warriors will be without standout senior quarterback Kyle Knight, who has been sidelined since the second quarter of week three with a knee injury. Knight will miss his second-consecutive game for TCS and freshman Parker Hopkins will get the start for the second week in a row. Hopkins has completed 10 of 15 passing attempts so far, with 188 yards and five touchdowns.
Hopkins isn’t the only freshman that take the field for the Warriors. With that youth comes a need for leadership, and look no further than preseason all-state running back Levi Teets. The senior has carried the ball 59 times for 707 yards in four games this season, including 10 touchdowns. He’s also caught 10 passes for a total of 165 yards and four scores.
The Warriors “swiss-army-knife” knows he has a responsibility when it comes to mentoring the younger players, especially in times of adversity.
“We just have to stay focused and keep working toward our main goal, which is to keep winning and make the playoffs,” Teets said. “Everyone just has to stick together, we don’t have that many players so everyone matters no matter how much or how little you play. If someone goes down, that one person is already a chunk of our team.”
Finding balance between intensity and intelligence when it comes to playing an entire football game is something every single Warrior player must do throughout every game they play. The entire team sees the field on both sides of the ball and while health is a must, Teets says playing in the moment is something he focuses on.
“I try to focus one play at a time, if you look too far into the future of a game, you may take a play off here and there,” he said. “I try to take it one play at a time and give 100 percent effort, than try and maintain that every play.”
The Warriors kickoff on the road against Millersport at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.
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