Lions remain perfect, but have tough foes ahead

The Grapevine Faith Christian football team hammered Arlington Pantego Christian last week to improve to 7-0 on the season with a playoff berth becoming more and more attainable.

But with three of the top-four ranked teams in the state in their district this season, TAPPS 1-II produces a gauntlet of powerhouses that most teams don’t have to face until the postseason.

Faith will host Fort Worth Southwest Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, and coach Kris Hogan said that he expects his team to be in for a challenge.

“This should be a wide-open game, because they are a really wide-open team,” Hogan said. “They’re empty formations and a lot of times they don’t have have running backs in the game. They are going to try to be fast-paced and move the ball as quickly as they can, and then they take risks on defense ... we’ve been able to run the ball effectively this year, and if they take the kind of risks they have been, it makes them susceptible to the big play.”

Faith defeated Pantego Christian by a score of 73-35 on Thursday, and Hogan said that his team looked pretty sharp both offensively and on defense.

“We were really sharp offensively for sure,” Hogan said. “Our quarterback, receivers and offensive line were really good. And then Keyshawn Wyatt became the second leading rusher in Faith history during the game.”

Wyatt finished the game with 173 yards rushing and three touchdowns in the victory, while Jake Franklin passed for 266 yards and three touchdowns.

Hogan said while he couldn’t have asked for much more from his team, he did still see one thing that he feels Faith needs to work on in particular.

“I did have one concern in that we gave up two big run plays,” Hogan said. “If you’re playing great, great teams, you can’t give up big plays. You have to make them drive the field, so I was a little concerned about that, but we’re working on it. I do think that the defense is playing well, though.”

Faith is ranked second in the state at the moment, while Parish Episcopal is the top ranked team and Fort Worth Christian is number four.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Lions remain perfect, but have tough foes ahead."