The Golden Eagles (ranked third in Kansas 5A by MaxPreps) will be welcoming a very formidable opponent this week. The rival Kapaun Crusaders (ranked 11th in 5A by MaxPreps) will march into BC Family Stadium tonight to provide the second high-powered opponent in the Golden Eagles’ stacked schedule.

Matchup Breakdown:

Kapaun: The Crusaders were able to put forward a dominant performance against Dodge City this past Friday night with the team putting up 45 total points. The defense presented by the Crusaders also had a dominant performance, shutting out the offense presented by Dodge City, with Dodge City not being able to muster up a single point throughout the entirety of the game.

The main and deciding factor for the overwhelming success of the Kapaun offense was the team’s ability to continuously run the ball at an extremely high level throughout the game. There were two Kapaun Crusaders who were able to get over the 100-yard rushing mark, with the first of the two being junior running back Austin Ruda, who was able to rush for 107 total yards, while also averaging 10.7 yards per carry as well. The second leading rusher for the Crusaders was senior fullback David Bates, who was able to compile 103 total yards for the night, including a 43-yard touchdown run.

Bishop Carroll: The Golden Eagles were able put on an equally impressive performance against a much more talented opponent in the Junction City Bluejays this past Friday. The standout performer for the Golden Eagles from this past Friday’s game would no doubt have to be the leader of the team, tailback Hunter Trail, who was able to muster up two total touchdowns, including the team’s last touchdown of the day which put the defense in position to hold off the insanely talented offense of Junction City with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Coach Trail attempts to run his offense very similarly to the way that Kapaun coach Weston Schartz attempts to run the offense of the Crusaders, with both coaches, more often than not, writing up smashmouth run heavy gameplans that most often put their clubs in a favorable position to win.

Prediction:

The week’s main objective for the Golden Eagles will no doubt be to hold off the running game that will be coming from the opposite side. But one thing that I believe is worth noting is the fact that looking back at the game between Kapaun and Dodge City, it looked like the Crusaders were playing against a team that had a considerably difficult time tackling and wrapping up when faced with the Kapaun running game, particularly on the team’s big plays. This is an advantage that the Crusaders were granted last week that I do not believe will be granted to them this week against a strong Golden Eagle defense headed by senior safety Cade Gatchet, who I am expecting to see some big plays from this week. I fully expect the Golden Eagles to do an exceptional job at shutting down the aforementioned rushing attack over the course of the evening and at the end of the night win the game by as much as two scores.

Final Projection: 35-21 BC>KMC.