Wildcats prepare for Corsicana

Sulphur Springs head coach held his weekly press conference Wednesday to address last week’s loss to Royse City, as well as look ahead to this week’s opponent, 4-2 Corsicana. Owens also addressed the remainder of the season and their current playoff race.

“We came close,” Owens said of last week’s 42-28 home loss to Royse City. Despite the final score, the Wildcats had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie the game. “We kind of let it get out of hand at the end.”

“That’s kind of what I hear afterwards, the kids encouraging each other, some senior leadership stepping up and saying keep your heads up, let’s go, we’ve got to go back to work, so it was positive to hear that,” Owens said. 

Owens also mentioned junior defensive lineman Nick Cantillo, who has been a leader for his defense, as one of the players keeping the team motivated.

“One of the players also said, ‘hey guys we just played with an undefeated football team, we are close’ and they know we’re close,” he said.

The head coach looked ahead to this weeks opponent, the 4-2 Corsicana Tigers. Corsicana is a very run-heavy team who Owens expects to run the ball 80-85% of the time.

“We’re preparing for the run,” Owens said. “They’re big, they’re physical, we’ve got to get them early. It’s a running game that’s going to come after you.”

Owens also expects them to run their quarterback, who was a wide receiver that had to move to quarterback due to an injury.

The Tigers are 4-2 this season but just 1-2 in district play. They opened district play with back-to-back losses to Royse City and Forney, before beating Greenville 20-14 this past week.

“We’ve got to catch them, we’ve got to get after them, we’ve got to make play offensively,” Owens said. “I don’t know if it’s so much about our opponent as it is us taking care of business and doing our job and everybody trying to put it all together that way. We’re looking and hoping for a fast start with our guys and just taking care of business.”

Owens also spoke on the team’s remaining schedule and their chances of making the playoffs.

“We have four more opponents and we feel like we’re very common with a lot of the opponents. Our last four opponents, all of us are fighting for these spots here,” Owens added. “We control our own destiny, go win out and you’re going to have your opportunity. So we control our own destiny, and that’s a great thing to have is hope in that and go get it.”

This week’s match between Sulphur Springs and Corsicana will be Friday in Corsicana. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Coverage of the game will be published in Wednesday’s edition of the News-Telegram. Sulphur Springs returns home next Friday to host Greenville, and they will host Forney Friday, Oct. 29 for their final home game of the season. Their game against Forney will also be their Senior Night.