Wildcats prepare for Greenville

Sulphur Springs football head coach Greg Owens held his weekly press conference Wednesday, where he looked back on the team’s close loss to Corsicana last week, as well as looked ahead to this week’s opponent, the 1-6 Greenville Lions.

The Wildcats are coming off an extremely tough loss this past week, when they just barely missed their first win of the season. After leading for a huge majority of the game, Corsicana was able to force overtime, where they eventually won by a final score of 42-38.

One of the huge bright spots of the game was sophomore quarterback Brady Driver, who got his first start of the season. Driver went 14-22 for 275 yards and four passing touchdowns, as well as 99 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on 16 attempts.

“He did great, he did really good,” Owens said. “He did a good job of getting the ball to Weston [Fields, who had 163 yards and a touchdown]. I can’t recall any ill-advised passes.”

Owens also spoke on a pair of juniors who have been having incredible seasons and had strong performances again last week: safety Riley Hammon, who had his third interception of the season, and defensive lineman Nick Cantillo, who had the lone sack of the game for Sulphur Springs. 

“It’s good, those guys, love to see them playing well and making things happen. Riley has been a ballhawk this year, he’s got a knack for that,” Owens said. “We’ve got to have more of those big plays.” 

Coming off such a close loss can be tough for a team to do, but the Wildcats head coach spoke positively about how his team has responded.

“They’ve rebounded well, and they’ve accepted the challenge this week of Greenville,” he said.

Both Sulphur Springs and Greenville sit at the bottom of their district right now, as they are each 0-4 in district play. Owens spoke about how his team matches up with the Lions and how they plan to game against them.

“They’re explosive, they’re big up front, they do a good job up front, they do a good job of moving around and just getting a body on a body,” Owens said about the Lions offense. “They still have guys that are fast and they can explode, so we have to tackle extremely well.

“Their front is aggressive. It’s big,” he said of Greenville’s defense. “They know what they’re doing, they’re aggressive, they attack, they get after you.

“They do a great job of tackling,” Owens added. “They just know what their responsibility is and what their role is.”

As for their own plan, Owens said it was simple: “Just keep fighting everyday, fight every play, keep working to get better.”

Both Sulphur Springs and Greenville will be seeking their first district win this season, leaving the loser in a very tough position to still have playoff hopes. Friday’s match will be at home in Sulphur Springs, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. Coverage of the game will be published in Wednesday’s edition of the News-Telegram.