Cross High School football coach Shaun Wright never struggles to find positive things to say about the Trojans’ opponents.
This weekend it was particularly easy to wax poetic about C.E. Murray High School.
The War Eagles (3-2) have won three straight in the series and have dominated a pair of opponents Cross had competitive battles with. Cross hosts C.E. Murray on Friday.
“We will play arguably our toughest opponent this week,” said Wright, whose team is coming off a 19-6 win over Lake Marion School on Friday. “Their fronts on both sides of the ball are flat out nasty. Their quarterback is the best athlete I have seen on film this year, hands down. They have about 14 seniors and it shows. We will have to play perfect and get some breaks to have a chance. We look forward to the challenge.”
The War Eagles are coming off a 39-0 victory over Hemingway. Their other two victories came against Kingstree (29-0) and Lake Marion (53-0).
Cross played Kingstree earlier and pulled out a 16-13 victory.
The Trojans are 3-2 as they enter the region slate, three more victory celebrations than all of last season. They still have a ways to go to get back where Cross was but they’re moving forward.
“We are beginning to find our identity, and that is being more balanced with the run and pass,” Wright said. “We are not strong enough as a team to impose our will as some of our past teams so we have to have some elements of surprise as we get into region play. We will continue to work on fundamentals and technique. We will try to continue to do a few things really well, as opposed to a lot of things OK. I like where we are headed but we are a long ways away from getting to where we will be.”
Against Lake Marion, the Trojans scored all of their points in the opening half after falling behind 6-0. Quarterback Deondre Brown scored on a 1-yard run and Dillon Benenhaley booted the extra point to give Cross a 7-6 lead in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Kaden White scored on a 1-yard run and Zyrell Eadie tacked on a 14-yard touchdown scamper.
The Cross defense was in control all night after giving up the first score. The Trojans won for the third time in four games against Lake Marion and evened the series 8-8 apiece.
Eadie finished with 11 carries for 65 yards and Xavier Gattis made three grabs for 38 yards. On defense, Damion Haines had five solo stops for the Trojans.
“We were able to win an ugly game but we are grateful to be where we are as compared to last year,” Wright said. “We are still making too many errors that will get us beat down the road if we don’t correct them.”
After C.E. Murray, the Trojans play at Branchville on Oct. 11.
