Faith Academy football looks to finish district season unbeaten

CAPTION: Faith Academy’s Elijah Blackington is one of several seniors who will be honored by the program before the Flames play their final regular season game against Temple Holy Trinity. Photo by Stennis Shotts

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team has one more regular season game and has plenty to play for when the Flames welcome Temple Holy Trinity at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4.

The game is at Britton Field on the Faith campus, 3151 RR 1431 East.

The Flames (4-3, 3-0) captured the district crown when the Celtics (2-6, 1-2) lost to Round Rock Concordia 56-40 Oct. 29.

Still, head coach Stephen Shipley said winning the district championship with an undefeated record and having some momentum going into the 2022 playoffs of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools is plenty of motivation for the Flames.

But he believes Holy Trinity will come ready to play and will do what it can to get its spread offense going led by quarterback Jace Martin.

“In an 11-man spread, he’d be your typical dropback kid,” Shipley said. “He can run when he’s pushed out of the pocket. They like and do a lot of passing.”

Most of those passes go to Neri Navarro and Christopher Cruz. The Celtics have a thick playbook and will jump into different formations to confuse the defense.

“Their bread-and-butter is the spread and throwing the ball,” Shipley said.

Defensively, the Celtics will use their speed to get to the ball quickly. They like to bring blitzes to disrupt the offense and put it behind the chains in order to gain possession.

“They like to get in the backfield and make plays and not sit on their hands,” Shipley said. “Martin makes tackles and he’s a good cover back as well.”

The Flames enjoyed a productive week of practice. The goal on senior night is to honor the players who’ve meant so much to the program and to give minutes to as many athletes as possible, Shipley said.

“We’re trying to get everybody reps,” he said.

The Flames will begin the playoffs the weekend of Nov. 11-12. They’ll host either Bryan Allen Academy or Conroe Covenant. If it’s Allen Academy, the game will be played Friday, Nov. 11. If it’s Conroe Covenant, it’ll be played Saturday, Nov. 12.

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