Trinity Christian -9'
Parish Episcopal 57
2 Private Schools going at it but in different divisions. Tigers (TC) are led by 4 Star QB Shedeur Sanders, who is the spawn of Dad Deion Sanders (the Hall of Famer) and pops is doubling down as the teams Off Coordinator. Last year, MaxPreps did kinda a seasonal documentary on TC and followed the program and players around which I'm sure helped in recruiting for the school. Tigers have won back to back state titles and sit on a 23 game win streak. The team has a few D1 athletes and is predicted to win the whole enchilada again but their strongest competition will come in the non-conference games, as last week's game showed, a 16-13 win over Private School Bishop Lynch. TC has a current National ranking #130 and is #15 in the state.
It's the first game for Parrish Episcopal so it's probably the main reason why I didn't make this pick a rare 3 Unit play, but I really believe that the line should be closer to a pick em and think the Panthers can straight out win here. While MaxPreps has EP at #311 nationally and state ranked #36..... the journalist in Dallas actually have Panthers at the #1 rank for TAPPS Large School Div (Div 1) so some obvious discrepancy in MaxPreps and the guys in the know in Dallas. EP has a pretty good QB leading their team also, as QB Preston Stone (6'2" 205 lbs) has ran and passed for over 7,000 yards w/86 TDs.... Word on the street is he's creative, has great vision, is very fleet of foot, and manages the game well. He's has several offers (including his top 2 picks Texas and SMU). He's being compared to Johnny Manziel, which is his idol and has met him at camps. Stone was being recruited as early as in 5th grade. His older brother is QB at Virginia. Preston's Coach actually recognized his talent at a very early age and hooked him up with a QB Training Coach, Kevin Murray, and if the name sounds familiar it's because his son is a pretty good QB also (Kyler Murray). Panthers return 6 Offensive Starters from last year's team that was bounced in the Semis of the State Playoffs for Private Large Schools classification. Returning OL Donovan Jackson (6'4" 310 lbs) is on the All-State team with multiple offers.
These 2 didn't meet last year but curiously, they both had a common opponent, Bishop Lynch, which TC won beat 23-19 and PE beat 27-20.....It just feels like this game could be headed the same way, as TC beat Bishop Lynch last week 16-13 so I'm kinda expecting a similar score here as Parish Episcopal will be a much stronger opponent than the Div 2 teams the Trinity Christian ran all over last year. I'm feeling like Panthers can win this game outright as it's at their house too...
Gl