Tilghman prepares for tough third round playoff game at Christian Academy-Louisville | Sports

This year’s third-round game is already one more game Tilghman played last year, when he fell to Union County 35-21 in the second round of play.

Going 6-6, it may look like the Blue Tornado are the underdogs heading into the Centurions game, but Thompson believes their rigorous regular season schedule has prepared them for this game.

“If you think about it and the schedule we’ve had, we’ve been prepared for this game all year,” said Thompson. “We’ve played a lot of good football teams so we feel like throughout the year we’ve seen these guys without seeing them.”

Playing Union County (10-2) once in the regular season and once in the playoffs is a great example of playing a good football team. The first meeting between the two schools may not have ended in favor of the Blue Tornado, who lost 21-19, but staying close to this team and beating them weeks later in the playoffs proves they can follow the right teams.

“They (Christian Academy) are a great football team so we know we have to be at our best but I feel like we are in a good position,” said Thompson. “I hope we don’t get caught up in the emotions and that trap that comes with finally overcoming the hurdle of beating Union County.”

Tilghman comes out of a top that just won in the dying seconds of the game on a basket, to beat Union County.

The Centurions play a well-rounded game of football, led by quarterback Cole Hodge who has hit 26 touchdowns this season with 1,861 passing yards. Easton Messer had 16 touchdown passes and amassed 1,120 receiving yards, averaging just over 100 yards per game.

For the Blue Tornado, quarterback Jack James also made 26 touchdown passes as his next opponent. He pitched for a total of 2,154 yards, averaging just under 200 yards per game and 2.4 touchdowns per game. James is coming off a night where he threw for 255 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

Malachi Rider and Camdon Marshall led the way on rushed and received ends of the ball with Rider rushing for 145 yards and an end zone appearance while Marshall shot 118 yards, completing two plays for touchdowns.

“We have to play a clean football game, if we don’t play a clean football game it’s a team that will capitalize on those mistakes and we won’t be able to overcome them,” said Thompson. “So we have to make sure we get off the jump, start quickly and finish quickly.”

One thing Thompson has tried to get his players to understand is the phrase “you get from the game what you give it”, which means the dedication they give to practice, practice and time to play. game will be paid on the day of the match.

“They gave enough to go as far as they wanted,” Thompson said of his sentence.

He believes and has tried to anchor in the heads of his players that they have given the game enough to go this far and can go much further if they keep their heads down and focus on the task at hand.

The Blue Tornado will look to prove it on the field Friday night with a kick-off at 7:30 p.m. EST.