Covington @ Fairley - Thur. 9/21/23

[CHARGERFAN]

Covington visits Fairley this week in a Thursday nite game. In last week’s AP poll, Covington was #8 in the 3A poll, while Fairley was #8 in the 2A poll. Since that poll was released, Covington defeated Bolivar 63-22, while Fairley lost to Northpoint Christian 28-12. Going into that game, Fairley had not given up a point in the first 4 games. 
 

I’m not sure how the two teams will be ranked in this week’s AP poll, but this is a matchup of two good teams. Massey shows Covington favored by 7. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but this does appear to be a close game. How do you folks on Coach T see this one?

[Allthetalk]

Covington finds a way to win. Coach Kirby always gets his team better as the year goes and I expect nothing less. He has done it year in and year out. They are tough out for anyone!

[CHARGERFAN]

At the half

Covington 21

Fairley 18

 

[CHARGERFAN]

Final score

Covington 42

Fairley 38

Fairley is a really good team. This game was a see-saw match the entire way. Covington returned the opening kickoff for a TD and the scoring fest was on. As the Covington announcers said, the last team with the ball will win. That was accurate as the Chargers scored the go ahead touchdown with under a minute left. 
 

Next week we get McNairy for homecoming. 

[Dp81]

Watched my Chargers via live stream. Covington's offense looked great!! Covington's run defense, great; pass defense, don't know where that is? Fairly is a good team!! Could pass the ball very well!! Great receivers!! If Fairly can clean up just a couple things, they will be nearly unstoppable! Penalties killed them! I will be the first to admit that this game very easily could have gone the other way. 

Great game Chargers!! Keep on keepin on!! 

[CHARGERFAN]

1 hour ago, Dp81 said:

Watched my Chargers via live stream. Covington's offense looked great!! Covington's run defense, great; pass defense, don't know where that is? Fairly is a good team!! Could pass the ball very well!! Great receivers!! If Fairly can clean up just a couple things, they will be nearly unstoppable! Penalties killed them! I will be the first to admit that this game very easily could have gone the other way. 

Great game Chargers!! Keep on keepin on!! 

The other thing that Fairley suffered from was special teams breakdowns. We got the opening kick return for a TD, then later Fairley dropped back to punt at their own 3-yard line and fumbled the snap. We took over at the 3 and then scored an easy TD. 
 

The Charger pass defense is a work in progress. We are playing two freshman and two sophomores in the defensive backfield. They have improved some as the season goes on, but we are definitely vulnerable to the pass. 

[Dp81]

14 minutes ago, CHARGERFAN said:

The other thing that Fairley suffered from was special teams breakdowns. We got the opening kick return for a TD, then later Fairley dropped back to punt at their own 3-yard line and fumbled the snap. We took over at the 3 and then scored an easy TD. 
 

The Charger pass defense is a work in progress. We are playing two freshman and two sophomores in the defensive backfield. They have improved some as the season goes on, but we are definitely vulnerable to the pass. 

Yea  i was thinking our secondary is young. They will definitely get better!! Are the Chargers pretty young as a whole? Or do they have several seniors starting?

One thing i noticed that Fairley did really well was pass block!! The QB had all day!!  And their receivers made some amazing catches!!

[CHARGERFAN]

1 hour ago, Dp81 said:

Yea  i was thinking our secondary is young. They will definitely get better!! Are the Chargers pretty young as a whole? Or do they have several seniors starting?

One thing i noticed that Fairley did really well was pass block!! The QB had all day!!  And their receivers made some amazing catches!!

The roster shows 15 seniors, including QB Gover, RB Harris and receiver Deverell. Star RB Skylan Smith is a junior. We are gonna miss our seniors next year.

[Dp81]

1 minute ago, CHARGERFAN said:

The roster shows 15 seniors, including QB Gover, RB Harris and receiver Deverell. Star RB Skylan Smith is a junior. We are gonna miss our seniors next year.

Gotcha! Thanks for the info

 

[Waker]

On 9/22/2023 at 10:36 AM, CHARGERFAN said:

The roster shows 15 seniors, including QB Gover, RB Harris and receiver Deverell. Star RB Skylan Smith is a junior. We are gonna miss our seniors next year.

I’m surprised by this score. I saw Fairley in the playoffs last year and they looked like they had a ton of work to do. Huntingdon played Covington in a preseason scrimmage and Covington looked pretty solid. Big, with plenty of weapons. What gives?

[CHARGERFAN]

32 minutes ago, Waker said:

I’m surprised by this score. I saw Fairley in the playoffs last year and they looked like they had a ton of work to do. Huntingdon played Covington in a preseason scrimmage and Covington looked pretty solid. Big, with plenty of weapons. What gives?

It’s no secret that the Covington weak spot is our pass defense. Anybody with any passing ability has piled up lost of passing yards. Our run defense is solid to very good. Our offense is our strength. 
 

Fairley has a great passing attack. We could not stop them all night. On the other hand, they could not stop our offense either, thus a total of 80 points were scored. 
 

As far as the Huntingdon scrimmage, below is a copy of my Coach T post 8/4/23. Note how the Mustangs passed on their first possession. 
 

Here’s the final:

Covington varsity 5

Huntingdon varsity 1

Covington JV 1

Huntinghon JV 0

 

The Mustangs got the first possession at their 30, and scored in 6 or 8 plays, including 3 for 3 passing. I thought “ It’s gonna be a long day for the Charger D”.

Covington drove the ball well and scored on their possession, to tie the game.

Evidently, Coach Kirby got in the ears of the Covington defense, because although the Mustangs moved the ball well at times, they never got past the Covington 30 the rest of the game. 
 

I was struck by how many problems Huntingdon had from center. Their center (#74) is huge, and looks the part. But, I saw 2 shotgun snaps that were over the QB’s head, plus 3 or 4 snaps where the QB went under center and the ball ended up on the ground. Those are drive killers. 
 

Covington QB Gover had a good night throwing the ball (2 TD’s, including one about 65 yards where the receiver got totally behind the D). The Chargers used stellar RB Skylan Smith sparingly. He did catch a TD pass. Fullback (#7) Azarion Smith piled up lots of yards up the middle including a 30 or 35 yd TD run. He appears to be the “surprise” running back that Kirby often springs on folks. A couple of years ago it was a fullback named Flowers.

I’m pretty happy with the Charger O at this point. The D will need to improve to go very far in the region and the playoffs, but it shows potential.

I’ll be interested to see how Huntingdon does the rest of the year.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by CHARGERFAN