By Robert Hudson

The Selma Times-Journal

After two weeks of preparation, the wait is over, as the Morgan Academy Senators football team is set to begin its pursuit of a state championship.

The Senators (6-3, 4-1) will travel to Auburn to play the Lee-Scott Academy Warriors (7-3, 4-2) Friday at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the Alabama Independent Schools Association Class 3A state playoffs.

Morgan Academy head football coach Brian King said the Warriors feature an aggressive defense.

“They’re a real balanced team,” King said. “They’ve got a really good defensive approach. They throw a lot of different looks at you and run real well to the football.”

King said the Senators will have to contend with a very talented quarterback when they take the field against Lee-Scott.

“Offensively, they run the spread,” King said. “They’ve got a quarterback who’s about 6’5 210 pounds, real fast, has a good arm. So, it’s going to be a tough matchup trying to stop them running and passing.”

King said Lee-Scott runs a spread offense similar to a certain college team that also calls the plains home.

Despite that wrinkle, King said his team has seen many spread offenses this year and is focused on using that to their advantage.

“Defensively, it’s an offense we’ve seen all season,” King said. “We’re just working on what we’ve made mistakes on against those offenses during the year and trying to improve those. That includes working on coverages and filling gaps.”

Offensively for Morgan, King said the Senators aren’t looking to make any changes to the strong rushing attack that got them this far.

“Offensively, we’ve just been working on what we do best and the approach we believe we’re going to see against them,” King said. “We’re working on blocking down as good as we can. As far as everything else, this isn’t really the time to put in any new stuff, it’s a time to focus on what we do well.”

King said the Senators will have to make few mistakes in order to win the game.

“We’ve got to win the turnover battle,” King said.

“The games where we’ve turned the ball over we’ve lost. We’ve got to make as few mistakes as possible.”