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St. Andrews faces uphill battle against No. 9 Lindsey Wilson

brandon hodge, the laurinburg exchange, n.c.
·4 min read

Aug. 31—LAURINBURG — St. Andrews football faces many tall tasks this year, with three Top 25 teams from the preseason NAIA FirstDown PlayBook coaches poll and NCAA Division I FCS program Davidson on their schedule.

The Knights begin the grueling part this weekend with an outing against the No. 9 Lindsey Wilson Blue Raiders.

Lindsey Wilson finished 10-2 overall and 7-1 in the Mid-South Conference last season. They made it to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Football Championship Series, where they lost to Grand View 10-7.

After a 57-6 loss to Lindsey Wilson a season ago, St. Andrews head coach Bob Curtin believes his team will have to play near-perfect football this time to pull off an upset.

"This is a big challenge for us," Curtin said. "They (Lindsey Wilson) come in with a very high-powered offense, so big challenges for the team. But I think we have a good game plan coming into this. I think our offense needs to be near flawless in its execution and precise in its movements. And we'll make it really competitive, especially on our home field since it withstood Hurricane Idalia."

St. Andrews opened their season last week with a 49-14 loss against Webber International. The Knights (0-1) had just 209 yards of offense, seven penalties, and three turnovers in the contest while allowing 35 first-half points.

Curtin didn't mince words when talking about how the Knights performed.

"We just didn't execute," Curtin said. "Our offense suffered several penalties; the defense had zero penalties. The offense needs to clean that up. Defensively, we have to do a much better job on third down. Last week, six of eight drives for the opposition that ended in touchdowns. The difference between six field goals and six touchdowns is huge, right? We've got to turn some of those into either stops or field goals. It gave us a good look at what we need to clean up. We'll see some gains from last week to this week."

On paper, Lindsey Wilson has the competitive advantage of boasting the 24th-ranked best offense and overall best defense in points per game allowed in the NAIA last season.

Curtin believes St. Andrews has the advantage of already playing, however.

"It gives us an advantage in the sense that we understand what we need to do better as we focus on getting better," Curtin said. "We can't control Lindsey Wilson, but we can control our own actions. So, with that, I think we do get an advantage. But a team like Lindsey Wilson has a history of being proficient with its offense, stingy with its defense, and precise with its special teams. It was last year we had Lindsey Wilson (in our) first game out, and that was pretty brutal."

The Blue Raiders offense has quarterbacks Will McDonald and Ethan Cash back after they both played intermittently last season, along with running back Jbias Dawson, the team's second-leading rusher in 2022, and top receiver Manny Scott, who had 619 receiving yards as a freshman last year. An experienced offensive line that returns Corey Teague, another MSC Watch List player, will also benefit the Blue Raiders.

Defensively, Lindsey Wilson returns two of their top four tacklers in linebackers Darius Hylick and Deven Holmes and their sacks leader, defensive lineman Therone Orr, who had 7 1/2 sacks last season. Linebacker Peyton Doles, who did not play last year, is a player on the MSC Watch List and is expected to be a top defender for the Blue Raiders, too.

"I don't want to call them linebacker 'U' (university), but they have some good linebackers who fly to the ball, and their backside pursuit is good," Curtin said. "So offensively, there's a lot to gameplan (for). They bring to the table one of the best defenses in the country over the last several years."

Curtin doesn't solely focus on the talent Lindsey Wilson possesses, though. He instead wants his players to be disciplined and worry about what they can manage, which he said will give St. Andrews the best chance of coming away with the win.

"We need to control ourselves," Curtin said. "We need to remain under control, both on and off the field. We need to control ourselves in the way we handle the ball. So, no turnovers, no senseless penalties. And then, defensively, we need to ensure we can prevent Lindsey Wilson from long-term sustained drives. And that means getting three-and-outs or field goals and forcing punts; those things are huge. Bend, but don't break. That's going to be huge."

Saturday's game between St. Andrews and Lindsey Wilson will begin at noon.