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Atlantic heads to State Center for battle with West Marshall

Sports

October 29th, 2020 by admin

Trojan LogoThe Atlantic Trojans (7-1) football team hits the road on Friday night to State Center to face off against the West Marshall Trojans (7-1) in a Class 2A Third Round Playoff match-up. Atlantic is coming off a 2nd Round win over Des Moines Christian 21-0 and West Marshall defeated Centerville 60-0 in their 2nd Round contest. West Marshall has a run heavy offense led by 1,587 yards from tailback Preston Pope. West Marshall has some size up front to clear the path for Pope, and Atlantic Head Coach Mike McDermott said his team will need to play tough to stop that run game.

West Marshall also has quite a bit of playoff experience back from a team that was knocked out in the round of 16 the past two seasons. West Marshall Head Coach Cody Hackett said his team wants more this year.

Atlantic has hung their hat on a stout defense and some balance on offense. Atlantic has posted 5 straight shutouts to end the season and Coach McDermott said they expect that defense to rise to the occasion.

West Marshall runs a base 3-5 defense with linebackers moving around the field to match up. Coach Hackett said Atlantic poses some challenges with their balance. He also has been impressed by Atlantic’s defense.

We’ll have coverage of the battle of the Trojans on KJAN. You can hear more from Coach McDermott on Trojan Preview at 4:45 p.m. Our final edition of the pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win? will start at 5:55 p.m., followed by pregame at 6:30 p.m. and kickoff at 7:00 p.m. Chris Parks and Jim Field will have the call on AM 1220, FM 101.1, online at kjan.com. You can also watch the live video stream of the game on KJANTV!