Guyer senior defensive back John Schilleci (11) and senior linebacker Terrell Singleton (7) hit Colleyville Heritage senior running back Connor Davis (29) last Thursday at Southlake's Dragon Stadium. (David Minton/Denton Record-Chronicle)
In their first two games of the season, the new, inexperienced Guyer defense has had some high-octane offenses to help break them into the varsity game. After all, the Wildcats have just two returning full-time starters in safeties John Schilleci and Tavi Sanches, meaning the front seven is entirely new.
The result? Well, so far, it hasn’t been good as Guyer has given up 108 points to Cedar Hill and Colleyville Heritage, which both boasts FBS-committed quarterbacks, and in the case of Cedar Hill, athletes all over the field.
When Guyer steps on the field tonight looking to get its first win of the season, they’ll be going up against a much more tempered offensive attack of Flower Mound Marcus (my alma mater, shh…) Marcus is breaking in a sophomore quarterback after its starter tore his ACL. It just happens to be that starter’s little brother and the son of the head coach, so don’t look for too much of a drop-off there.
Marcus employs a run-heavy, ball-control offensive attack and as Guyer head coach John Walsh put it, is “plenty happy with the 3-yards and a cloud of dust theory.” In a different way, that will be a big test for Guyer’s defense, which is still trying to prove its worth, especially in the front seven, where the Wildcats have hung their hats over recent years with tons of big-time stars on the defensive line and in the linebacking corps.
Walsh said he originally thought going up against Marcus after trying to combat the passing games of Cedar Hill and Heritage would be a welcomed respite for his defense. After watching the Marcus offensive line on film, he doesn’t feel that way anymore.
“It’s a completely different offense than we’ve seen the last two weeks, but we knew that when we scheduled them and that’s why we did it,” Walsh said. “It’s a whole new set of challenges. I wouldn’t say it’s welcoming. It probably was, but when I saw that O-line, it definitely wasn’t welcoming.”
One of those new faces up front for Guyer is defensive tackle Domenic Pickering, who had a couple of big plays against Heritage last week. He said he’s looking at tonight’s game, Guyer’s final game before District 5-4A play begins in two weeks, as an opportunity to prove that he Wildcats’ defense hasn’t suddenly gone away.
“They’re definitely gonna try to test us and see what we’re capable of up front,” he said. “We’ve been practicing really well and learning more stuff so it should be a good fight up there.”