Let's get physical: Comets aim to ground Eagles, pound the rock

Throughout Mike Papoccia's 33-year tenure as the Newman football coach, the Comets' game plan has been the same: be more physical than their opponent.

That will be of utmost importance in Saturday's Class 3A semifinal game at Roscoe Eades Stadium, where Newman hosts the Aurora Christian Eagles at 2 p.m.

Video: Sports editor Dan Woessner and assistant sports editor Christopher Heimerman recap high school football quarterfinal games and preview the semifinals

While physicality is the name of the game in the rough-and-tumble Big Rivers, the Comets will be dealing with a completely different animal when former Buffalo Bills wideout Don Beebe brings his Eagles to town.

"They're more of a finesse team, and we don't play many teams like that," Newman senior running back/safety Nick Rude said. "We play a physical style in our conference, and we're going to stick to that this week. We have to make our physicality stand out on the field Saturday."

Aurora Christian (11-1) runs a spread offense, with quarterback Ryan McQuade connecting with eight different receivers for 2,748 yards and 38 touchdowns, to go with 13 interceptions. The Eagles have also sprinkled in the run very effectively, led by fullback Joel Bouganon (1,260 yards, 18 TDs) and tailback Brandon Mayes (750 yards, 6 TDs).

The Eagles' lone loss came in Week 8 to Montini, a 31-27 defeat against a Class 5A semifinalist. That game, and a 28-21 second-round playoff win over Immaculate Conception, are the only two games all season where Aurora Christian didn't score at least 38 points.

Look for the Newman defense to try and counteract that fast-paced, potent offense with an assortment of schemes and blitzes to keep the Eagles off-balance.

"We're going to play Newman D; we're not going to mix it up too much now," senior linebacker Kyle Moore said. "We want to get after them, keep coming at them, hit them hard. We have to put pressure on the quarterback, not give him time to throw, and make him think about the pass rush every time he drops back."

While Beebe knows it will be tough to stop the Newman run game – "No one has done that to them yet this year," he said – the focus is more on his offense being able to exploit whatever openings they can find in the Newman secondary.