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On the flip side, tonight’s opponent, Ave Maria, opened its season last week in deep south Florida with a 37-3 loss to Cumberland’s Mid-South Conference rival Lindsey Wilson. But with MSC play not having started yet, what does that mean?

“It’s so early, I don’t know,� said Cumberland coach Tim Mathis, whose Phoenix will turn another piece of the puzzle during today’s 6 p.m. game at Nokes-Lasater Field. “I do think Lindsey’s a pretty decent team. But I just don’t really know where Ave stacks up with their first game.�

Lindsey Wilson is an MSC and NAIA power which dipped to 5-4 last season. Ave Maria is coming off a 3-7 season.

The Catholic school located just north of the Everglades and east of Naples has access to south Florida athletes. It appears the Gyrenes try to take advantage of their athletes offensively, even if the statistics don’t show positive results.

“They absolutely spread out completely,� said Mathis, whose Phoenix traveled to Ave Maria in 2019 and returned home with a 35-34 win. “They do a lot of no-back sets and try to throw the ball really quick, get the ball out of that quarterback’s hands real quick, some simple run stuff.

“Defensively, they’re kind of what we saw this past week. I say that, they’re about 50-50. They do an odd front 50% of the time and an even front 50% of the time.�

If Cumberland is a comfortable favorite in what will be the Phoenix’s final home game for over a month, this will be a week to focus on the Phoenix.

“To be honest, that’s what we basically try to do every week, more or less, anyway,� Mathis said. “We got to make sure we’re right before we can worry about anybody else. When, on paper, the competition, the one thing when you watch them on film is they play really, really hard. So it’s not somebody you can take lightly at all.�

Mathis said the Phoenix came out of last week’s game in pretty good shape, physically.

“We had two guys that we thought were hurt,� Mathis said. “They were shoulder sprains so they should be back in a week or two. We actually turned out pretty good.�

After tonight’s game, the Phoenix will play four games on the road plus take an open date before returning home Oct. 25 to host Campbellsville and start a stretch of three contests at Nokes-Lasater out of the final four of the season.

Johnson named MSC Defensive Player of the Week

Cumberland junior defensive back Cannon Johnson was awarded the Mid-South Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Coming off of a strong performance in Week 1 against Tennessee Tech, Johnson was all over the field in last Saturday’s game against Reinhardt. The junior recorded 10 tackles, six solo tackles, three and a half tackles for loss, two sacks, two pass breakups and one fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown on a muffed punt.

The Maryville native accounted for 20 yards lost on his tackles for loss and 18 yards on his sacks.

His biggest contribution came in the fourth quarter when Reinhardt was inside the Cumberland 25-yard line and looked to take the lead with a late touchdown. On third down Johnson blitzed off of the edge and sacked the quarterback for an 11-yard loss, and then on fourth down broke up a pass that would have put Reinhardt on the goal line.