After an impressive win last Friday at home against Parsons, the Field Kindley Golden Tornado of Coffeyville are hoping to notch their second of the season, as they travel to Riverton to face a winless Rams squad.
In a league that is looking to be up for grabs between the top four teams as of right now, momentum will be vital for these teams as they approach the weeks leading up to their match-ups. In recent years the SEK league has been dominated by a run-heavy Fort Scott team. This was all changed last season as Independence took it all in a 5-0 sweep of the league. This year things are prone to be even more interesting as the reigning champion Bulldogs of Indy have graduated most of their starters and Fort Scott returns as the favorite. With all these factors playing a role in deciding who will win the league, non-conference games like Coffeyville’s this week, may prove to be just as important as the games themselves, since we all know that a team with a 7-1 confidence will likely play better than a team with a beaten-down 1-7 record.
Regardless of games coming up, the fact is: the ‘Nado have a game this Friday against a team from the rough, tough CNC (Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee) league, and they cannot find themeselves in a “trap game” situation. They must look at the task at hand and get the job done and surely Coach Darrin Wegner is stressing this to his team. Wegner’s offense has proven to be his strong suit since starting with Coffeyville a year ago, being blessed with a potential All-State caliber, dual threat quaterback in Junior CJ Kelley. Kelley completed six (6) of eleven (11) passes last week for 153 yards and one (1) touchdown, while carrying the ball thirteen (13) times for a total of thirty-two (32) yards and another score. He also added a two-point conversion to his impressive outing. The ‘Nado defeated Riverton last season with a routing which resulted in a final score of 44-12. The Rams hold a record of 4-17, dating back to 2015, however they did manage to sneak into the 3A state playoffs last season before falling to Caney Valley, as their only two (2) wins came in district play.