Tipton gets ready for rematch with Cole Camp

TIPTON - The Tipton Cardinals are heading into the playoffs on a winning streak.

The Cardinals (3-6) will look to post their third straight victory tonight when they take on the Cole Camp Bluebirds (5-4) in the opening round of Class 1 District 3 play.

It's a rematch of a game last month in which Cole Camp posted a 43-6 victory against Tipton.

Tipton coach Tony Braby said the Cardinals are feeling really good about themselves after their 49-20 victory last Friday night against Concordia to end the regular season.

"With such a very tough middle schedule of games that we struggled with, that finally being able to put a couple of games together and play well and get the wins really does wonders for getting you out of the dumps," Braby said.

The Cardinals scored a season-high 49 points last week. Braby said a reason for the success was the team controlled the rushing aspect of the game.

Cameron Whisler had a big game for the Cardinals as he rushed for five touchdowns, finishing with 227 yards on the ground.

"It was a big complement to the offensive line creating the holes and the tough running by Cameron," Braby said.

The team was also able to capitalize on Concordia's turnovers. The Cardinals' defense had four interceptions and two fumble recoveries in the game.

"It all kind of came together for us," Braby said.

When it comes to getting ready for their rematch with Cole Camp, Braby said the team is trying to limit the number of turnovers which was a problem for the team in their first match up.

"I think we have this new confidence in ourselves and we we are doing a lot better at taking care of the ball," he said. "We are looking forward to the rematch and I think we will give them a much better game then what we did.

Braby said the Cardinals will have to run the ball tonight.

"We did run the ball real well against them last time so we are hoping that this new found success of running the ball continues for us and that we are able to mix it up with the pass and run," he said. "Compared to just being one sided, we threw the ball a awful lot last time and tried to play catch up so we are hoping we can mix it up and keep them off balance."

Braby thinks Cole Camp will add some things to their game plan.

"I think coach (Kevin) Shearer will defenietly add a new wrinkle or two," he said. "You always want to keep your opponent guessing and the coaches that go 'Well, it worked the first time it will be good enough the second time,' a lot of times get beat. We are looking for them to maybe add in a whether it is a trick play or something different that doesn't take a lot of time but give them a short term advantage.

"I know that we are going to try to do a better job of not adding a lot of different things and just doing what we have been doing well these last couple of games. I think Cole Camp for the most part will be pretty tough in their game planning."