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The Lafayette Christian football team is gearing up for its regular season opener on Friday as the Cougars are set to host Community Christian at 7:30 p.m. 

“The guys are excited and ready to hit somebody besides their own teammates,” LCS coach Jarred Pike said.  

Community Christian is coming off a season in which they won their first three games but ultimately finished the season with a 3-6 record. The Knights will be eager to prove themselves now that they have moved to 8-man football.

“Last year, they played 11-man and were playing some of the bigger private schools,” Pike said. “This is the first year they are back down to 8-man. We are expecting them to be bigger guys, and we expect they will be a talented football team.”

The Cougars, while more adjusted to the rigors of 8-man football, will have an uphill battle on Friday night as they will come in with a smaller roster of players to deploy.

“We are used to playing teams with bigger players and bigger teams,” Pike said. “Our guys know that we are going to have to be in great shape.”

Most of the Cougars will be playing both sides of the ball on Friday nights this season.

The Cougars will be having a changing of the guard at the helm of their offense this season. Gone is last year’s starter Andrew Hough. Inserted into his spot is junior David Karvelas.

“He has came along really well the last couple of week and has taken on more of a leadership role,” Pike said. “He has got some practices under his belt and is really starting to understand what is going.”

With a new commander on offense, that side of the ball will be relying heavily on Ephraim Snyder, who ran for over 2,000 yards last season on his way to being named to the GAPPS All-State team.

“He has been working out, and I think is up to about 195 pounds,” Pike said. “We are hoping for the same production if not a little more.

“We are planning to work him in more to the passing game and get him the ball out in the open field.”

Snyder will be the bell cow for the Cougars, but this season has seen him take on more of a leadership role now that he is a senior. 

“He wasn’t as vocal last year, but he has really stepped up,” Pike said. “We have a couple of sophomores who have stepped up and provided leadership in Jonathan Ross and Brandon Davenport.”

Over the last month, a plethora of voices have had to take on leadership roles as the Cougars experience life without most of the vocal leaders from last year’s team.

“We have been repping a lot of stuff over and over again because we have a lot of guys that are super young,” Pike said. “The team has improved a lot. They have been working hard despite the heat.

“These guys really put the sweat in the bucket and move on.”

Lafayette Christian made a run to the state semifinals a season ago. The team has big dreams for the 2023 season as they look to improve upon last year’s performance and it all starts Friday night on their home turf. 

“We are trying to instill into this guys that if you are going to do something, do it 100%,” Pike said. “We want guys out there on Friday night that are not second guessing themselves.”