Published: September 19, 2008 08:19 am      

Cards start playing for keeps

Unbeaten TVCC opens conference play Saturday at NE Oklahoma

Through two games, the Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals have yet to be tested. They’ve cruised to relatively easy wins.

As nice as that’s been, second-year head coach Brad Smiley and the Cardinals are well aware what really counts is what happens in the weeks to come. Southwest Junior College Football Conference action is at hand.

The Cardinals are scheduled to travel Saturday to Miami, Okla., to face winless Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College’s Golden Norsemen. Kickoff at Robertson Field is 7 p.m.

TVCC is no stranger to opening conference play with a pair of wins to its credit. The Cardinals were 2-1 last year and proceeded to lose out, going 0-6 in the SWJCFC and turned in a second straight 2-7 season.

“I would think that we are headed in the right direction,” Smiley said. “But I keep telling our team that if we do not continue to prepare well each week and show up ready to play, you will not be successful on Saturdays in the SWJCFC.”

Smiley knows of which he speaks. Though in his second year at TVCC as head coach, he was an assistant on Scotty Conley’s staff in the late 1990s, including a conference championship season in 1999.

Smiley knows it’s important to get off to a good start in conference play.

“Our number one goal this year is to win the conference championship,” Smiley said. “To have a chance at the title, you must make the playoffs. To have a chance at the playoffs you must have one of the four best records.

“Every game from here on out is extremely important to the outcome of our season.”

Though any coach ever having taken a team to Robertson Field will tell you it’s probably the toughest place to play in the conference, Saturday’s opener appears to be ripe with the potential for the Cardinals. NEO has struggled in its two outings, scoring just 20 points, including a 21-6 loss to Arkansas Baptist in a non-conference game two weeks ago. Arkansas Baptist is in the second year of its football program.

“NEO is a program with as good of tradition as there is in junior college football.,” Smiley said. “They have also always been very tough at home.

“Without question, we will need to take care of the football and execute in all three phases if we are going to give ourselves an opportunity to leave with a win.”

The Cardinals are coming off a 51-14 shellacking of Louisiana College JV in a game played last Thursday in Alexandria, La.

“Our guys played well,” Smiley said. “We got out to a fast start 27-0, but lost the intensity in the second quarter.

“We did get an opportunity to play everybody on the trip, so that allowed us another opportunity to get a good evaluation of our back-up situation.”

In Saturday’s other openers, Kilgore is at Navarro, Tyler is at Cisco and Blinn and Arkansas Baptist are playing at Rockwall.

The Cardinals are scheduled to play at home next Saturday against Cisco in a 7 p.m. kickoff at Bruce Field. It will be their first home game since opening the season Aug. 30 with a 48-0 win over Dodge City Community College.

ON THE AIR — Saturday’s game is scheduled to be broadcast on Palestine radio station KYYK (98.3 FM).