After a winless start to the season, Porters Chapel Academy is looking for redemption Friday night against Clinton Christian.

However, the team’s injuries might have more of a say in the matter than head coach Blake Purvis would like. PCA has had 11 starters miss at least one game this season, and at least half of those are out for the year.

Even though three players who left last week’s game against Trinity because of injury will return, and two previously injured players will be back, a total of eight starters will miss Friday’s game.

Because of the injuries the team has sustained, Purvis has moved players to new positions to help fill the gaps, sometimes in advance and sometimes during the game. That’s been a big factor in the team’s 0-5 start.

“At any moment you could have to move one guy, you could have to move seven guys depending on the player that goes down and who can fill that role,” Purvis said. “Friday night we got into a position where I think we moved five guys to different positions to make up for the two guys we lost in the first half.”

Unbelievably, there has been an upside to all of the lineup changes. It’s allowed — or forced — Purvis to experiment with different combinations to find one that works. He thinks he happened upon one last week in the 54-14 loss to Trinity.

“Last week we found a combination on our offensive line that I believe was probably our best combination all year long,” Purvis said. “I don’t know that we find that combination without some injuries. I hate that we had the injuries, but if there is a silver lining to the shuffle around, we moved some guys and they were much more productive in new positions that really could benefit us down the stretch.”

He feels the team has responded well to the constant changes they are dealing with.

“They’re adjusting well. They’re open to the new roles,” Purvis said.

Clinton Christian (2-3) had a rough start to its season, losing its first three games, but has bounced back with a two-game winning streak.

“They have a lot of momentum coming into this game,” Purvis said. “They’ve made some changes to their offense. They’ve moved some guys around, changed their scheme a little bit and are doing some different things to open their offensive game. It’s made them much more difficult to defend.”

Fortunately for Porters Chapel, its strong suit has been its defense. The Eagles held their opponents to 35 points in the first two games combined, and even though they have given up 42, 38 and 54 points in the last three games, Purvis said those high scores can’t be blamed on the defense.

Turnovers have led directly to several touchdowns, and a struggling offense has both put the defense in bad situations and kept it on the field until it eventually wears down and breaks. The injuries have also forced players to play out of their normal positions.

“It’s really more the offense’s fault than it is the defense,” Purvis said. “Until the last two weeks, the defense has held strong, and we’ve become decimated on injuries and people have scored on us lately.”
Purvis wants to continue to expand the passing game and work mostly on the offense. He’s also looking to build on some of the lineup changes as well as inserting returning players back into the lineup.

“We feel pretty good about our plan, and some things they we’re done in the last couple weeks, and sticking with that moving forward,” Purvis said.