Editor’s Note: Above photo taken by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru.
BELTON, Texas- The fans have voted, and True To The Cru’s Players of the Week are now finalized.
On offense, three candidates were in the running; quarterback Tommy Bowden, quarterback Kyle King, and wide receiver Brandon Jordan.
With two rushing touchdowns, and a 7-of-8 passing performance, Kyle King is True To The Cru’s Offensive Player of the Week.
Bowden narrowly edged out King in the Twitter poll, receiving 42.9 percent of the vote in comparison to King’s 40 percent. Jordan came in third with 17.1 percent. On the poll released on our website, however, King received an impressive 84 percent of the votes in comparison to Bowden’s 10 percent.
There is currently a competition for the starting quarterback spot, with Bowden and King both having shown plenty of ability and talent over the past two games.
On defense, linebacker Akeem Jackson earned True To The Cru’s Defensive Player of the Week honor, beating out Sante Parker Jr. and Jayden Smith.
Jackson led the Cru with 13 total tackles, one sack and four tackles for loss. Those four tackles put Southwestern back a total of 16 yards. The senior also forced a fumble and had nine solo tackles.
Jackson earned high numbers of votes in both the Twitter poll and the one conducted on our website, with 70 percent of the Twitter vote and 77 percent of the website vote going to the Fairfield, Texas native.
On special teams, the Cru was forced to punt more than it would have liked, but Brandon Cunningham consistenly pinned the Pirates deep in their own territory. The voters clearly recognized that, as he earned True To The Cru’s Special Teams Player of the Week.
Kicker Anthony Avila and kick returner/safety Jefferson Fritz were also in the running.
The Angelo State transfer punted the ball four times for a total of 191 yards, and an average of 47. 8 yards per punt. His longest came on a 56-yarder that was downed on the Southwestern two yard line. That was one of three punts that Cunningham booted that would be downed inside the opposing 20 yard line.
Cunningham earned 76.6 percent of the votes on Twitter, and also picked up 71.43 percent of the vote on our website.
For the “Play of the Game”, it was a hard decision for the voters, but ultimately, Jordan’s nice touchdown grab in the corner of the end zone won out, picking up 45.45 percent of the vote. The 6’6 Jordan had two touchdown grabs on the day, and this one showed the wide receiver’s excellent awareness, as he managed to get one foot down inside the end zone, with a Southwestern defender desperately trying to knock away the pass.
The below video features both of Jordan’s touchdown receptions. Both are spectacular, but the second one was the one voted as True To The Cru’s Play of the Game.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js@CruFootball Opponents have something new to worry about: Air Jordan. The QB gets the ball up in the air and 6'6" @brandonjay21k outleaps and outfights the defender for it. This is gonna be fun! pic.twitter.com/czGkvCwvz5
— Jack Phelps (@phelpspharms) February 28, 2021
