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DOWAGIAC — The Brandywine football team travels to Dowagiac tonight to face off against the Dowagiac Chieftains in the Chieftains’ homecoming game.

The game is a rematch of last year’s Lakeland Conference matchup that saw the Bobcats earn a 30-7 win. In 2022, the Bobcats defeated Dowagiac 14-12, snapping a 16-game losing streak against the Chieftains.

“We’re taking things one game at a time here,” said Dowagiac coach Duane Davis. “I know the kids have talked about it. They want to get back on our laurels and this is gonna be that week. They want to come out and they want to prove something and I’m proud of them. They’ve got a good mindset going into it. They’re not letting homecoming get in their way right now. I’m very excited about the football game and I’m excited about the effort right now.”

“Dowagiac is a phenomenal football team,” said Brandywine coach Justin Kinzie. “They hit hard. Two years in a row, we’ve had really good football games with them. Last year, we kind of caught them off guard but what the score doesn’t show is every single one of those plays, they were one missed tackle away from a 60-yard touchdown. We knew at any moment, they’re getting ready to break one. We know that we’re gonna have to bring our A-game. Being doing 0-5 two years in a row, they’re not going to sleep on us. They’re going to come out and try to send a message.”

The Bobcats are 0-5 to start the season for the first time since 1993. While the season is not playing out as the team had hoped, Kinzie said he is proud of the way his seniors have led the team amid its struggles.

“We know that as long as we are getting better every day, as long as we’re a percent better today than we were yesterday and come out a percent better tomorrow,” said Branndywine Head Coach Justin Kinzie. “We kind of had a late start to our season and you can see that steady climb as we go… We’ve missed youth football for a couple of years, so these seniors and last year’s seniors and the seniors before were really the last group that came through. The seniors have really kind of kept it together; There’s so many options for kids out there that it would be so easy for a less gritty group of kids to just go do something else – ‘I’m not gonna do football this year, I’ll wait till the team’s better.’ But the fact is that these guys have not only been battling but bringing their buddies out.”

According to Kinzie, four players have joined the team who also play for the soccer team and they are making an impact.

“Some of these guys have been absolute ballers for us,” he said. “Obviously their football knowledge might not be where it’s at because they’ve been here for three weeks but they’re athletes and they give us a look at practice and scout. I think it just says a lot that it isn’t just what they’re doing on the field but what they’re doing in the hallway and keeping their friends excited. The fact that our numbers are growing – another school would have numbers dwindling but here, our numbers are growing.”

One of Brandywine’s senior leaders, Connor Sobecki, is one of the state’s leading tacklers on defense and one of the area’s top fullbacks on offense. His play has helped take pressure off quarterback Kaeden Warfield, a first-year starter.

“There’s the old adage that you need a thousand snaps of this to get good at it,” Kinzie said. “Very similar to what Bartz used to run at Edwardsburg with the Power T, you need a lot of repetitions to get good at it and he just hasn’t had those repetitions. The fact that he’s been able to pick it up has been really impressive and I think the nice thing about him too, is those times that he does maybe make the wrong reader, make the wrong step, he’s so athletic that he can still make a play. Even if he does the wrong thing, he still makes a play. Having Sobecki back there, we can make a lot of mistakes as long as 26 is running the ball. It’s still probably going to be a positive play.”

The Chieftains are 4-1 for the second year in a row and hope to keep the momentum going heading into Friday’s game. Dowagiac has played a pair of new opponents this year in perennial power Hudson and Marshall. While the Hornets handed the Chieftains their lone loss of the season, the physical nature of that game is something Davis believe will pay dividends going forward. Against Marshall, the Chieftains were able to mount a second-half comeback to earn a 32-30 win on the road.

“We need those challenges during the season,” Davis said. “I think it only makes us better for the rest of the season, and I thought we did good against Hudson and we showed up against Marshall and hopefully it pays off for the rest of the season. I’m excited about what they’ve done and the challenges I’ve thrown at them and what they’ve gone through to get through those challenges. I’m proud of these guys.”

The program has shown improvement each year since its 0-9 season in 2021. Rebuilding programs from the ground up is something that Davis has done before as a coach at North Moore High School in North Carolina. 

“When I first got there, they were 0-9 in our first year, we went 3-6 and then the next year we won some more games and got in the playoffs,” he said. “I’ve been through it, I know it takes time and these kids man, they’ve never wavered away from me. They’ve always listened, they’ve always tried and the effort’s gotten high and I’m proud of these guys because they’re the ones that are turning things around, not me.”