By Kenton Brooks

Phoenix Sports Writer

Marcus Bruner said he’s been losing sleep this week.

But for a good reason.

He’s spent all of his waking — and possibly non-waking — hours thinking about tonight’s showdown between the Porter Pirates and the Copan Hornets for the District B-4 championship.

“I’m pumped up,” the 6-foot, 205-pound sophomore linebacker said. “I’ve been thinking this game 24/7. When I go to sleep, I’m thinking about it. When I come to school and during the day, I’m thinking about it.”

Bruner, who has a team-leading 101 tackles so far, and the rest of the Pirates put their thoughts into action as they seek their first district championship in school history. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Porter.

Both teams come in with identical 7-0 records for the season and 5-0 in district.

Obviously, this is all new to Porter.

Even with their success last year, the Pirates haven’t had this much hoopla surrounding them. A Tulsa-based radio station did a live interview with head coach Ron Coppedge this past week and multiple newspapers are calling to do stories.

“It’s good to see us having success,” Coppedge said. “The players have put in the hard work and we deserve to be right where we’re at. This is a big game for us.”

Steve Stanley, the first-year Copan coach, also recognizes the tremendous impact of tonight’s game.

“Porter’s very talented, well-coach and well-disciplined,” he said. “They’re a good football team.”

Tonight’s game could come down to the clash of irresistible force (Porter’s offense) against the immovable object (Copan’s defense).