Wilcox braces for showdown with Clinch

Local Sports

September 8, 2010

Harvey Simpson Cordele Dispatch The Cordele Dispatch Wed Sep 08, 2010, 06:58 PM EDT

Rochelle — ROCHELLE — On its way to a first-ever state football championship last season, it took just about all Wilcox High could do to get past homestanding Clinch County 20-14 in the rainy Class A quarterfinals.

To hear coach Mark Ledford tell it, a similar effort is going to be required Friday night in Homerville if his 2-0 top-ranked Patriots are to subdue the 2-0 fourth-ranked Panthers and stay atop the Region 2-A regular season standings.

“I’m sure they’ve had this date marked on the calendar for several months now not only as the chance to get payback for 2009, but also because of the huge significance it holds when it comes to determining the 2010 playoff seedings,” Ledford said.

“For that reason, we’re expecting an extremely hard-hitting game as both of us want the win more for what it’s worth in the region this year than for anything that may have happened when we’ve met in the past.”

That’s saying a lot as when last year’s showdown ended with Clinch’s Tray Dorsey slipping down 7 yards shy of the end zone it broke Panther hearts everywhere and enabled Wilcox to trim its series deficit to 9=11-1.

Dorsey is back bigger and better this season as he proved this past Friday night when he ran for 290 yards and a pair of scores in Clinch’s 48-27 non-region win over Brantley County.

Also returning to the Panthers’ fold is Anthony McNeil, the team’s leading 2009 rusher who this season has been moved to quarterback where he racked up 138 yards and three touchdowns a week ago.

Still another Clinch returnee anxious to make amends for last year’s gut-wrenching defeat is Rashad Grant who last Friday ran eight times for 130 yards as the Panthers churned out 575 yards rushing.

“They’re predominantly ground-oriented out of the shotgun where they get the ball to 4-5 kids who can really hurt you in their running game,” Ledford said.

“They’re probably 80-20 run-to-pass ratio and with a very good offensive line like to come right at you rather than trying to use their speed to beat you outside.”

The high-scoring Panthers, who also own a 41-28 win this season over Pierce County, have more than just offense going for them, though. In fact, they’re from being shabby when the opposition is in possession of football.

“They’ve got a fast, aggressive defense that flies to the ball,” Ledford said. “All of the guys they have in the four-man front they use are extremely quick and have have given opposing offensive linemen trouble to this point.

“Brantley, which throws the football about 90 percent of the time, did hurt them somewhat with a good bit of underneath passing routes, but as a while they’re an extremely-quick, good-tackling bunch.

“Overall, they’re well-deserving of their ranking just as I think we are of ours. From what I’ve seen of the two of us, I think the team that makes the fewer mistakes and fewer turnovers will be the one that comes out on top.

“As far as we’re concerned, hopefully we’ll carry over the defensive intensity we displayed last Friday (in a 35-0 rout of Bleckley County).

“Offensively, we need to start doing the little things better and working harder to execute our game plan as up until now we’ve been relying a little too much on getting the job done with big plays.”

“It will also help if we have a big turnout of our fans as we need all the support we can get for what is anticipated to be one of the top games in the state regardless of classification.”

Although the Patriots had a couple of players nursing injuries at mid-week, none of them is expected to miss the game.

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