By HARVEY SIMPSON
Dispatch Sports Editor
ROCHELLE — Officially speaking, Wilcox High won’t be involved in state playoff action until next Friday night when it takes the field as anywhere from a No. 2 to a No. 4 seed from Region 2-A.
Toward that end, head coach Mark Ledford says tomorrow night’s regular season finale at Irwin County should help prepare them for the added pressure that comes with postseason competition.
“With the importance this game has, it’s going to have a playoff atmosphere centered around it,” the Patriots’ mentor said. “It’s a contest that’s crucial to both of us when it comes to determining where and who we’ll be playing next week so both of us will no doubt be pulling out all the stops.”
If Wilcox wins, it earns the No. 2 seed behind Twiggs County and a home field edge. If it loses and Turner upsets Hawkinsville, Irwin gets the No. 2 slot, Wilcox slips to No. 3 and Hawkinsville winds up No. 4.
If, however, the Patriots lose and Hawkinville tops Turner, the Red Devils become No. 2, the Indians No. 3 and the Patriots drop all the way the way to No. 4.
Whlle Wilcox (7-2, 4-1) will likely be favored over Irwin (5-4, 3-2) by most observers because of their better record, Ledford is doing anything but assuming his team will come out on top.
“I’ve seen 3-4 of Irwin’s game films and it’s very obvious they’ve steadily improved as the season has progressed,” he said. “You can immediately tell they’ve got a sound, well-coached team that does a good job of taking advantage of the talent they have.
‘Offensively, they’ll be the first true wing-T opponent we’ve faced and in No. 21 (Kevious Robinson) they’ve got the fastest kid I’ve seen play high school football in a long time. He’s not the only player they have with good speed, though, as they’ve got a lot of weapons on that side of the football.
“They can also hurt you with the fullback trap and although they don’t throw the ball an awful lot they have a tendency to get their receivers open because the opposition is so concerned about stopping their ground game.”
Whichever way the Indians choose to attack, Ledford said they have a solid offensive line featuring Terrence Woodard, a 300-pounder who for his size moves extremely well.
When Irwin is on defense, it primarily bases out of a 4-4 front but will show some different looks.
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“They do a good job first of all of running to the football and then of tackling once they get there,” Ledford said in lauding the Indian defenders.
If his visiting team is to come out on top, the Patriots mentor said it must do a good job of fulfilling its defensive responsibilities in order to limit the number of big plays Irwin might have.
“Offensively,” Ledford said in addressing a key in that phase of his team’s performance, “we’ve got to protect the football and continue to execute as well as we have these last few weeks.
“It would also help,” Ledford added, “if we have a really big fan following to offset the kind of backing I know Irwin is going to get from its supporters.”
Tomorrow night’s game represents the 18th meeting between the schools with Wilcox currently holding a slim 9-8 series edge thanks to its wins of 44-6 in 2007 and 34-7 in 2008,
This year’s teams have met five common opponents. Wilcox scored a 35-6 win over Telfair, which Irwin beat 60-14. The Patriots downed Dooly (28-6), which later lost to Irwin 39-34. Hawkinsville bowed 26-10 to Wilcox but beat Irwin 21-12). Turner lost 41-0 to Wilcox and 55-20 to Irwin. Twiggs beat Wilcox (48-14) and downed Hawkinsville (14-7).
In their other games, the indians have beaten Clinch (14-7) and Portal (35-12) and have bowed to Fitzgerald (48-0) and Berrien (26-25).
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