Cordele — Win or lose, Crisp County High’s football Cougars know their 2012 season is going to end Friday night on Finklea-Robinson Field at Alton Shell Stadium against the host Americus-Sumter Panthers.

As they’ve prepared this week for that visit, their goal is twofold.

One, they want to close out a disappointing season by posting a second straight win that would give them a final record of 3-7 overall, 3- 4 in Region 1-AAA play.  

Two, they’d like to make sure that when the final horn sounds, the score will reflect that it’s lights out for the home team as well since in order to make the playoffs (as a No. 4 seed) it must win and Worth must lose to Monroe.

“It’d be great to close out our year with back-to-back wins and at the same time play the spoiler role against the Panthers (who own a huge 28-14 series edge over Crisp),” Cougars coach Lee Campbell said.

“Doing that certainly won’t be easy, though, as despite their current record (4-5, 2-4) they’ve got a very good football team that’s extremely big and fast just like a lot of region teams we’ve already faced.”

Americus-Sumter has posted its report card by defeating Kendrick (25-6), Macon County (34-18), Albany (43-0), Worth (40-14) and losing to Dooly (21-12), Monroe (27-13), Westover (16-14), Cairo (29-20) and Dougherty (16-7).

Crisp has faced six common opponents and fared better against just one — Dougherty which during an 0-8 start dropped a 28-8 decision to the Cougars but in Week 9 handed the Panthers a stunning 16-7 setback.

Against all mutual foes, Americus-Sumter has scored 137 points and allowed 102 while Crisp has been outscored 110-58.

Basing out of an I-formation offense and employing a lot of one-back and shotgun spread sets, the Panthers have shown good balance between the run and pass.

They seem to prefer a ground attack that’s directed by Bryce Benton, a two-year starter at quarterback where in making first-team all-region last season he threw for over 2,100 yards. He has put up good numbers again this campaign.

“Their passing scheme is a good one as they’ll throw the short, long and intermediate routes and will do so either from the pocket or on play-action stuff,” Campbell said.

“With their new home jerseys (dark blue with black numerals), it’s difficult to tell who their better offensive players are as their numbers are difficult to pick up on video.”

At the beginning of the season, though, the Panthers were relying heavily on do-it-all Jonathan Thomas who plays a number of positions on both sides of the football, talented sophomore running backs Wesley Fields and Bryan Stone and glue-fingered wide receiver Xavier Willis.

On the defensive side of the ball where Americus-Sumter aligns in multiple 3- and 4-man fronts, ends Willie Williams and O’nealus Bell are a couple of players who have caught the eyes of Crisp coaches.

“They design their defense around what they expect the opposition to attempt, but whatever alignment they get in, they’re physical and fast when it comes to getting to the ball carrier,” Campbell said. “Their secondary guys also cover well.

“Nobody has really crammed the ball down their throats as their problems on defense seem to have come only when they’ve been victimized by opponents simply making a big play when it was needed.”

Reflecting briefly one final time on Crisp’s 21-6 senior night win last Friday over Albany, Campbell acknowledged that his players were understandably excited to have ended a three-game skid during which they were outscored 65-9.

“What we’ve got to do now is to try and build on that victory so that we can go into our off-season workouts on a positive note,” he stressed.



NOTES: Should Crisp be able to beat the Panthers a second straight year, it would mark only the second time they have done so in a series dating back to 1957. The only previous occurrence came when the Cougars prevailed 13-0 in 1988 and 19-0 in 1989. ... The Panthers are currently under the direction of Chris Wade who started out the season as offensive coordinator. He was named interim head coach when Michael Pollock was relieved of those duties at mid-season for kicking a player in the butt. ... Cougar right tackle Tony Alexander is listed as a doubtful performer due to injury.