As you may remember, I'll be analyzing the Class A state championship game for GPB-TV this Saturday at 1pm. Tune in!
Class A finals
Clinch County v Savannah Christian
Clinch County
There is only one undefeated team left in Class A for the 2010 season and that team is the No. 1 Clinch County Panthers (14-0), champions of Region 2-A. Any discussion of the Panthers must start with the do-it-all quarterback Tray Dorsey. In the semifinal tilt against Wilkinson County, Dorsey passed for 128 yards while rushing for 133 yards, including one score. For the season, Dorsey now has passed for over 1200 yards with 14 scores and has run for 24 touchdowns and nearly 1500 yards. He is joined in the backfield by Anthony McNeil, who has been tearing up the competition in the postseason. Against ELCA, McNeil found the endzone twice in the fourth quarter to engineer a comeback victory, and last week against Wilkinson, McNeil rushed for 187 yards on twenty carries and found paydirt four times. Clinch will look to pound the ball against Savannah Christian and try and top its 321 rushing yards and 449 overall yards from the semifinals. The defense meanwhile is strong and held Wilkinson to just 52 yards rushing and 150 overall with most coming after the result had long been decided.
Savannah Christian
One year after making it all the way to the Georgia Dome only to lose to Wilcox County for the state title, the Savannah Christian Raiders are back in the Dome and seeking redemption against Clinch County. The Raiders, 13-1, yet unranked upon entering the playoffs as a No. 4 seed out of Region 3-A, have cruised through the playoffs with four straight road wins, all against higher-seeded opponents. Savannah Christian has held opponents to an average of less than ten points per game and has allowed more than seven points just three times this year. Last week against Wesleyan, the Raiders held the vaunted Wolves team rushing attack to just 18 yards rushing. The Raiders intercepted two passes and took one back to the house.
The offense is strong as well as the backfield can toss a pair of backs at opponents in Andrew Moore and Nardo Govan, who ran for 127 yards against Wesleyan last week. Quarterback Harrison Curry has some playmakers to work with in Taylor Ivey and Will Austin. Curry is a threat to pass for a score or take it in himself and Austin can run it into the endzone or snag a Curry pass for six quick points.
PLAYOFF SKINNY
The bright lights of the Georgia Dome likely won’t intimidate either team as both have experience in the state title game. Just last season the Raiders of Savannah Christian competed on the Georgia Dome field for a state title, coming up just short to Wilcox County 30-21. The Raiders are trying to become the first former GISA school ever to capture a GHSA state title, and the first Savannah-area school to win a state title since Savannah did so in 1969. Over the course of Clinch County’s history, the Panthers have gotten to at least 13-0 three times prior to this season and all three times (1988, 1991, 2002), the Panthers won the state title. Clinch County coach Jim Dickerson was on the sidelines for the Panthers most recent state title in 2004. Clinch was runner-up in 2006. A victory in Saturday’s Class A championship game would give Clinch County a state title in a fourth straight decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment