Calhoun to visit Cass, Sonoraville headed to LaFayette
The Calhoun and Sonoraville varsity football teams are both in action on Friday night, while Gordon Central played at Chattooga on Tuesday.
Fresh off a dominant win against Woodland, Calhoun (6-2, 2-1) travels to White to take on another region foe in Cass on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Cass comes into the game with a 6-2 (1-2) record and will be looking to avenge their road loss to Hiram last week. This is the first time the Jackets will be playing Cass since 1985, so the Jackets are excited for the oppor
tunity according to Calhoun head coach Clay Stephenson.
“Cass — we haven’t played them in varsity in a pretty long time, so we’re excited to have them on the schedule,” Stephenson said. “They got a brand-new coach in Coach (Steve) Gates, who’s doing a good job there. They’ve always had athletes, so we’re excited to get to play another region game. It’s a big game. Every game in the region kind of gets bigger as you keep winning.”
The Colonels’ spread offensive attack is breaking in a new starter at quarterback in freshman Devin Henderson. While he is a good athlete who the Jackets will certainly keep their eyes on, the focal point of the Cass offense is senior running back David Gbadie. He is the guy that stands out on film the most on the offensive side of the ball according to Stephenson.
“Offensively, (it is) probably their running back No. 6 (David Gbadie),” Stephenson said. “He hits the holes pretty hard. He’s kind of a downhill runner and pretty quick.”
The real strengths of the Colonels are their defensive line and linebackers. Garrett Gonyea leads the Cass defensive line and is a strong, physical player that is adept at rushing the passer and tough to block. Properly blocking Gonyea and the entire defensive unit and thus creating space for the Calhoun offense will be paramount according to Stephenson.
“Their defense plays hard,” Stephenson said. “It looks like they’re bringing a lot of pressure. I feel like the strength of their team is their defensive line and linebackers, so we got to make sure we account for everybody that’s in the box each play and get a hat on a hat and give Jerrian (Hames) and our other playmakers a chance to make plays.”
For this week, Stephenson sees the biggest key for Calhoun getting the victory is focusing on themselves.
“We need to go out and take care of us again with it being a new team that we
don’t know too much about,” Stephenson said. “They got some young guys that they’re playing. If we can go out and get to a good start and hold on by not turning the ball over and not having big penalties, that’s kind of the keys for us this week.”
Sonoraville
Across the city limits, Sonoraville (2-5, 0-5) will head to LaFayette (4-3, 4-1) to take on the Ramblers at 7:30 p.m. The Phoenix are looking to snap their fivegame losing skid (including a tough loss to Adairsville last week) against a LaFayette team that is one of the top teams in Region 6-AAA and is coming off a 21-3 win over Coahulla Creek last week.
Despite offering a formidable challenge to the Phoenix, Sonoraville head coach Denver Pate sees his team matching up well with the Ramblers but remains wary of their weapons.
“I think it’s a team that we match up well against,” Pate said. “Offensively, they have some good playmakers. No. 2 (JaMario Clements) at running back — he’s a load to bring down. No. 7 -the quarterback (Jaylon Ramsey) — really reminds me of a kid that graduated from Sonoraville a few years ago — Patrick Moore. He’s (Ramsey is) a left-handed
quarterback. He’s short in stature but has a lot of wiggle and quickness to him.
The focal point of LaFayette’s offense is Ramsey at quarterback, and slowing him down will be a challenge for the Phoenix’s defense on Friday night.
“( They run) more of a spread, but they try to get the ball in their quarterback’s hand with space out in front of him,” Pate said. “When you get it in his hands, there is always a threat of run or pass. He definitely makes for a dangerous task for our defense.”
Pate is looking for his offense to step up and perform better in this game against LaFayette than in weeks past. That will no doubt be crucial to Sonoraville’s success this week, along with cutting down on costly turnovers according to Pate.
“We got to execute better in the run game to open up the passing game,” Pate said. “We got to be better offensively up front. We got to give Brady (Lackey) some time to be able to pick their defense apart. Keeping it in plus territory as far as playing in front of the sticks and not behind the sticks is key. When you’re sitting in second-and-medium and third-and-short, it makes it a lot easier as far as your playcalling. Again, just the execution on offense has to be better.”