Phoenix playmakers filling up stat sheet
Going in to this weekend’s high school football action around the county, Sonoraville’s playoff hopes were still very much up in the air.
But the fact the Phoenix have some of the top playmakers in 3A region 6, based on the numbers through the first eight weeks of the season, is indisputable.
The nine-team league has been very competitive this fall with the current top six or seven teams all giving each other fits when they face off. The region has a lot of excellent football players with every team having guys who can take a short pass or a handful a long way.
And in a league that has a few very talented young quarterbacks, Phoenix sophomore Jaxon Pate is one of the top passers and runners and is the league’s best signal-caller, depending on which statistic one look at.
Pate leads the Region in passing yardage and passing yardage per game by a wide margin.
Through the Firebirds’ first eight outings, Pate has thrown for 1,746 yards or an average of nearly 219 every game, completing 106-of-176 attempts for a 60 percent completion percentage.
The nearly 1,750 yards passing has Pate almost 400 yards ahead of Murray County senior Justice Knotts, who had 1,356 yards going into Friday night’s action. (All of Knotts statistics are also through nine games because that is how many Murray County have currently played this year).
Pate’s 218.3 yards per game passing is first in that category as well with Knotts again second in the league by quite a distance, throwing for 151 yards every Friday.
And Pate is first in Region 6 in touchdown passes with 19 through eight weeks or more than two per game. That is six more than Adairsville sophomore Jonathan Gough, who had 13, and eight more than Knotts and Rockmart sophomore JD Davis, who each have thrown 11.
Knotts leads the league in passing attempts with 216 in Murray County’s nine games and Pate is second. Knotts has thrown the most interceptions in
the Region with 12 and Pate is second in the league with nine.
The Sonoraville quarterback is also one of the top rushers in the Region with 536 yards gained on just 72 attempts for a norm of 67 yards per game. And Pate is just 40 yards away from being the third leading rusher in the district as Coahulla Creek senior Tyler Locklear currently hold that spot with 576 yards in seven games.
LaFayette junior quarterback/wide receiver Jaylen Ramsey leads the league with 822 yards rushing or just under 103 per game with Adairsville senior Eli Agnew second with 707 yards.
Ramsey, Agnew, and Locklear’s numbers have come on far more carries than Pate with Ramsey having ran it 143 times, or almost twice as many as Pate, while Agnew has 114 totes and Locklear has 122.
Pate is fifth in the league in touchdown rushes with six. Agnew and Locklear set the pace with nine each and Rockmart players Davis and Jojo Haynes have ran for seven scores apiece with Pate just behind all of them.
While he has missed two games and played only sparingly in a couple of others, Phoenix junior running back Zach Lyles is still one of the league’s top rushers.
Lyles, who has verbally committed to play college baseball at Western Kentucky, has currently rushed for 478 yards in six games and could very well be the top rusher in the region right now had he remained healthy because he was outstanding before getting hurt with a pair of 100-yard games right out of the gate this year.
The running and throwing currently has Pate leading by a huge margin in the total yards category with 2,282 yards or an average of 285 yards in each game from him.
Coahulla Creek junior quarterback Kace Kinnamon is a distant second in the total offense cateogry with 1,462 yards in the same amount of games.
He is averaging 100 yards less a game than Pate, with 182 yards in total offense each Friday thus far.
Sonoraville junior wide receiver Brant Bryant is second in the league in receiving yards with 521 on 28 receptions or an average of 18.9 yards per grab.
Bryant is averaging 65 yards per game receiving, which is also second in the Region behind Murray County senior receiver Taylor Carrell, who has 33 catches for 623 yards or 69 a game.
His 28 catches put him fourth overall in the Region.
Junior Nicholas Beddington is also a top 10 receiver, with 24 receptions in eight games, putting him in a threeway tie for fifth in the league.
Pate and running back Wyatt Springfield are among the Region’s top scorers with Pate having scored seven touchdowns and Springfield, who assumed the starting running back job when Lyles got hurt, having crossed the goal line five times.
Defensively, junior middle linebacker Tristan Mullins leads the Region in tackles with 88 or a pace of 11 per game. He has 52 solo tackles and has assisted on 36 more.
And Mullins has quite a lead in that statistic with Adairsville senior Tokyo Gordon second in the Region with 73 total.
Springfield, from his outside linebacker position, is seventh in the region with 63 or just under nine a game. A total of 43 of those were all by himself with 20 assisted.
Senior defensive end Ridge Redd is ninth and third on the Phoenix with 52 and 36 of those were solo.
Bryant leads the Region in interceptions with four and Beddington is tied for second with three other league gridders to lead a Phoenix secondary that has been very effective this year.
Sonoraville will finish the 2021 season Friday night on the road at Coahulla Creek.