Eight weeks stand between Ware County and an appearance in the Class 4A state championship game.
The fifth-ranked Gators (6-1 overall, 1-1 Region 1-AAAA) begin the eight-week journey to Monday, December 16 Friday night with Perry (4-3, 2-0) visiting and both teams coming in off a bye week — the second for each program.
Ware County followed its first open date with a 42-9 homecoming victory September 19 over Lincoln of Tallahassee. The Panthers came out of their first open date with a 28-15 win September 12 over Veterans.
“Last week was good,” Ware County head coach Jason Strickland said of the open week. “We were able to get back and really work a lot of special teams and on fundamentals. We (coaches) were able to give some of our younger players a chance to work some other positions on the def ensive side to build more depth.
“We had several guys injured going into the New Hempstead game, so we were able to get those guys more therapy and hopefully have them back this week.”
Strickland and his staff did a lot of film work on Perry, but did not do a lot on the practice field to prepare.
“I can tell you they (Panthers) are extremely wellcoached,” said Strickland. “They are going to be very similar to what they were last year.” Friday’s meeting in Memorial Stadium is the fourth between the schools. The then sixth-ranked Gators posted a 31-21 victory last season to grab a 2-1 series lead.
The first two meetings happened in 1992-93 when the two schools were members of Region 2-AAA. The Panthers won the first meeting 21-10 with Ware County winning 17-13. Former Gators’ head coach, the late John Stephens was in charge at Perry. The Panthers, playing in their 72nd season, have evened their allt ime record at 374-374-8 with a 2-0 start in region play. They beat both New Hampstead 38-24 and Wayne County 38-0 on the road tying Benedictine for the top spot in the standings.
New Hampstead is the lone common opponent between the two schools. The Gators rolled to a 57-19 in their last game, a Thursday, October 2 affair in Pooler.
Perry, playing its fourth outing in the midst of a four-game road trip, enters with an offense scoring 27.7 points per game that includes four consecutive tilts of 28 points or better. That followed a 27-6 loss at Peach County and 13-7 setback at Houston County. The Panthers also lost 48-31 at East Coweta, which started the four-game road trip.
Perry comes in pretty balanced in run/pass attempts averaging 29.9 rushing attempts and 29 passing attempts. The Panthers are averaging 283.7 yards per game with 173.4 through the air and 110.3 on the ground.
“They run a lot of 11 and 12 personnel (one and two tight ends) and have a ton of formations,” Strickland said. “They have two really big, thick tight ends that create matchup problems. They’ll line up outside and then come back into the box and get a physical run game going.
“They almost force you to keep your base defense out there to be able to defend what they do. So it’s a really, really good scheme offensively. There’s a lot of RPO (run/pass option) tuff built in. So with those two tight ends, they do a really good job and it’s a tough personnel matchup.”
The Panthers’ offense will be matched up against a Ware County defensive unit allowing 16.1 points per game. Benedictine put 30 points on the board for a season-high.
Perry senior quarterback Reid Ginn (6-foot-2, 180) has completed 97-of-165 passes (59 percent) for 1,154 yards with nine scoring strikes and six interceptions.
“The running back is thick-legged,” Strickland said. “He does a great job getting north and south and doesn’t try to do too much. We haven’t tracked yards after contact, but the first hat doesn’t make the tackle. We’ve got to be a terrific, terrific team defensive tackling group this week.”
Senior Decorrion Daniels (5-6, 160) gets most of the carries leading the team in rushes (83), yards (421) and touchdowns (six).
“They (Panthers) do a lot of their RPO game off gap scheme run plays,” said Strickland. “That makes it tougher on linebackers because with gapscheme stuff, all of a sudden now we’ve got lineman pulling. For linebackers, and a lot of times even secondaries, the key indicator is a pulling lineman.
“All of a sudden the ball is yanked back (at the mesh) and the quarterback whizzes a pass by a defender’s head.”
Five receivers have 10+ reception led by Daniels’ 18 out of the backfield. Dakarai Felder has 17 catches with a team-high 262 yards and team-high tying two scores. Sophomore Bhryson Gordon (510, 160) also has 17 catches for 206 yards and two scores.
Senior tight end Jackson Thompson (6-1, 235) has 12 catches for 206 yards and two scores. Junior Jhamard Cobb (6-3, 205) has 10 receptions for 90 yards.
“They’re long at the receiver spot,” Strickland said of the Cougars’ receiving corps. “If they bring a smaller kid in, he is lightning fast.
Defensively, the Panthers scheme out of a 4-3 package. Perry is surrendering 20.7 points with three games of 24 points or more.
The Gators enter averaging 40.5 points per game with three games of 55+ points. Ware County has won two of the three games in which it scored 27 points or less.
Ware County enters averaging 206 yards rushing and 137.4 passing for an average of 343.4 yards per game.
Senior Tayshaun Franklin powers the ground game with 703 yards (100.4 per game) and 14 touchdowns. Classmate Jamir Boyd has 462 yards and five touchdowns. The duo has accumulated seven combined 100-yard rushing games.
Junior signal-caller Isaiah White has completed 57-of-90 passes (63%) for 962 yards and eight touchdowns. He has not thrown an interception.
Senior Ja’Mario Rice is his favorite target with 30 catches for 578 yards (19.3 per reception) and five touchdowns. Junior Ja’Londi O’Hara is second with 12 receptions and three scores. Junior tight end Gunter Fore is next with six catches (131 yards; 21.8 per catch).
The Panthers defense is led by senior middle linebacker Janaris Reeves (511, 200) leads the team with 49 stops and is third on the team in tackles for loss with five.
“They have three really good linebackers and No. 5 (senior Chance Joseph, 6--1, 185) is probably the best one,” said Strickland. “Those linebackers may be as good of a tackling group as we’ve seen this year.
“Everything, though rolls around their defensive line and No. 99 (senior, Noah Clark, 6-1, 230) is just a wrecker. Their front just eats up blocks so well.
“They have so much movement along that fourman front with twists, stunts and slants. All that type of stuff keeps offensive lineman off of those linebackers.”
Senior free safety Quentin Crane (5-11, 170) is next behind Reeves with 47 stops. Senior defensive back Johntavious Carswell (6-foot, 160) has 35 tackles while senior strong safety Jaiden Coleman (5-11, 205) has 32 tackles and 10.5 TFLs.
Clark anchors the front. He has 27 tackles, eight tackles for loss and four quarterback sacks.
Strickland says the key to moving the ball will come from the passing game.
“We’re going to have to be able to complete passes because we’re going to have to throw it this week,” he said. “Nobody, and I mean, nobody has been able to run the football on them. We will start with the ground game. But, if we’re going to win the game it’s going to be because we were able to complete passes.”
Strickland has been impressed with Perry’s special teams play.
“I’ve been impressed watching those guys run down on kickoff and they do a terrific job in the return game,” said the head coach. “It seems like every game they’ve had a big return. We have got to do a great job of being discipline in our lanes and bending to the ball.”
