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| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Eagles face tough opening round challenge
Published November 5, 2009
Pisgah head coach Terry Kenimer would like to be playing at home tonight.
Instead, a loss to Sardis and the eventual outcome of the AHSAA tiebreakers ended Pisgah's hopes of hosting a first round game, pushing the Eagles to Class 3A Region 6's No. 3 seed. Consequently, that put Pisgah on the road to Calhoun County tonight at 7 p.m. to play the No. 6-ranked Piedmont Bulldogs in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.
"We'd like to be hosting a game, but it's our own fault," Kenimer said. "We should've beat Sardis. That would've taken care of it."
The Eagles lost to Sardis in Week 9 and those teams along with Susan Moore finished in a three-way tie for the region's top spot. After AHSAA tiebreakers were applied following Week 10, Susan Moore grabbed the No. 1 seed while Sardis was second.
"We're not worrying about (traveling)," Kenimer said. "If you're going to win (a state championship), you've got to beat teams like Piedmont.
The Bulldogs were the runners-up in Class 3A Region 5. After suffering a season-opening loss to current 4A No. 1-ranked Cherokee County, Piedmont (8-2) reeled off six straight wins before losing a 14-13 heartbreaker to defending 3A state champion Leeds in Week 8. The Bulldogs responded with wins over Glencoe and Woodland to close the regular season.
"(Piedmont's) got a well-coached football team that's not going to make a lot of mistakes," Kenimer said.
Piedmont's offense averages 25.5 points per game and is led by quarterback Chase Childers. He's completed 53 of 104 passes for 789 yards and four touchdowns while leading the team in rushing with 730 yards and 12 TDs on 117 carries.
"The QB carries a lot on his shoulders," Kenimer said.
Jamaal Johnson is second in rushing for the Bulldogs with 257 yards and three TDs on 37 carries. Christian Cantrell has 11 receptions for 117 yards while Noah Willis had nine catches for 145 yards and Matt Craig seven catches for 121 yards.
The Bulldogs’ defense has been solid, giving up only 12.3 points per contest this season and have allowed more than 14 points in a game only twice. Johnson has a team-high 84 tackles for Piedmont, which has gotten 79 tackles from Jamie Major and 72 from Luke Bobbitt.
"They're going to pressure you on defense," Kenimer said. "They're going put nine guys up there and try to make you beat them throwing the football. We've got to be able to run and throw. We need to grind out some long drives like we've done this year."
Pisgah is coming off of a 30-0 victory over archrival North Sand Mountain, though Kenimer called it a lackluster performance.
"For about the last three or four games I think our focus hasn't been what it was early in the year," he said. "We hadn't been practicing in full pads as much, trying to gets our legs back under us as the season went on, but we went in full pads Monday and our focus was a lot better than it has been."
Tonight's game is the first ever meeting between the schools. "As good a football past as us and them have had over the years," Kenimer said, "it's hard to believe we've never played each other."
The Pisgah-Piedmont winner plays the Susan Moore-Walter Wellborn winner in the second round.
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