GAINESVILLE — Gainesville football players and coaches are well aware of the streak: seven straight years of first round playoff wins
They also know that kind of success doesn’t create itself and that the Red Elephants better be ready to fight for it.
Gainesville expects an especially vicious battle to make it eight in a row.
Alexander will bring a talented and motivated squad to City Park on Friday, and the Cougars (8-2) feature the kind of firepower strong enough to end streaks.
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“This is going to be a tough game for our secondary, because they have a great quarterback,” Red Elephants senior defensive back Chris Lyles said. “And they also have a good running back that has over 1,000 yards rushing, and they also have a good receiver that has over 1,000 yards.”
The triumvirate in question includes quarterback Baylor Whitfield, a senior that has passed for 2,198 yards and 24 touchdowns, against 9 interceptions, while completing just under 60 percent of his passes. His top target is junior receiver Justin T Hall, with 79 receptions for 1,247 yards and 11 TDs. Junior running back Daetrich Harrington has also rushed for 1,383 yards and 14 scores, pacing an offense that averages 392 yards and 32.1 points per game.
The Cougars utilize a wide-open offensive style that should prove plenty familiar to the Red Elephants (7-3).
“We’re both shotgun teams; we’re both fast tempo, want to play fast, no-huddle,” Gainesville coach Bruce Miller said. “I think they’re very similar in a lot of ways. The question you always have in the playoffs is who have we played, and who have they played? And we don’t have any common opponents so we just do the best we can and try to prepare and get your kids ready for the game.”
The Red Elephants are relishing the challenge, however, and should be encouraged by a number of factors from their late-season resurgence that saw them reel off three straight wins -- including a win at Loganville and then a wild, 29-26 comeback defeat of Flowery Branch that saw Gainesville clinch the No. 2 seed from Region 8-AAAAA.
“I think one thing we have going for us is we’ve been in close games, and we’ve pulled some out,” Miller said. “And I think that’s got to be a plus going into the playoffs.”
Gainesville’s defense, which is allowing 18.4 points per game, will also be boosted by the return of imposing senior Cole Handte, who can feature on both lines of scrimmage -- a facet of the contest that only takes on added importance in postseason play.
“Number one I think we have to get our ground game going. It’s almost been proven every game that we play, if we get our ground game going other things seem to happen,” Miller said. “Of course I always say we’ve got to win the battles up front, offensively and defensively. We’ve got to be able to get that done.”
The Red Elephants are rushing for 177.5 yards per game, with quarterback Messiah Dorsey (895 yards, 10 rush TDs) and running back Chris Byrd (711 yards, 5 TDs) doing most of the damage. Dorsey is also passing for 136 yards per contest and has 13 passing scores against 6 interceptions -- a stat line that includes last week’s game-winning toss with just seconds remaining to overtake arch-rival Flowery Branch.
“I think (the Flowery Branch comeback) can do nothing but give him confidence -- in the late part of a game he can make things happen,” Miller said of Dorsey. “He’s proven that over and over. Our kids have been in those battles and have been tested, so hopefully that’s going to make a difference.”
The Cougars also believe they are battle tested, and Alexander is hoping to go on its own postseason run after tasting success two seasons ago, when a number of its seniors played a part in reaching the Class AAAA quarterfinals.
For their part, the Red Elephants have earned four straight quarterfinal berths -- and they are eager to maintain that type of excellence.
“We tell our kids if we don’t practice at Thanksgiving we haven’t had a good season,” Miller said. “But these kids have fought so hard and played so hard I’ll be proud of them no matter what happens. But I think they’re not ready to settle for first round. They want to keep going.”
Lyles was adamant on that.
“We’re a winning team; we have a winning tradition, and we don’t want to let our fans down, our team, our coaches down,” Lyles said. “(Our coaches) worked too hard to get us here, so by me being a senior leader I want to get state so bad, so week by week we’re going to work for it.”
