COMMERCE — The underdog role suits Commerce coach Michael Brown and the Tigers just fine.
Last week Commerce faced a nearly 300-mile road trip into one of the toughest places to play in the state and escaped with a 31-29 win over Charlton County in the Class A Public playoffs.
This week the Tigers, the No. 9 seed, won’t travel quite as far but will most certainly have to embrace underdog status as they take on No. 1 seed Marion County on Friday night in the state quarterfinals.
“Sometimes you don’t have the distractions being on the road,” Brown said. “We were able to just focus on the game. The kids really played well on both sides of the ball last week. We don’t mind being the underdog. Sometimes you can get overlooked.”
Marion County (10-1) was one of the preseason favorites for the Class A Public title and the Eagles only loss came by a touchdown to Class AAAAA Columbus in the third week of the season. Since then they have reeled off eight straight wins by an average 40-7 margin.
However, Commerce (8-3) is as hot as any team still alive in the playoffs. The Tigers have won five straight and held opponents to just 41 total points in that span, with two shutouts. They also know how to win at this time of the year after advancing to the 2014 semifinals.
It should be a battle of ground attacks. Both teams feature punishing ground games.
The Eagles are averaging just under 280 yards a game rushing behind a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Mykelle Kelly (1,201 yards, 10 TDs) and Lorenzo Smothers (1,063, 13 TDs). Marion County quarterback Quentez Battle is a dual threat with 636 yards passing and two touchdowns to go with 278 yards rushing and four touchdowns. However, Smothers is doubtful this week after suffering an injury in the Eagles’ narrow 22-20 win over No. 16 seed Twiggs County last week.
Commerce counters with running backs Cole Chancey (1,000-plus yards) and Will Thomas (930 yards) that drive the Tigers’ wishbone option attack.
“The keys to this one are pretty simple,” Brown said. “Whoever takes care of the ball, is the most disciplined, and executes better overall. And you can’t have turnovers and expect to win.”
However, the one stat Brown said is the most critical for this Tigers is something they try to put into play from the opening coin flip.
“Our success rate over many years has been that when we score first, we win about 95 percent of the time,” he said. “We always take the ball first if we win the flip to try to get the first points. We’re much better playing from the lead.”
It was a great recipe for success last week. The Tigers jumped out to a 10-0 lead on Charlton County in the first quarter and were able to hold off a furious second half rally for the victory.
Brown said the injury to Smothers could play a factor. But, he said the Eagles have more than enough depth to compensate.
“They’re No. 1 for a reason,” Brown said. “They have a lot of guys that can step in. (Smothers) is outstanding but they can just bring in one guy after another so we’ll need a gameplan to try and stop them. No one has really been able to this year so our work is cut out for us.”
Marion County is no stranger to success having won the 2013 Class A Public state title. But don’t expect the Tigers to deviate much from their approach.
“At this time of year you just line up and do what you do and try to do it better than the other team,” Brown said. “We’re going to line up and run our wishbone until they stop it. If we’re having to run trick plays we’re already in trouble.”
Commerce made a surprise run to the semifinals in 2014 and Brown said they are hoping to improve on that this year.
“We’ve had some success the last couple of years but we want to do better this year and beyond,” Brown said. “We’re happy where we are but we we’re not satisfied at the same time.”
The winner will get the winner of the Clinch County-Johnson County winner in next week’s semifinals. Commerce beat Clinch County last year in the first round.
