1ST ROUND PREVIEW: New playoff, same challenges for St. James
St. James coach Jimmy Perry sees some of the same challenges for his team despite move down to 3A. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
St. James may have moved down a classification in 2022, but the teams look similar to what the Trojans faced last year in the playoffs.
No, the Trojans won’t face a first-round opponent like Anniston in 2021, a team that forfeited several games and went from region champion to fourth seed, giving St. James fits before finally succumbing 28-26 in a first-round matchup last year. But the Trojans’ 2022 draw is another Anniston team that has plenty of size along the line of scrimmage.
The first-ever meeting between St. James (8-2) and Walter Wellborn (6-4) will take place on Friday in the first round of the 3A state playoffs at Carlisle Field at 7 p.m.
“They’re big,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “They’ve got 28 offensive and defensive linemen, they’ve got a quarterback who’s a winner and they’ve got two scat backs, (Xavier Parker) and (Omarian Curry), and they can fly. They run a lot of two tight end (formations), which balances you up and keeps you from cheating to one side or the other. It’s going to be a physical challenge.”
Physical is something the Trojans are accustomed to after playing the toughest schedule in school history, which includes matchups with playoff participants Handley and Charles Henderson, two teams that could make a playoff run in 4A and 5A, respectively.
“We’ve seen some good physical groups,” Perry said. “ACA was physical, Trinity was physical, Charles Henderson was physical, Handley was physical, MA is physical up front. So it’s not going to shock us, but we’ve still got to be able to handle it and play great technique and be where we’re supposed to be. We’ve got to play disciplined up front. What they run, there are eight, sometimes nine gaps to fit on defense. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got somebody in every gap because if you don’t fit every gap, the ball finds its way to that open gap. It always does.”
The Trojans will counter with its offensive one-two punch of tailback Cosner Harrison and quarterback KJ Jackson. Harrison needs just 37 yards on Friday night to top the 1,000-yard mark this season (and is just 459 yards shy of Tony Amerson’s school-record career total of 5,084). Jackson has completed 91 of 141 passes for 1,700 yards and 24 touchdowns this season, four touchdowns shy of the single-season record he established last year. (Jackson already owns the school’s career touchdown mark with 69).
Perry is pleased with the way his team played at 5A Carroll last week to close out the regular season, its first game back after getting a week off because of a forfeited game, followed by an open date.
“At first, I worried that the forfeiture (by Sumter Central) and us not playing (the following week), that we’d be rusty,” Perry said. “Our kids responded great.”