FIRST ROUND PREVIEW: Catholic, ACA poised for playoff openers
Catholic and ACA open AHSAA playoff action this Friday against Bayside Academy and Randolph County, respectively. (File Photos)
By TIM GAYLE
Friday’s first-round playoff game will be the first for Catholic since a resounding 45-23 win over previously unbeaten Andalusia two weeks ago for the region championship, but Knights head coach Kirk Johnson doesn’t worry too much about his team’s state of mind entering the playoffs.
Last year, the Knights put the best team in the history of the program on the field and Catholic rolled to a 13-0 record before being stunned by region rival Montgomery Academy in the semifinals. Every player on the Catholic squad knows all too well the mentality of taking it one game at a time.
“You can always play better,” Johnson said. “I don’t want us to be too gung-ho on our last game we played, where we played well and won the region, big-time atmosphere, because as we learned last year, none of that matters. None of what you did in the regular season matters.
“So we just need to refocus, start taking this thing game by game and see if we can make a run at it.”
This team may be even more impressive than last year’s squad, if that’s possible. Last year’s team wrapped up the regular season with a 10-0 record and had outscored opponents 501-20 heading into the 3A state playoffs. This year’s team, now playing in 4A, owns a 10-0 record and has outscored opponents 568-80, including a win over Class 6A McGill-Toolen in the opener and the regular season finale at Andalusia.
“I think we’re going to come out and play Catholic football,” Catholic defensive back LJ Green said.
Caleb McCreary leads the offensive attack, completing 90 of 136 passes for 2,060 yards and 33 touchdowns, with Luke Harkless pulling in 35 of those passes for 798 yards and 17 touchdowns. Jeremiah Cobb leads the rushing attack with 1,262 yards and 19 touchdowns on 102 carries.
Defensively, Jaden Jones has 89 tackles, while fellow linebacker Zach Underwood has 53 tackles and 11 sacks.
The Admirals (6-4), meanwhile, are fairly young and quite familiar with the Knights, having lost to Catholic 31-0 in the second round of the 3A playoffs last year.
Head coach Phil Lazenby has guided his team into the playoffs 13 times in his 16 years as a head coach since taking over the program in 2007. Lazenby picked up his 200th win two weeks ago against Satsuma before closing out the regular season with a 43-18 loss to Alabama Christian Academy the following week.
“Probably one of the most well-coached teams in all of Alabama,” Johnson said. “Their coach is a Hall of Famer. I’m a guy in the city of Montgomery that prays for wins and he’s got more wins than I’ve coached and played in combined. Nothing but respect for him and what he’s doing down there. He takes a system, makes the kids believe in the system and runs it well. There’s a reason they’ve been in the playoffs 13 straight years.”
ACA readies for road trip
Coming off one of its most impressive wins of the season, Alabama Christian Academy coach Michael Summers likes the way his Eagles are playing heading into the 3A state playoffs.
“We feel like if we protect the ball and don’t have stupid penalties, offensively we feel really good about where we are,” Summers said. “Going into the season, by the end of the year we felt like we could be a really good team and I feel like we’re hitting that stride.”
ACA (7-3) picked up its fourth consecutive win last week at Bayside Academy, playing a 4A playoff team on the road in preparation for the first round of the playoffs. This week, the Eagles will travel to Wedowee to play Randolph County (8-2), which has lost the last two weeks after starting the season 8-0.
“Offensively, they’re big up front,” Summers said. “Last week, we played Bayside and those guys were really tall. For lack of a better description, these guys are just wide. But that poses a little bit of an issue.”
Another issue for the Eagles will be the wishbone attack of the Tigers, led by tailback Austin Terrell. If Terrell is having success, the Tigers will stay with a punishing, physical ground game; if ACA has any success in slowing Terrell, the Tigers will switch to the spread and feature quarterback Avion Willis.
“They’re going to come out and try to mash us with that wishbone,” Summers said. “We told our kids you can’t match their physicality, you’ve got to be the more physical team. (Terrell) runs really, really hard. He’s hard to bring down. He’s been giving guys a hard time all year. Their quarterback, to me, is one of those guys you haven’t heard about but they get in the spread and he’s a really good quarterback.
Summers said his team will have to be disciplined on defense, especially in the secondary against a run-oriented team that’s capable of striking with the big play through the air. In addition, ACA will have to prepare for the Tigers’ kick return game.
“They’ve taken four kickoffs to the house this year,” he said, “so we’ve spent extra time on kickoff this week.”
ACA will be making its school-record seventh consecutive trip to the playoffs, including two trips to the 4A quarterfinals in 2017 and 2020.