‘We’re good too.’ Marion County confident heading into title game against Irwin County
Trice McCannon is not a morning person, the Marion County senior quarterback said with a smile. But he’ll have to be one this week.
It’ll be an early Saturday morning for McCannon and the Eagles as they face Irwin County for the 1A public state championship at 10 a.m. at Georgia State Stadium. The team will stay Friday night in Newnan, then wake up at 5:30 a.m. Saturday to hit the road to Atlanta.
Marion County came up eight points short of a state title game appearance last year, falling to Clinch County in the 1A public semifinals. It hasn’t won a state championship since 2013. This year, though, the Eagles enter their final game on a roll, having rattled off eight consecutive wins since September, capped by a 17-point win over Pelham in the semifinals.
The Eagles are up against it in the championship game. They’ll face an undefeated Irwin County team that has shut out six teams this season, allowed zero points in seven of its 12 games and allowed just 56 points all season.
But don’t tell McCannon that.
“They haven’t played an offense like us,” McCannon said. “We’re different. We’re a different type of spread team. They’re supposedly good, but we’re good too.”
Marion head coach Chris Kirksey said “as Trice goes, we go” following the team’s quarterfinal win over Lincoln County. That will likely be the case again this week, but it will take a full-team effort to bring home a title.
The Indians’ wing-t offense
Marion must also buck a trend that’s plagued it in this year’s playoffs.
Marion trailed Pelham for a solid portion of the two teams’ semifinal bout, before a couple of late touchdowns lifted the Eagles to victory. It surrendered a 21-7 lead before pulling out a late win over Lincoln County the week prior. Schley County jumped out to a 13-0 lead against the Eagles in Marion’s playoff opener.
The Indians run a wing-t offense, similar to what Brookstone head coach Blair Harrison deploys. The wing-t, which includes lots of pre-snap misdirection and “eye candy,” as some coaches call it, is similar to the triple option in that, once a team falls behind, it’s tough to mount a comeback due to the amount of clock the offense drains.
Wing-t teams rarely throw the ball, and the Indians are no different. That makes it doubly important for the Eagles to avoid falling in an early hole.
“A lot of games this year, we’ve gotten behind a score or two scores,” Kirksey said. “We score pretty quickly, and the reason we’re able to do that is because Trice is explosive running the ball and throwing the ball. Good receivers -- Brandon (Thomas) out of the backfield. … It’s not a position you want to be in, getting down that early, especially to a team like Irwin County that controls the clock. So, we’re going to try to not have that factor this week.”
If the Eagles can make that a nonfactor, they feel confident in their chances. One thing neither side will have as an advantage is familiarity: Saturday will serve as the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
MORE PREP COVERAGE FROM THE L-E:
- Central lost in blowout fashion to Thompson in the Alabama 7A state title, a game in which Red Devils coach Jamey DuBose said the Warriors “turned the tables.”
- Marion County blew a 21-7 lead, but fought back to win against Lincoln County.
- A former Hardaway Hawk will JUCO transfer to Virginia Tech in January.
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