Wildcats to battle Cedar Shoals on road

The 10-game journey through Region 8-AAAA continues this Friday for the Apalachee High School football team as they travel to Athens to face the Cedar Shoals Jaguars.

Both teams are coming off victories in their season openers as the Wildcats defeated Monroe Area and the Jaguars downed Habersham Central in overtime.

“Cedar Shoals has that dangerous mix of speed and size,” said AHS coach Shane Davis. “On defense, their line is enormous and their linebackers and secondary run a lot. They are going to put speed on the field. We are going to have to play well.”

The Jaguars, like the Wildcats, run the Wing-T offense.

While AHS took a 31-7 win last Friday against Monroe Area, Davis knows there is room for improvement this week.

“The score looks good, but it was not a dominating performance,” the coach said. “We have to cut out the penalties and quit putting the football on the ground. Those are drive killers and we can’t do it. One of our goals is to not allow big plays. After we went up 3-0 we allowed a big play on the very next series on a long touchdown run.”

The home team was called for five penalties for a total of 40 yards in the 2009 season opener Friday.

The Wildcats did play better in the second half last Friday. AHS allowed just 33 yards of offense by the visiting Monroe Area team. Davis saw his team run just 17 second-half plays but scored three touchdowns to bust open what had been a close 10-7 contest at halftime.

AHS has been selected to finish second in a preseason poll voted on by media members who follow Region 8-AAAA. Loganville was picked to finish first although the Red Devils fell 20-15 to Clarke Central last week. LHS received five of seven first-place votes with the remaining two going to the Wildcats.

Clarke Central finished third in the poll followed by Cedar Shoals, Habersham Central, Salem, Heritage, Rockdale County, Madison County, Winder-Barrow and Monroe Area.