There likely won’t be any “David and Goliath” stories from Apalachee High School football coach Shane Davis this week.
More likely, Davis will tell his players what they have to do in order to defeat high-powered Flowery Branch this Friday. The AHS players and coaches have worked extremely hard the past two weeks preparing for this game and anyone who knows anything about this region or Flowery Branch knows why so much work has been put in.
Is the challenge in front of the Wildcats this Friday a mammoth one? You bet. Will it be an impossible one? The answer would be “no.”
AHS has a great deal of talent. The Wildcats showed flashes of their ability in the opening game against Habersham Central.
However, the entire machine was not running on all cylinders for Apalachee in the opening game. Look for things to run smoother this week, despite the quality of the opponent.
Wildcat offensive coordinator Joel Miller will look for ways to dent the Falcon defense. Davis correctly pointed out that the Flowery Branch defense gets overlooked since the Falcon offense is what most people notice.
However, Flowery Branch is simply not outscoring opponents. It is putting big numbers on the scoreboard and limiting opponents to very little.
Slowing down the Falcons offensively is like trying to climb a mountain. One looks up and sees the monster of a task waiting, almost dauntingly so.
However, Davis, along with AHS defensive coordinator Matt Sorrells, will take it one step at a time in climbing this mountain with the Flowery Branch flag at the summit. The Falcons are going to make some big plays. There probably isn’t a team in the state, regardless of classicifation, that can bottle them up completely.
However, don’t be surprised to see the Wildcats come in with a solid game plan which produces results. Davis has been in the game long enough to know most of the tricks of the trade. He doesn’t fear opponents. He respects them but I don’t think he fears them.
There can be no denying that Flowery Branch is likely the favorite to win Region 8-AAAA at this point. However, sometimes you begin to think you are unstoppable and strange thing happens: someone stops you. It’s the nature of the beast in football.
AHS will put its best effort foward this Friday. The Wildcat players and coaches know they have a big mountain to climb, but mountains have been climbed plenty of times. Look for AHS to give the Falcons their biggest challege to date and maybe, just maybe, shock the state, similiar to how Heritage did last week with its win against Clarke Central.
One thing I do know: it will be fun to watch.
Chris Bridges is sports editor of the Barrow Journal. You can reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal.com.
