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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Golden Hawks, Braves ready for battle

Jesse Hicks and Joel Ingram like this week, but then again, they don’t.

The good news is that both head coaches’ teams are playing for a region championship. The bad news is that they’re playing really good friends: each other.

One consolation is that Baldwin and Washington County will both reach the playoffs. Another is that each coach will get to watch a team other than itself that he loves watching.

“It’s real basic,” Hicks said of Washington County’s version of power offense, which varies only slightly from his own. “I love that style of football, because I’m not trying to fool you.”

Only 25 miles separate Milledgeville and Sandersville, and what separates the two programs and their philosophies is miniscule.

So tonight’s GHSA Region 3-AAA tussle between the visiting Golden Hawks and the Braves will be pretty much the same as it has been the past few years: a physical matchup of two teams that are anything but fancy and loaded with quality high school football players.

Washington County enters at 8-0 overall and 4-0 in 3-AAA while Baldwin is 6-2 and 4-0.

Baldwin hasn’t had this many losses through eight games since 2005, and the Braves can all but blame themselves for the September losses, 17-7 to Peach County and 28-19 to Carver on consecutive Fridays, thanks to interceptions and unforced mistakes.

That led Hicks and his staff to conduct an examination of the plan.

“We saw what we could do and things that we couldn’t do,” said Hicks, who is 67-23 in his eighth season at Baldwin. “We kind of whittled and chopped some things up, see what was good for us and what wasn’t.”

It was the birth of Baldwin’s two-quarterback system — “If it worked for (Florida’s) Urban Meyer and he won a national championship, I don’t see why it can’t work for us trying to win a region championship,” Hicks said — and the birth of a four-game winning streak by an average of 21.8 points.

“Whatever the problems were,” Ingram said, “they’re ironed out now, and they’re on all cylinders.”

Sophomores Roshaun Miline and DeAndre Thomas have more than accepted sharing the position, despite that fact there’s little difference, other than a few inches in height.

“From the angle of the tape, you really can’t tell which one’s which,” Ingram said. “They both have that long, slender athletic look, and both of them run the offense very, very well. That’s a good problem to have when you have two QBs like that.”

Adding to that good problem is how Miline and Thomas have embraced the situation.

“Let me tell you something, those two kids have the utmost respect for each other and admire each other a whole lot,” Hicks said. “The other one’s always cheering the other one, or getting on the other one coming to the sidelines about mistakes.

“Both of them are solid kids. We just felt like both bring so much to the table.”

The teams are undefeated against common opponents: Liberty County (Washington County 17-14, Baldwin 20-7), Burke County (Washington County 44-31, Baldwin 28-14), West Laurens (Washington County 36-12, Baldwin 31-7) and Troup (Washington County 48-6, Baldwin 20-13).

Neither team has a weighty playbook, each employing simple smashmouth football offenses.

“What’s crazy about it is, in the last three weeks, we’ve run about the same two plays,” Hicks said. “Two plays, and they’re run out of a lot of different formations and different looks.

“And this is basic Washington County: double tight (ends), (I-formation) power football. ‘I’m gonna run the power, I’m gonna run the power, I’m gonna run the toss, and I’m gonna run the counter.’ ”

Opening it up for both might mean two passes in a quarter, so this is quite a fun night for defenses.

“They’re absolute hell on defense,” Ingram said. “We’re going to have to move the ball against an outrageously good defense to even give ourselves a chance.”

But there’s pressure on those units to force some three-and-outs and get off the field. Washington County’s Montravious Gladden has more than 1,300 yards.

“Our linebackers are excited,” Hicks said. “They know what’s coming at them. It’s not a secret. It’s our execution against theirs.

“And I think that’s the biggest thing of all, that the last two times we played have been for a region championship. There’s so much more on the line.”