Twiggs County ready to hit the road to face Manchester
The Twiggs County Cobras face an interesting challenge in their GHSA Class 1A public school playoff game Friday night when they travel to Manchester.
Will they see the Manchester team that started the season off with nine straight wins and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 400-44? Or will they face the team that lost 54-13 to Macon County in its final game of the regular season.
“I think it will probably be the team that started off 9-0,” said Twiggs County head coach Ashley Harden, whose team improved to 8-3 with a 46-7 first-round win over Marion County. “From what I can see on tape, they are a very big and fairly physical football team that will try and run it straight at us. One thing is for sure, we had better buckle up our chin straps and be ready to play. They had a week off to forget that game, and I am sure they will be ready to play.”
Twiggs County also lost its final regular-season game — 44-25 to Greene County — but bounced back nicely Friday night. The Cobras scored 34 second-quarter points to secure their first playoff win since 2009.
“We have been working hard for two seasons to get to a game like this, and we are very excited to have the chance to continue playing football,” Harden said. “We have some very special guys on this football team, and we all feel like we still have some work to do.”
Senior Ja’Mon Height had 216 yards against Marion County and has more than 1,500 yards rushing this season, while Jay Smith has more than 1,000 yards rushing and another 400 yards in pass receptions, and he has scored 22 touchdowns.
But Harden is quick to point out the development of quarterback Calvin Stephens as a big key to the Cobras’ offensive success. Stephens had three touchdown passes against Marion County to raise his season total to 10.
“Calvin has improved so much since last year, and that is a credit to his hard work,” Harden said. “He not only is a great game manager for us, but he is also very capable of throwing the football. That gives us a great option when teams are set on stopping our run game. We like to run the football, but we have great faith in Calvin’s ability to throw the football.”
Harden also is pleased the way his defense has played. The Cobras forced five turnovers against Marion County
“Our defensive line is pretty doggone good,” Harden said. “They allow linebackers to do a lot of things on defense, and we are really just a strong blue collar group of kids on defense. I don’t think we have big stars on defense, but we have turned into a great defensive team because of the effort that we get from everyone.”