Peach County, Perry looking to rebound from opening losses

Carl Dixon thought his Perry team was headed in the right direction after playing well against Houston County team in a preseason scrimmage. But that improvement did not show up in the Panthers’ season opener.

The Panthers, coming off of a one-win season, lost the opening game of the season 11-0 to Monroe-Albany, a team it beat last year. Perry gets a chance to get in the win column Friday night when it travels to Fort Valley to meet Peach County, which has defeated it eight straight times.

Peach County lost its opener to Warner Robins.

“Good gracious, Peach County is pretty doggone good, and after losing, they are not going to be happy,” said Dixon, in his first year as Perry’s head coach. “Playing Peach County is exciting for our kids, but seriously, it’s hard to call this game a rivalry because they have dominated us in recent years, and for it to be a rivalry, we have to win the game sometimes.

“We played great in all aspects in the scrimmage against Houston County, but we did not come out and play with the focus and intensity that we needed to beat a Monroe-Albany team that brought back 17 returning starters. We thought we were a little further along that we actually were, and as the head coach, I obviously did not have them prepared.

“But we have had a very good week of practice, and if we play mistake-free football, we feel like we can compete with a great Peach County team.”

Perry is led by cornerback Jamir Johnson and J.K. Lane on defense and running back Khalil Alexander on offense.

Peach County led early against Warner Robins, but the Demons dominated after their poor start. Trojans head coach Chad Campbell saw much room for improvement heading into Friday night’s game.

“I would give us maybe a C-minus for a game grade, and I thought we would be able to come out and have a great practice on Monday after the game, but that didn’t happen,” Campbell said. “We are not playing very good football right now, and we are really looking for some consistency. It’s disturbing right now, but we have a long season ahead of us.”

Peach County quarterback Tyrique McGee threw for 148 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 74, but Campbell said those numbers were a bit misleading.

“We want to be able to control the line of scrimmage, and we were not able to do that at all against Warner Robins,” said Campbell, who attributed most of the yardage to three big plays. “It doesn’t really matter what the records are when we play Perry, and I am sure they will be ready to play. We just want to try and gain some consistency and get better every single week.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Peach County, Perry looking to rebound from opening losses ."