After perfect regular season, Mary Persons gears up for playoffs

Brian Nelson didn't know what kind of team he would have to start the season.

The Mary Persons football head coach didn't have much in the way of starters returning. Only two starters were back on offense, and the same number of starters returned on defense.

There were a couple of close calls early on. Jackson took Mary Persons to double-overtime, and LaGrange gave the Bulldogs a scare. But Mary Persons finds itself entering the GHSA Class AAAA playoffs with its first undefeated regular season since 1994, the first time the Bulldogs reached the 10-0 mark since Dan Pitts was on the sidelines as head coach.

Mary Persons also claimed its first region title since 1997.

"(Reaching 10-0) was pretty good," Nelson said. "We didn't know exactly what we had, but we kind of got momentum and confidence going. The kids just responded well, and the seniors did a good job of leading this group."

Mary Persons opens the postseason Friday at home against Wayne County, a team that is 3-7 and has lost six of its past seven games.

After going through a midseason stretch during which it scored eight combined points in three games, Wayne County appeared to find a little bit of offense in Region 3-AAAA play. The Yellow Jackets are averaging 20.3 points per game in their past four contests, including a 38-0 win over Windsor Forest on Oct. 9 that essentially put Wayne County in the playoffs.

Region 3-AAAA is a six-team region, but New Hampstead elected to play a non-region schedule. That meant four of the five remaining teams in the region made the playoffs. The region was won by seventh-ranked Thomson (9-1), with unranked Liberty County and Burke County (both 7-3) making the postseason, as well.

Against Windsor Forest, Wayne County employed an offense that recorded roughly 60 percent of its yardage through the air, with quarterback Nolan Grooms passing for 186 yards and three touchdowns.

"One thing we try to stress (about the playoffs) is that you may play teams from different parts of the state that you don't know well," Nelson said. "So we look at video and (the coaches) make calls, but (for Wayne County) the reports come back the same: They're sound, don't make mistakes.

"They are really big and physical. They will present challenges for us."

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "After perfect regular season, Mary Persons gears up for playoffs ."