Macon County, Pace both on a roll

MONTEZUMA -- The holiday break from school certainly does not mean the Macon County Bulldogs will forget about the task at hand.

That task comes in the form of a Pace Academy team that is rolling right now as it visits Macon County on Friday in a GHSA Class AA quarterfinal.

"Right now, everybody in Macon County is very excited about the opportunity," Macon County head coach Dexter Copeland said. "We've had to change a couple of practice times and we do understand it is a holiday and want kids to spend some time with their families, but we have a big football game. We are just trying to maintain our focus."

The game pits two teams against each other that are absolutely on fire and have had eerily similar seasons to this point.

Both teams suffered losses in back-to-back weeks early in the season and both responded tremendously, with Macon County reeling off eight straight wins, while Pace has put together a streak of five consecutive wins.

But Pace has had to do its damage on the road, and the Knights' defense has been stifling since the playoffs started two weeks ago. They shut out Darlington in the first round and gave up just 211 yards in a 27-7 victory over Screven County last week.

"Pace is a very physical and very athletic football team," Copeland said. "If we don't keep our pad level low, they'll manhandle us. But I like this team we have. I can't say they're confident or overconfident. We're just very young and don't pay attention to that. All it is is a football game. We just have to go play another game is how we look at it."

Copeland is hoping his offense can keep clicking as well.

During the eight-game winning streak, the Bulldogs have scored 35 or more points five times, including a 41-7 rout in last week's victory over Bowdon.

In the win, junior quarterback K'hari Lane completed 14-of-27 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns, and the ground game added three touchdowns and racked up 190 yards.

"I think our speed can be our advantage, if there is anything," Copeland said. "And our defense has started to play a whole lot better. And we had to change some things from a philosophy standpoint with injuries, but we've played much better on defense once we got everybody back.

"But our mindset is that our offense wants to score every time we get the ball. Every single time. Some teams like to get ahead of the chains, but we look at it as we want to score on every single play."

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Macon County, Pace both on a roll ."