Hawkinsville not looking ahead to playoffs

It’s not that Hawkinsville is looking ahead.

After all, the Red Devils have a tough Schley County team and star running back/linebacker Tra Minter as well as playoff-bound Pacelli to finish the regular season.

“We can’t afford to have any letdowns,” Hawkinsville head coach David Daniell said. “We’ve got to show up and play every Friday night.”

It’s a safe bet that the Red Devils won’t overlook anybody. They want another shot at Marion County.

Marion County nipped Hawkinsville 13-6 last week in a battle of top 5 Class A teams and two of the top 4 in the GHSA public school rankings.

The Eagles got the game-winning drive midway through the fourth quarter.

“We told the kids after the ballgame that our goal was to win a region championship and then win a state championship,” Daniell said. “One of our goals is gone, but the other one is still alive. The kids know that”

And reaching the remaining one mostly likely would mean a postseason rematch with Marion County for the second straight season.

Last fall, Hawkinsville beat Marion County 14-10 in the regular season, but the Eagles got revenge in the GHSA Class A public school semifinals with a 40-7 win.

Marion County and Dooly County shared the Region 4-A title last year. Marion County entered the playoffs No. 2, Hawkinsville No. 6 and Dooly County No. 10.

Last Friday night was the defensive slugfest expected between units that would give quality big-school offenses some trouble. Marion County entered the game with the offensive edge as well as state standout running back Lorenzo Smothers.

Hawkinsville’s lone score was on a short field, set up by a blocked punt by Malik Holliman.

The Red Devils, however, won’t soon forget the points they left on the field.

“We had a 19-play drive and a 15-play drive and couldn’t get in the end zone,” Daniell said. “We’d get inside the 20 and stall out. We jumped offside on one of them, and we had a missed assignment, got hit in the backfield that put us in second-and-long.

“We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

For that reason, Daniell doesn’t expect the loss to linger. Rather, he figures the Red Devils will regroup quickly.

“I think they’re going to focus on that,” he said of the remaining championship goal. “We have a good team.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2014 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Hawkinsville not looking ahead to playoffs ."