No. 7-ranked Perry begins the defense of its state championship on Friday.
The Panthers (7-3) emerged from the newly reconstituted Region 1 with the regular season championship – besting the likes of Ware County and Benedictine in the process. By earning the No. 1 seed they’ll host the playoff opener on Friday against St. Pius.
“It seems like we defend it every week,” coach Kevin Smith said. “Every week we get everybody’s ‘A game.’ Our thing is, we have the expectation to win a state championship every year and last year we were fortunate enough to accomplish that.”
Perry graduated some key pieces from last year’s team, but returned a large group of experienced hands. He described this year’s team as being gritty and willing to trust each other.
“Like when we were down against Benedictine, we were up and then we were down and we came back and won it,” Smith said. “They didn’t panic. Just knowing the next play, gritty, handling adversity. When things go bad, you’ve got to play the next play. I think this group has learned to handle it.”
Perry brings a balanced attack on offense. The quarterback is Cullen McDaniel, who has thrown for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns, with Kory Pettigrew, who has committed to South Florida, snagging 57 balls and four touchdowns and Kiel Sparks catching 50 passes with five touchdowns.
The running game is led by Ahmad Gordon, who has rushed for 790 yards and 13 touchdowns, and Decorrion Daniels, who has rushed for 443 yards and 10 touchdowns.
On defense the top tacklers are free safety Elijah Joseph (87) and middle linebacker Jordan Donald (78). Defensive lineman Noah Clark leads the team with five sacks.
The Panthers will need to lean on their experience on Friday against St. Pius (7-3), the No. 4 seed from Region 5. The Golden Lions are a well-coached, physical team that runs an option-based offense that can be difficult to defense.
Breaking down the Class 4A playoffs:
Your invitation got lost in the mail: Eagle’s Landing became the final team to qualify for the 32-team field. The Golden Eagles were able to sneak in when Stockbridge had to forfeit all its games and the region championship. Who knew that regular-season finale win over Union Grove was going to mean something other than pride? The Region 2 shuffle moved coach James Teemer’s club from No. 5 to No. 4 and put them in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
That’s the good news. The bad? Eagle’s Landing has to open against No. 3 Nort Oconee, the Region 8 champion and one of three undefeated teams in Class 4A.
Still just growing: East Forsyth got in the playoffs as the No. 3 seed from Region 8. The program is only four years old, but this is the second straight year the Broncos have qualified for the postseason. Last year they were 7-4 under Brian Allison, who then retired. This year East Forsyth is 8-2 (losing only to No. 3 North Oconee and No. 5 Eastside) under first-year coach Dustin Canon.
Under water: Two teams qualified for the playoffs despite having a losing record. King went 4-6 and is the No. 4 seed from Region 4 and Flowery Branch is 4-6 and the No. 4 seed from Region 8. Three teams got in with 5-5 records – Eagle’s Landing, Hiram and Westminster. The break-even record was good enough for Hiram to take the No. 3 seed in Region 7 based on its head-to-head win over Cass.
Pay no attention to the number on the backet: It doesn’t happen often, but it is possible for the No. 4 seed to make a playoff run. Last season Cass was the last team from its region to get in the playoffs, but the Colonels won their first two games before getting bounced by eventual state champion Coffee in the quarterfinals. Who will be this year’s Cinderella?
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