By MATTEO CASTILE – Cedar Shoals High School Blueprints Sports Editor
Guest writer and Sports Editor of the Cedar Shoals Blueprints Magazine predicts the outcome of the 50th Classic City Championship.
The Clarke Central High School Gladiators have owned the gridiron for nine straight years in Athens. This year’s Classic City Championship could cap off a decade of dominance for CCHS — dominance kicked off at CCHS in 2006 by none other than first-year Cedar Shoals High School head coach Leroy Ryals.
“That was then: different group of kids, different group of coaches. We’ve got to focus on the things that we can do well, trying to get better at what we don’t do well, and focus on just playing better football,” Ryals said.
While their defense kept the Jaguars in a few games last year, the offense struggled to move the ball. All that has changed with Ryals at the helm.
This season, the CSHS offense is filled with individual threats. Junior receiver Jaivanni McDavid leads the team in receiving yards, racking up 165 through four games. Senior quarterback Aakeem Glenn has come to play this season, completing 55 percent of his pass attempts for 491 yards and seven touchdowns. Senior Stavion Stevenson and junior Altavious Wright are tied for most receiving touchdowns with three each.
The Jaguar ground game has been effective wearing down defenses. Senior running back Trent Harris leads the Jags with 261 rushing yards, averaging 8.7 yards a play. Harris is integral to the Jaguar’s run game, but he needs to improve his ball security against a stout Gladiator defense. Harris has coughed the ball up twice, once against Decatur High School and another against Discovery High School.
Sophomore Osiris Walker has a team-leading five rushing touchdowns on the season and 167 yards. Walker hasn’t been breaking off huge gains, but he has been lethal in the red zone.
Cedar’s run game is a trio capped off by junior Jephari Colbert. Colbert is an explosive weapon, who leads the team with 37 along with two touchdowns.
Defensively the Jaguars are well organized and strong with new defensive coordinator Keith Cobb coaching a talented secondary. Senior defensive back and receiver Quenjarvis “Snipe” Hall has compiled 31 tackles, two forced fumbles, and one interception. Highly-recruited senior free safety Ryan Huff has 26 tackles and one interception preventing a touchdown last week against Oconee. This talented defense will be a major factor in the Jaguar win this Friday.
Special teams have had a major impact on the Classic City Championship before. In last year’s face off CCHS blocked three punts and scored two touchdowns off them. Including last week’s 4th quarter kickoff return for a touchdown, Cedar’s McDavid is the game’s most talented return man with 353 return yards on both kickoffs and punts and two returns for touchdowns.
The Gladiators won’t have a chance at completing 10 years of dominance, the Jaguars will run away with it 28-10.
