By FEAR CHURCHWELL – Web Writer
Through half of regional play, the Clarke Central High School Gladiators varsity football team are 4-0 in regional play and 5-1 overall.
The Clarke Central High School Gladiators have won five straight games under first year head coach Ahren Self and remain undefeated in regional play.
“With Coach Self, the system has not changed one bit. If anything, the tempo has gotten higher; there’s more energy. Coach Self is very emotional about the game,” CCHS senior quarterback Cameron Johnson said. “The system hasn’t changed and lot of people know their roles – they may be a little younger. I believe the coaching change was the best thing for Clarke Central.”
Since a 29-18 loss in week one to Marist School, the Gladiators have won their last five games by a margin of 10 points or more.
In the first six games, Johnson has thrown for 891 passing yards, six touchdowns, and has completed 57 percent of his passes. The Gladiator offense is averaging 30 points a game and has also rushed for a total of 1,112 yards and scored 17 rushing touchdowns.
“We want to hit defenses when they’re not ready, when they aren’t looking, when they’re tired and we’ll still be rested enough to keep going,” Johnson said. “Push the gas; they’re not going to be able to handle it, and I think that’s the best decision.”
The Gladiators were 3-3 this time last year and headed for a losing season with the an end record of 5-6. The Gladiators have already avenged two of last years regular season losses by defeating Central Gwinnett 37-12 and by beating Heritage High School 23-3.
Though despite the great improvement from last season, Gladiator Head football Coach Ahren Self still thinks that the Gladiators need to continue to improve in order to be successful.
“We still have things to correct, we haven’t played our best so far, but we are not supposed to,” Self said. “As long as we keep getting better and better each week, and correct our mistakes we will be fine.”
The great improvement of the Gladiator’s is shown by the defensive secondary. The Gladiators have only allowed 46 percent of opponent passes to be complete and has only allowed one passing touchdown this season.
“The secondary has performed well we’ve done a lot of improvement from last year,” said CCHS sophomore cornerback Rayshawn McCall. “Last year we gave up a lot of big plays, and a lot of passing touchdowns.”
Although the Gladiators are off to a hot start, the Gladiators’ next opponent is none other than the AAAAA state champion Gainesville High School. Although 23-3 victory over Heritage who are 4-3 overall and 3-2 in regional play.
“It gives you great momentum. To beat a team like a Heritage is very tough,” Self said. “They play hard, but then again Gainesville is an extremely tough team.
Gainesville only has one loss to 6-0 and defending AAA state champions Buford High School. Gainesville also has an explosive offense that is lead by GHS senior quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Watson has the Georgia High School Football state record in passing yards with 2071 in a single season. GHS moves at a fast pace and the Gladiators need to have the endurance to hang with them all game long.
“We are trying to go into practice and get really conditioned (Gainesville) likes to run an up-tempo offense,” CCHS senior defensive end Cedric Armstrong said. “They like to make passes and then start running, they try to get you tired. That’s why we are trying to get our conditioning so that we can run with them for the whole game.”
Armstrong is a member of the Gladiator front seven and will be playing a role in putting pressure on the GHS offense.
GHS is averaging 49.5 points a game and it is key that the Gladiator defense forces turnovers so that the Gladiator offense can capitalize and score points to match the GHS offense.
“One of our goals is to get three turnovers a game,” Armstrong said. “We have to (force turnovers) because if we don’t get the turnovers than the offense can’t score. We have to keep those coming.”
It is not just the defense that needs to step up, but the offense will need to capitalize on key drives and defensive stops. In the game against HHS the Gladiator offense failed to score any points in the second half.
“We can’t have drives stalled in the second half,” Self said. “I don’t know if we got a first down in the second half, and that’s very disappointing, we’ve got to go to work and we can’t have that again.”
Judging from the Heritage game, it seems that the Gladiators need to finish better, and Cameron Johnson believes that is exactly what it will take to beat Gainesville.
“It’ll take a lot of heart (to beat Gainesville),” Johnson said. “It’s gonna take four quarters of hard-nosed football. They’re tough; they’re not the defending state champs for no reason. We’ve just got to keep fighting, that’s how we’re going to win that game.”
