Saying that Cherokee quarterback A.J. Swann made the most of his offseason is a grave understatement.
And saying that Swann hid his talents in Cherokee’s 52-6 victory over Mays in the opening game of the 30th annual Corky Kell Classic presented by Georgia Construction Careers.com is an outright lie.
And to say that Cherokee freshman quarterback Tanner Savasir completed his first-ever varsity pass attempt for a touchdown — a 26-yarder to Pops Jameson with 2:31 left in the third quarter — while on television.
Well that’s just cool.
Swann, a four-star Maryland-commit, passed for 247 yards and four touchdowns while making the Mays secondary say, ‘stop looking at me, Swann.’
However, Cherokee coach Josh Shaw still saw room for improvement.
“To be quite honest with you, the first few drives tonight were not stellar,” said Shaw. “We were able, AJ was able to escape the pockets. We are still trying to figure out the pieces up front. AJ was able to make some plays in the passing game so we were able to be up big at halftime.”
Swann passed to Caleb Richardson (40 yards), Moore (36, 24 yards) and Addarious Harshaw (15 yards), each in the second quarter. Cherokee led 3-0 entering the second quarter before outscoring the Raiders 35-6 to take complete control of the game before the half.
Mays could not recover.
“We have a lot of room for improvement,” said Shaw. “We got a couple of big cats who are back and we get a lot of publicity because of those guys. But, we only have eight returning starters back out of 22. So we have some depth, more than we have had in previous years. I hope we can continue to get a little bit better each week and be there when the region play comes around.”
On the ground, Zi Johnson led all rushers for Cherokee with eight carries for 35 yards and a touchdown. Mays quarterback Quintavious Johnson was 11-of-27 passing for 162 yards and a touchdown to Saulamon Evans.
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