The second round of the GHSA playoffs kicks off tonight, and the game of the week is Cambridge vs. Cartersville in a Class 5A playoff showdown. Cambridge comes in at 9-2 as the one seed in region six, and Cartersville comes in at 10-1 as the two seed in region seven. Both teams are very evenly matched and do similar things. One is imposing their will on their opponent with their stout offensive lines and leaning on the ground game. Cartersville coach Conor Foster talked about the importance of his offensive line and the difference they have made on the team.
“Our offensive line makes us go. We feel comfortable leaning on them. They get better as the game goes on. We usually want to control the ball and the clock and grind the game out,” said Foster. “Be as physical as we can be. Hopefully, grind it out over four quarters and execute; they are a huge part of that. “Jonathan Cline, our left tackle, is the leader of that group. DJ Hill is a right guard and a senior. Malachi Toliver, out there at right tackle, has great length. He’s gotten better every week. It takes a group a while to kind of come together and be on the same page with calls and checks and all of the things that have to go right in our to get a play fit up. Luke Surrett, our center, does a tremendous job of getting us in the right protections. They have done a great job and have gotten better each week.”
It is no different for Cambridge, as their offensive line begs head coach Craig Bennett to run the football. Going back to their win against Kell, it was an 11-point game after a scoop and score touchdown for Kell. On the ensuing drive with less than 8 minutes, Cambridge leaned on their offensive line to milk the clock, run the ball, and effectively end the game with a late touchdown after things got close. Expect the same mindset in this game.
“It is special. You don’t get it a lot. With all these teams left you are probably going to find similar situations. We love to throw the football, too,” said Bennett. “Last year, we had Zach Harris throw for 8,000 career yards. When you get a group that begs you to run the football, it is fun to be around that mentality with these five offensive linemen.”
Cambridge made history in their program this year, winning its first region title in school history. Seeing where this program was and battling through being a new school, kids leaving, the coach on the hot seat, and no highly recruited players speak volumes about the job coach Bennett has done with the program and these kids. Friday night, they have another shot at making history and having their best finish in school history. Coach Bennett talked about what it meant to win that region title this year.
“When you start a program as a young coach, you think that would be the greatest thing in the world, and it has been. Man, it is tough. We started with four seniors that very first year playing a varsity schedule in 5A,” said Bennett. “We started 13 freshmen. We had some early success. The rewards of seeing the program in our third year go 7-3. I had some really tough years. I am going, to be honest with you. It was really interesting. We had our best year in terms of making the playoffs in 5A, but we had a lot of kids decide hey they didn’t want to be at Cambridge. They wanted to go to other schools and thought they had better situations. We kind of just stayed the course. There were some slim years where I was on the hot seat for a couple of years. People were coming after my job. I just tried to ride the storm out. Luckily, we had a great group of kids and a great group of parents. Administration support. It means a lot to win that region title and take a step forward.”
Cambridge running back Christian Isibor is a player to look out for in this game. In their playoff win last week against Jackson-Atlanta, he had three rushing touchdowns. Isibor has rushed for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns. Their quarterback Preston Clemmer is another vital piece in the run game; he has 504 yards rushing and seven touchdowns this season. Cambridge also spreads the ball to their playmakers and has multiple games this season for four different players scoring a touchdown in a game.
“It is cool, and it is fun. Let’s get the ball to the guys that can do it. That is hard sometimes as a play caller,” said Bennett. “We have guys that can score from anywhere. We have four of five receivers that can score. A running back, another one with Jack Marlow, and Preston being able to run the football. Again as a defense, that is a hard thing to defend when you have three or four guys you can’t focus solely on.”
Defensively for Cartersville, their front seven is good. It starts with Myles Forristall, who has 72 total tackles, 13 tackles for a loss, and five sacks this season. His impact could be vital in this game in trying to slow down the ground game for Cambridge.
“Myles Forristall is all over the place. He plays outside backer, stacked backer, and he plays nickel stuff. He is just tremendous. Myles is our leader, physical, and has great length,” said Foster. “Great energy in the weight room, great energy in practice every day, and a legacy in our program. He had an older brother that played. He loves this program, loves playing with his teammates, and is selfless. He makes us go on defense.”
Offensively for Cartersville, they also have a stud running back in Malachi Jeffries. Jefferies has 1,098 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns on the season. Pair that with a dynamic playmaker on the outside in Jamauri Brice, who has 609 yards receiving and six touchdowns, and their other playmakers that have stepped up all year long, and you have an offense averaging 39.2 points per game.
“Jamauri Brice is coming into his own as a receiver, just a sophomore. He is electric on the perimeter. Connor Fletcher has been a tremendous player for us. He’s a senior and a program player,” said Foster. “He loves this place. He’s carried us at times. He’s a great receiver. At running back Malachi Jefferies and Khristian Lando, we’ve leaned on those two for most of the season. There have been different guys every week that has stepped up. Last week Kenny Price had a huge touchdown early on in the game to get him and us going. It’s been different people every week, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Coach Foster talked about the keys to victory in this game and what his team needs to do on Friday Night to secure a playoff victory and advance to the quarterfinals.
“We need to take care of the football. We need to value the football. On defense, we need to attack the football. We need to be able to create some big plays and limit their big plays. Make them work the ball downfield,” said Foster. “When we get opportunities for shots on offense, we have to capitalize. It will be a big game and a big environment. It will be all the things a playoff game should be, and I am excited to see our kids play.”
In the first-ever matchup between Cambridge and Cartersville, this playoff game will come down to a battle of wills. Both teams hang their hat on bringing physicality and tiring out their opponent and are very similar in their approach. Friday night will be a good game between programs that have huge aspirations this year and want to make a deep playoff run.
Watch Najeh Wilkins Interview with Cambridge Coach Craig Bennett.
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