Marist heads to Mary Persons tonight to face the undefeated Bulldogs in the second round of the Class AAAA state playoffs.
The War Eagles (10-1) pulled away from Pickens in the first round, scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter to advance the second round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season. They’ll face a stingy defense in Mary Persons.
“They’re very good on defense,” Marist coach Alan Chadwick said. “They have some really great talent, outstanding players, extremely well-coached. We’ve got our hands full no question about it.”
Mary Persons runs a 3-3-5 defense and has allowed more than 16 points only twice this season. Chadwick said he was unable to get film on Mary Persons facing an option attack like the War Eagles run.
“We’re going into it a little blind about how they play the option,” said Chadwick, who said he’ll try to figure out what the Bulldogs are doing defensively early in the game. “Sometimes it’s formations, sometimes it’s just your base plays that you feel like you should be able to execute any different fronts that you might see. Sometimes it just depends.”
This will be the first meeting between these two perennial Class AAAA powers.
