For the third straight week, the St. Pius X Golden Lions will face one of the state’s best running backs in Woodward Academy star Elijah Holyfield. The Lions travel to Woodward Academy on Friday.
The son of boxing great Evander Holyfield, Elijah scored seven touchdowns last week in a win over Decatur.
"He looks like Herschel Walker in that red jersey and silver pants. That's what he looks like to me," St. Pius coach Paul Standard said of Holyfield. "I'm going to try to sneak a 13th and 14th guy onto the field so we can stop him."
The Lions gave up 148 rushing yards to Blessed Trinity’s Milton Shelton last week. St. Pius also got a taste of North Oconnee’s Kwon Bryant in a scrimmage to end the offseason.
Standard is relying heavily on two senior linebackers, Dalton Wilson and Forrest Whitlark, to somehow slow down Holyfield.
“I promised them that (Holyfield) puts his britches on one leg at a time,” said Standard with a chuckle. “He’s good, but we’re not playing Alabama this week. You’re not going to single-tackle him; we’re going to have to gang-tackle him.”
Showdown: Class AAAA No. 1 Buford faces its second straight opponent from the state's largest classification this week, when the Wolves host McEachern on Friday. The Wolves have yet to surrender a point, after shutout wins over Florida-power Trinity Christian and AAAAAA Berkmar. McEachern scored 49 points in an opening loss to North Gwinnett two weeks ago in the Corky Kell Classic.
The matchup with McEachern came together with a call from Buford coach Jess Simpson to Indians’ coach Kyle Hockman.
“I called looking for a scrimmage,” Simpson said. “He said he still needed a game, and I said we’d play them. Before you knew it, I was looking at the toughest pre-region schedule in the 20 years of being at Buford.”
Defensive-minded: Cairo and Bainbridge, two south Georgia schools separated by only 24 miles, meet at Bainbridge tonight. Both defenses shined in opening wins. Cairo shutout Thomasville, 14-0, and Bainbridge used eight quarterback sacks to beat Early County, 12-6.
The Syrupmakers won last season’s meeting, 6-0, after Bainbridge failed on fourth-and-goal in the final seconds.
Strength of schedule: New Carrollton coach Ed Dudley believes his Trojans are playing the most difficult regular-season schedule in program history. Nine of Carrollton's 10 games are against playoff teams from last season, including tonight's opponent, perennial AAA power Calhoun. Carrollton dropped its first two games under Dudley to Kell and Newnan and is 0-2 for the first time since 1977, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
About the Author
