Cats to host at Harmon

Published 11:24 pm Thursday, November 15, 2007

When Cherokee football coach Brian Dameron started reviewing video of Dalton to prepare for tonight’s first-round Class 4A playoff game at Harmon Field, he might have felt like it was a little bit more summer than fall.

You know, rerun season.

“We’re a lot like Dalton in that our offensive formations and plays look a lot alike,” said Dameron, who with a 48-31 record in seven seasons is already the most successful coach in Warriors football history. “We run the same type defense.”

And while running down the list of key contributors to this season’s success for Cherokee (7-3), Dameron often named a Dalton player who compared, if not in physical form, at least playing style.

“We’re tailback-oriented, just like (Dalton coach Ronnie McClurg) is with (senior Cameron Hudson),” Dameron said. “Looking at them on tape is almost like getting a reflection of what we do.”

Both teams will get a much closer look in the mirror when they kick off tonight at 7:30 p.m. The winner advances to next week’s second-round to face the winner of Marist-Habersham Central. If the Catamounts (9-1) win, they will host.

Dalton will try to disrupt Cherokee’s I-veer offense — directed by senior quarterback Chris Pruitt (5-7, 160), a two-year starter who has rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns while throwing for 684 and five — by staying disciplined and playing smart. The Cats will also try to slow down senior tailback Jon Valentine, something few teams have done this season, and occupy territory against an aggressive offensive line led by senior center Zach Fraysier (6-3, 290).

Valentine (5-foot-11, 180 pounds) has rushed for 1,249 yards and 16 touchdowns on 188 carries and has seven efforts of more than 100 yards. But the senior — who also plays free safety — is not alone in his success at tailback, as teammate junior Matt Blaylock has added 531 yards on 90 carries, including four touchdowns.

“He’s really a fine running back,” McClurg said of Valentine. “Just a total football player.”

Dalton will face a standout back for the second straight week. In a 40-36 victory over Ridgeland last Friday, Panthers junior Terryl Freeman rolled up 256 yards on 30 carries to push his season total to more than 1,900 yards.

While Dameron compared his team to Dalton, McClurg found similarities between the Warriors and Dalton’s opening-round playoff opponent from two seasons ago, Habersham Central.

“Size-wise and all, they remind me of them,” McClurg said. “Habersham had a big, strong line of scrimmage and that’s like this group. They get down in four-point stances and they’re going to come at you. We’ve got to do a better job of controlling the line of scrimmage on the defensive side than we did last Friday. And we can’t let them take the ball and sustain long drives that eat the clock up.”

On defense, the Warriors are led by inside linebacker Ethan Lane (6-3, 240) and defensive lineman Taylor Hunt (6-3, 235), both seniors.

Dameron likened Lane to Dalton senior Jake McIntosh — although his size at 6-1, 220 doesn’t quite compare, McIntosh’s reputation among opposing coaches has been sterling. He has logged 80 tackles this season despite an ankle injury that has limited his playing time late in the season.

“We play down here in the Atlanta area, we scrimmaged McEachern High School this year, so we get to see the linebackers around here,” Dameron said. “And he’s maybe the best inside linebacker I’ve seen all year.”

One wrinkle Cherokee brings that won’t mirror Dalton is on special teams, where the team punts “rugby-style,” McClurg said. At Monday’s practice, the Cats were already busy simulating the look, in which Cherokee punter Thomas Rhodes lines up at quarterback in the team’s I formation. Following a series of shifts, Rhodes will drop back before kicking on the run.

“He kicks the heck out of it, too,” McClurg said. “He gets it up in the air and it goes 35 or 40 yards. That’s a little bit different, we haven’t seen that this year.”

One advantage to the kicking style, McClurg said, is that the ball tends to go farther on contact with the ground. So it will be crucial for Dalton’s return men, like Hudson, to be solid in receiving kicks.

For Cherokee, stopping Hudson — who last week returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown — is the crucial task.

“I think we have to get downfield and cover and break down,” Dameron said. “We may try to adjust some things in the kicking game and kick away from him. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

For all their similarities, Dalton and Cherokee have some obvious differences.

Their respective roads to the playoffs are one example. The Cats, who hold a nine-game winning streak, went 7-0 in Region 7-4A to earn a region title and No. 1 seed. The Warriors survived a late slide, beating winless Osborne 42-8 last week for their first victory in four games.

And while tonight will mark Dalton’s 36th postseason appearance since 1964, Cherokee is in the bracket for only the sixth time, with five of those coming since Dameron took the reins.

“You look at the two programs,” Dameron said, “and there’s one with tremendous accomplishments and one where every week is a new frontier for us sometimes.”

But tonight, the goal for both will be exactly the same.

“I think it’s the team that gets hot and has that confidence level that is the team to take it all the way to the Georgia Dome and the state final,” McClurg said. “It might as well be us. Now’s the time to get hot and stay hot for five games and call it a great season.”