Carroll Academy head coach Tommy Acy put it best as his Rebels prepare to face Oak Hill Academy in the first round of the Class 2A Division II playoffs Friday night.
“Everybody is 0-0, and if you can win the first two games, you are playing for a state championship,” said the first-year coach, whose Rebels battle the Raiders at 7 p.m. in West Point.
“I’ve gone back and watched the film from our first game this season, and we had some success through the air, so I feel like we will be able to throw the ball on them,” Acy said. “We will need to block better. We just missed a lot of blocks in our first meeting (a 44-14 Oak Hill win).
“When we played them in September, we had two starting linebackers (Cohen Blaylock and Hayes White) miss the game with injuries. That hurt us in so many ways. We are healthy as can be going into this game. We had last week off to work on some things and also rest up, but Oak Hill also had an open date. We are both familiar with each other, so we know what to expect. Oak Hill is a running team. That is their pride and joy. Against us, they probably ran the football over 80% of the time.”
The Rebels last played on Oct. 24 against Greenville St. Joe, dropping a 48-13 decision to the Irish. The week before, Carroll lost 40-13 to Winston. The Rebels’ last win came on Oct. 10 in a 49-27 triumph over Indianola Academy. They have gone 1-5 in their last six games after starting the season 3-1.
Carroll comes into the playoffs as the No. 11 seed from Class 2A. Oak Hill is the sixth seed. The winner of Friday’s contest will play the victor between No. 7 Kirk Academy and No. 10 Regents School on Nov. 14 in the semifinals.
The top half of the bracket Friday has No. 5 Winston taking on No. 12 Greenville Christian and No. 8 Canton facing No. 9 North Delta School. Those two winners square off on Nov. 14 in the semifinals.
The championship game is at 11 a.m. on Nov. 22 at Mississippi College in Clinton.
