Football playoffs: Priceville faces test at Oneonta
Nov. 10—PRICEVILLE — After two seasons with a combined 21-2 record, Priceville football coach Chris Foster calls his team "battle-tested."
The Bulldogs (11-0) will be tested Friday when they travel to Oneonta (9-1) for a battle in a Class 4A second-round playoff game. The winner advances to play the Etowah (8-3) at Deshler (11-0) winner in the quarterfinals.
"Oneonta is a really good team, but when you get to the second round every team is really good," Foster said. "They made it to the championship game last year and lost to Vigor. I'm sure they are determined that nobody is going to stop them this time."
Priceville is 0-2 all-time in second-round playoff games.
Oneonta finished tied for the top spot out of Region 6 this season with Cherokee County (10-2) and Etowah (9-3). The tie breaker gave Cherokee County the championship with Etowah at No. 2 on the strength of its 31-7 win over at Oneonta on Sept. 30.
Friday's game features two star running backs. Priceville's Mason Cartee has rushed for 1,566 yards and 22 touchdowns. Oneonta's Fluff Bothwell has rushed for 2,476 yards and 34 touchdowns.
Cartee scored five touchdowns in Priceville's 49-28 first-round win over Central-Florence. Bothwell scored six touchdowns in Oneonta's 56-14 first-round win over Haleyville.
Being "battle-tested" means a team has the experience to survive in pressure situations.
Priceville did that against Central-Florence. Senior quarterback Jackson Prickett, who rarely throws or runs with the ball, passed for a touchdown and ran for a touchdown for only the second time in his two seasons as starting quarterback.
"I know my job is to distribute the ball and I'm happy doing that," Prickett said. "When I'm called on to do something more to help my team, I want to be ready."
Senior linebacker Jake Langlois has been one of the area's leading tacklers with 92 through the regular season despite missing two games. He recorded 25 tackles against Central. He had 17 solo stops with eight assists and one tackle for loss. His previous high was 18 in a game last season vs. Deshler.
"I was shocked when Coach (Preston) Potter tweeted that I had 25 tackles," Langlois said. "I don't keep count. I just like making tackles. Central likes to run the ball and I like going against teams that run the ball."
Prickett got to show off his passing skills on the first play of the game when the Bulldogs used a little trickery. Priceville came into the game having thrown the ball just 37 times during the regular season.
The snap went to Prickett, who handed it off to Cartee going right. Cartee handed the ball off to Xander Gaines going left. Gaines then pitched it back to Prickett, who found Cartee all alone going down the right sideline. A perfect throw put Priceville up 7-0.
"That's something the three of us came up with while messing around at practice one day," Prickett said. "We went to Coach Foster with it and he liked it. We practiced it during our open week before the playoffs."
The play is called Counter Criss-cross Flea Flicker.
"I don't guess we'll ever get to run it again because now it's on film and everybody we play will be looking for it," Prickett said. "We still have some other plays like it that we haven't used. So you never know."
Later in the game, Prickett scored on a two-yard run on an option play. He's now rushed the ball 10 times for 21 yards and two touchdowns. He's completed 23-of-42 passes for 678 yards and 10 touchdowns.
— david.elwell@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @DD_DavidElwell.
