GHS faces must-win

The Graceville Tigers face a virtual must-win situation Friday night, as they head to Monticello to take on the Jefferson County Tigers.

Graceville (1-5, 0-1 in district play) dropped an 18-16 heartbreaker to FAMU in its district-opener Oct. 9.

Another loss would all but eliminate the Tigers from contention for one of the top two spots in the league standings needed to qualify for the playoffs.

“We’ve got to have this one or we basically stay home,” Tigers coach Todd Wertenberger said Thursday. “It’s a very big game.”

It’s also a game against one of the most talented opponents on a very stout Graceville schedule.

After an 0-3 start to the season, Jefferson County has played exceptional football for the past month, routing Rocky Bayou, Bronson and Cottondale to even its record.

A 28-25 loss to 4A Wakulla is the lone setback for Jefferson in the past four games.

“They’re pretty good. The coach over there, Willie Spears, has done a good job with them,” Wertenberger said. “They’re running real simple stuff like zone (isolation running plays) and throwing the ball a little bit. Even their pass patterns are real simple.

“But those jokers are so fast at every position that a little swing pass to the tailback can go the distance. That’s how they’ve been beating everyone.”

Jefferson County is led by an explosive group of skill players, with junior tailback Devondrick Nealy perhaps the most gifted of the bunch.

Nealy rushed for 251 yards and four touchdowns in an Oct. 9 matchup with Cottondale.

He’s averaging 14.3 yards per carry for the season, but Nealy is hardly Jefferson County’s only threat.

Lenorris Footman provides a legitimate passing threat at quarterback, with David Crumite a talented target on the outside.

The speedy Marquice Dobson provides a dual threat from his slot receiver position.

“They had three goal line (touchdowns) in the film I’ve got, and the rest were on big plays,” Wertenberger said of Jefferson County. “(Nealy) is just awesome.
He’s real good, and probably the fastest kid we’ll see this year.

“The only thing you can’t tell is toughness because nobody ever hits them. They can flat-out fly.”

Graceville has boasted a solid defense for much of the year, with the opening loss to Northview and last week’s 35-16 defeat to Liberty County the only games that saw the Tiger defense struggle.

GHS faced a big, physical running team in Liberty County, but Jefferson County will provide a much different kind of challenge with its speed.

“You’ve got two choices,” Wertenberger said of his defense. “You can sit back and try to contain them, or you can attack them and disrupt what they’re doing.

“I don’t know if either will work for this team, but we don’t feel like you can sit back and be successful. You have to disrupt their timing a little bit. Hopefully, it will work out for us.”

Of course, the best way to contain the Jefferson County offense is to keep it on the sideline.

“The main way to beat them is we have got to sustain drives and keep them playing defense,” Wertenberger said. “That’s what we’ve got to do. If we do that, we’ve got a chance to win.

“We had the same gameplan going into the FAMU game and we did that, but we had three turnovers which were costly. We’ve got to take care of it, drive it, and when we get close stick it in the endzone.”

Wertenberger said that he believes Jefferson County is actually more athletic and explosive than the Baby Rattlers.

“I think that will show when they play each other (Oct. 30 in Tallahassee),” the coach said. “I’ve just seen Jefferson on film, but I’d be surprised if FAMU beats them next week.”

Graceville may not be able to match up with Jefferson County’s speed, but Wertenberger said the plan is to try to make up for with size and physicality up at the line of scrimmage.

“That’s what we’re hoping,” the coach said. “We’re hoping to drive it straight at them and sustain drives that way. We’ve got a little bit of a size advantage, so we’ll try to run right at them and see how it turns out. If we’ll block them and be happy with 3-4 yards at a time, I think we’ll be okay.

“The bad part about going against a team like this is that we have to touch it 10-15 times to get it in the endzone, but they’ve got to touch it once. The margin for error is smaller for us than it is for them.”