Champs battle Taft, homecoming distractions

Cascade attempts to avoid a letdown this Friday night as they host Taft Youth Center for homecoming. Last week, the Champions ruined previously-ranked Forrest's homecoming with a commanding 27-7 victory.

The win came with its fair share of recognition as Cascade (4-0, 2-0 5-A) took Forrest's spot in the top 10, coming in at No. 8.

"The easy job's getting there," Champion coach Kenny Parker said. "The harder job is staying there because everybody is shooting for you. Last week we went into the game knowing that Chapel Hill was ranked and (the upset) was our goal. Now, that's going to be everybody else's goal.

Julian Marable steps in at starting quarterback this week. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

"We've just go to keep getting better and be able to play every week."

Teams don't always continue their ascent up the polls, especially after coming off a 4-6 season. What do these youngsters have to play for in this game with homecoming, a non-region affair and all the postive press clippings?

"They don't want to put one in that other column," Parker said of staying undefeated. "They want to keep putting them in that left-hand column.

"There'll be some letdown, but it's our job as coaches to make sure we keep that to a minimum and get our kids focused. Taft is probably going to have as good of athletes as anybody we're going to see this year. At any time, they're dangerous. Our kids know that."

Parker, a former gridiron star at the Wartrace school himself, downplayed the week's activities.

"Our homecoming, here at Cascade, is not a big, keyed up homecoming like some other places are. The first two days we were on an academic schedule.

"The days that we had to do our work and make sure we were mentally focused, we were in more of a natural routine. Now, we have to make sure that we keep the focus from here on, but homecoming is always a distraction. You've just got to play through it."

Not everybody's going to be able to play this week as no less than eight changes have been made to the starting lineup for one reason or another. Among those is the insertion of junior Julian Marable into the quarterback slot for sophomore Jacob Carkuff, who will sit out the contest as a precautionary measure after suffering a deep bone bruise on his throwing arm against Forrest.

"We feel comfortable with Julian," Parker said. "He gets the job done and doesn't make mistakes. That's basically what we want. We just want our quarterback to go out there, run the huddle, run the offense and not make a mistake."

The coach went onto say that if they had to have Carkuff, he would be the starter, but they want to give his arm some extra rest.

"Our ultimate goal is to be 5-0 at the end of this ballgame," Parker said. "We're going to try to rest some kids, but if we have to pull them off the bench to play them, we're going to pull them off the bench and play them."

In case something happens to Marable, junior Kyle Adcock got some reps in at quarterback this week.

If things continue like they have on defense for the Champions, the QB won't need to do much to help his team win. The 'D' has allowed but two touchdowns on the season.

One statistic after another paints the picture of Cascade's success.

Taking the ball away on defense and holding onto it on offense are two more key variables in the equation of success. The Orange and Black have dominated the turnover battle thus far as they boast a 21-4 ratio.

"That's one of the things we've stressed defensively this year," Parker said. "We had one motto, which is three Ts -- tackle, turnovers and three-and-outs.

"One of the things that's helped us a whole lot is the fact that we've been able to get ahead and make people throw the ball. We've got an experienced secondary that's done a good job of being in coverage and where they're supposed to be. We're securing the ball on offense, and that's good. But, I am proud of the defense. The defense is getting better."

Taft (1-3) runs a double tight wishbone offense and likely won't get too fancy with the pigskin. Their defense carries a base 4-4 or 5-3 package and brings added pressure with linebackers constantly blitzing from various gaps.

The Champs' Thunder and Lightning duo in the backfield hope to burn Taft for any gambles they come with. Freshman tailback Matt Henderson blazes into secondaries at the drop of a hat and has 50 rushes for 394 yards and five touchdowns. Junior fullback Cory Phillips grinds out the tougher gains up the middle with 404 rushing yards on 49 carries.

"When we look at the stats of the running backs, they've done a good job, but they've had some pretty big holes up front too," Parker said. "Those big uglies up front that don't always get their names in the paper have done a real good job.

"Even (against Forrest) at the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter, we were up two touchdowns and they were putting 8-9-10 guys in the box. We were still pounding the football at them and getting first downs. Even though we didn't score, we ran nine minutes off the clock."

If the hogs up front continue to clock in, expect a win and to get home before 10 that night despite all the festivities. If not, we might see an emotional queen and some angry coaches.