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2B ♦ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2006 TOPSoccerama The Central Georgia Soccer Association held its annual TOPSoccerama event Wednesday at the CGSA fields. TOPSoccerama, according to a release, Is a program designed to meet the needs of children ages 4-19 with physical and/or mental disabilities. "The program focuses on player development rather than competition,” the release reads. Photon by (»«ry Harmon ul. ' Wm -r 'Z' Erica Lee face paints Luke Albritton. I #; ft, iC * I ■win m niter ft ■ ..:^L < flr T |iil ' ••» « 'i JP| ’'4 - ' • *- * 1 gffi|B| "I 1 ;•: .. Mg 5 BIGGEST From page iB Over the past decade, numerous football players left the Peach program and excelled at the major college level. Some of those even made it all the way to the National Football League. But teams do change from year to year. Perry already this season played the 2005 Class AAA runner-up from Daugherty High and won. The look of Peach will cer tainly not be the same as it was in 2005, but the overall caliber of their players hasn’t dropped off too much. “They lose Henton and Slaughter, but they still have a great number of play ers,” said Scott. “They have the transfer, (Bryan) Ellis, at quarterback, and he prob ably does a little bit bet ter job of reading coverages than Henton did. Henton was a better athlete, but I think (Ellis) is just as good a thrower. “Defensively, they are going to be big, fast and REUNION From page iB we honored (the team) in 2001, we decided to do it again,” Perry athletic director and football head coach Andy Scott said. The festivities will begin with a reception in the teams’ honor at 5 p.m. in the school cafeteria fol lowed by a tour of the new Perry High School buildings, a short pro gram and each will receive a 1956 memory booklet complied by Perry coach Dickey Erwin. Tickets and a game program will be provided mean. All those things we are going to have to try to contain.” Ellis leads Region 4-AAA with 1,552 passing yards (89- for-131) and with an average of 258 yards per game. He has 13 touchdown throws to just one interception. His favorite target is senior Udom Umoh, who is also a region leader in catches (31), yards (500) and touchdowns (seven). Mareo Howard, who was the Trojans’ featured run ning back as a sophomore, has come back this year to lead the league with 112 yards per game, 672 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. “They are doing a real good job of formation adjust ments,” said Scott. “They do a lot of motion and a lot of shifting, things to try to get the defense out of position. We just have to do a good job of recognizing what they’re doing. “The biggest thing is we have to take away the big play. We have to make sure they earn everything they to the Peach County game at 7:30 p.m., where the team will be recog nized during halftime. “It has been (almost) 50 years since that Nov. 9 night (they) cap tured the 2B West sub-region cham pionship by defeating Wrightsville 19-0,” Scott said. “This was the first sub-region championship won by a Perry football team. This hap pened after (Perry) only played football for three years. (That team) will always that distinc tion.” The season didn’t get off to a stellar start for Perry, however, as the Panthers opened with a 2-4 y ■ ’^Aj| 0 ,M Attendees and volunteers see how high they can flip a giant soccer ball. ' K 1 vpM LEFT: Clint McDowell , shoots toward the L goal while Enoch Felder looks on. RIGHT: Tyler Emmerman tries to bowl over giant pins. BELOW: Children huddle around a giant ball. BELOW RIGHT: Volunteer Gretchen Moch helps a hard charging Matthew Buskins dribble a ball. £] BELOW FAR RIGHT: Kelly Shepherd maneuvers a ball around cones. get.” Then there are those “mean” people on the Peach defense, led by tackle Dion Armstrong. “They have two defensive linemen who are both great players,” said Scott. “They have some young second ary players, but they can fly. They pretty much dominate everything. They are so big, it’s difficult to run the ball. It’s going to be a good test for our young offensive line. “We just have to try to get between them and the ball. It’s going to be difficult, whether we put two, three, four or five guys on one guy. But at the same time, we have to be sure we do what we need to do.” Scott hopes it doesn’t come to a point where Perry has to rely on the passing game to move the football. The pass is something the Panthers have used spar ingly and strategically the last couple of games with the running game already established. “The keys to winning for us surround the kicking start. Perry defeated Manchester 27-19 and Montgomery County 20-7, while the Panthers lost to Hawkinsville 12-6 in the season opener, Cochran 12-7, Terrell County 26-7 and Warner Robins 25-6. But that all changed with home coming. The Panthers (6-5) shutout Vidalia 21-0 to close out strong the last four regular games, as Perry outscored its opponents 121-7 to claim the subregion. The Panthers defense, which allowed a stingy 11.2 points a spouts f ■ ' / j , L#j, -N—' '*■* game, playing good defense and trying to control the ball on offense,” said Scott. “If our offense can stay on the field, we have a chance.” Peach County has many individual region leaders (which can be found on georgiaregionstats.com). As a team, the Trojans own the highest scoring offense at 36.5 a game, the most productive with 424 yards a game and the stingiest defense at 8.3 allowed. The Panthers, though, take first place in two rather important lists, most rush ing yards (215) and fewest rushing yards allowed (46) per game. The totals are 1289 for (with 16 touchdowns) and 275 against (with four touch downs). Scott does want to clear up that what fans are see ing in the Panther backfield isn’t an I formation, but a variation of the wishbone. “We’rejust standing Kenny (Davis) up,” said Scott. “It’s what people would call a bro ken bone. All you’re doing is removing one running back ... they’re still offset. If you put the other one back, it would still be a bone set. We stand Kenny up to allow him to see.” Davis is seeing well enough to lead the team with 513 rushing yards and tie with quarterback Casey Hayward with seven touchdowns on the ground. There’s another Davis causing a lot of problems to Perry opponents, Kanorris Davis on the defensive line. Scott said a number of play ers on defense, from Robby Taylor to Stephen Calhoun to Zetavius Cheatham, are having good seasons in terms of numbers and effort. Kenny Davis will help out the defense at linebacker, and he’s the only player to see any extensive action on both sides of the football. Players like Kanorris Davis and Calhoun often played in the wishbone backfield last year, but have stayed on defense all season. “That’s a big deal for us,” said Scott. “We try to play kids on one side of the ball so they’ll be able to play four game for the season, pitched three shutouts capped by 15 scoreless quarters. Perry followed the Vidalia win with a 47-7 rout of Wilcox- Central, a 34-0 shutout of Treutlen County and the shut out of Wrightsville. The Panthers lost in the first round of the state playoffs to Lyons 16-0. Surviving team members are Jimmy Beatty, Ed Beckham, Gene Ford, Johnnie Gallemore, Bobby Horton, Tommy Kersey, C.J. Story, Trent Turner, Richard Waddell, Rudolph Adams, Robbie Beeland, HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Jt * ' : ' straight quarters. We’ve played team whose kids get tired. Our kids don’t get tired. We push them hard in the weightroom and in prac tice to make sure we’re well conditioned.” This especially helps the linemen, Scott said, who can take a breather and, as a group, get some extra instruction on the bench to prepare for the next series. In simple terms, this Perry- Peach battle is between the top two teams right now in the south sub-region of 4- AAA. The winner goes to 3-0 with two games remaining before the region playoff. But in a rivalry like this, it’s not that simple. “This is the biggest foot ball game in the history of Perry High School,” said Scott. “If we can beat Peach, it will be a springboard for the rest of the year and this program. That’s one thing that’s always stood in the way of Perry becoming a successful football program. This is a wall we need to break through.” Stewart Bloodworth, Bobby Brock, Larry Brown, Perry Culpepper, Terry Griffin, Charles Harrison, Johnny Mobley, Bill Hunt, Stanley St. John, Pierce Staples, Jimmy Crowe, Malcolm Crook .team man ager Larry Walker, head coach Herb St, John and assistant coach Tom Chandler. Deceased team members are Roy Henson, David Moulder, Philip Boyer, Wallace Bozeman, A 1 Evans, Bryant Scruggs, Jimmy Wilson, Tommy Sandefur, Francis Marshall, manager Hugh Lawson and team phsyician Dr. Gene ‘Papa Doc’ Weems.