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Darlington head coach Tommy Atha talks to players during practice. Photo by Lindy Dugger Cordell/RN-T
Darlington carries confidence into Rd. 2
11/17/2009, 551 views
Written by by Alex Farrer, Rome News-Tribune Sports Writer, published 11/15/09
For a team that was 4-6 coming into Friday night [Nov. 13], Warren County gave Region 6-A champion Darlington all they wanted in their first-round playoff game. The Screaming Devils took the homestanding Tigers to the brink of elimination at Chris Hunter Stadium, but Darlington held off a second-half rally to advance to the second round with a 16-14 win. The Tigers will once again be at home next week hosting traditional power Commerce. The Darlington defense came up big with a fourth-down stop as time expired at the end of the first half which was a key play in the game. Darlington coach Tommy Atha discussed his team’s win with the RN-T on Saturday. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:
RN-T: Talk about the game as a whole. Did you and your team expect that tough a battle?
ATHA: When you get to the postseason, you have to expect every game to be close. At this time of year, they are all good teams. From seeing (Warren Co.) on film, we saw how close they had played Lincoln County and Washington-Wilkes. On film they looked good, and we knew they were going to be a tough team to be reckoned with because they had so much speed. That was the biggest thing that concerned us was how fast they were. But the thing that stuck out more as the game went along was they were very tough physically and refused to quit.
RN-T: How big was the fourth-down stop that kept Warren Co. out of the end zone right before the half?
ATHA: I said it last night and I still think that that stop was the difference in the ball game because they had a drive going and momentum going their way. They were going to get the ball back to start the second half and being able to stop them there swung momentum back our way. I can’t say enough about how well our defense played last night. I don’t know all the guys who were on the bottom of the pile, but I know Alex Sentell and Arthur Pollard were two of the main ones on that fourth-down stop.
RN-T: How much of this win do you owe to the defense and special teams with your offense sputtering a little?
ATHA: There’s no question that this victory goes to the defense. Offensively,we had three turnovers, and mistakes put the defense in difficult situations throughout the night. With the exception of a couple of times, they made big stands when they had to. They bowed their backs and rose to the equation. That’s a good feeling to have to know that even when your not hitting on all cylinders offensively, you can rely on your defense to get you the ball back and special teams to come up with big plays for you. You’ve got to have that if you’re going to win big football games.
RN-T: What does your team need to focus on the most this week before your second-round matchup?
ATHA: Ball security. We can’t continue to fumble the football. We haven’t fumbled the ball all year, but we had a crucial one last week at Trion and three or four last night. That’s certainly the main emphasis. We’ve got to talk about protecting the football. And just maintaining our blocks. We’ve got to maintain our blocks in space and play as fast as we can.
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