The Carey Panther's journey to the State 1A Division 2 eight-man football title is getting shorter but tougher as the Sawtooth Conference West champs host the North Gem Cowboys in the opening round of the playoffs Saturday at 1 p.m. in Carey.
The Panthers boast an 8-1 overall record fueled by an explosive offense that scored 50 or more points in every game but one—a 50-14 loss to Mackay in early October.
Sawtooth East runner-up North Gem (6-3), of Bancroft, relies on a heavy offensive ground attack driven by elusive senior quarterback Marshall Hall, whose fast feet pose a bigger threat than his arm. Coming into North Gem's final game of the regular season—a 41-14 win over Clark County—Hall had racked up 1,309 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns.
"Marshall Hall is the key to North Gem's running game," Carey head coach Lane Kirkland said earlier this week. "He carries the ball 75 percent of the time. To stop him we'll have to control the ends and also control the line of scrimmage."
Hall is not foreign to the Panthers. In a 2004 regular season math-up between Carey and North Gem, Hall opened the game with a 73-yard scamper to give the Cowboys an early lead. Carey would eventually escape with a 34-28 win.
"Hall isn't so much a tough runner as he is a fast runner who gets to the outside somehow," Kirkland said.
Kirkland acknowledged that North Gem will also pound the ball up the middle and run reverses from the wing.
With the exception of Mackay, no defense this season has been able to corral the Panthers' offense, which seems able to score at will. Last week, Carey quarterback Tyler Cook threw for 269 yards and five touchdowns—three of them to Cody Baird—in a 54-8 mercy-rule win over Lighthouse Christian. The Panthers exploded with an astounding 36 points in the second quarter alone. Baird, who also rushed for a touchdown in that game, has found the end zone 16 times this season.
North Gem and Carey have faced each other 21 times since 1985, with the Cowboys holding an 11-10 advantage. The Panthers have won five of the last seven.
North Gem's two losses this season have come against Mackay, 66-36 on Oct. 21, and Camas County, 34-28 on Oct. 5. Carey beat Camas County 60-32 in September.
North Gem will have an opportunity to redeem one of those losses if they upset Carey on Saturday. Mackay and Camas County play each other tonight in Mackay, with the winner of that game facing the winner of the North Gem-Carey showdown in the second round of the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Carey surely hasn't forgotten its 50-14 loss to Mackay in October.
