The scary thing about the undefeated Carey School football team is the powerful Panthers have only three seniors—and those student/athletes will be honored Friday, Oct. 31 on "Senior Night" at Carey.
Heith Adamson, Jared Cenarrusa and Andrew Carlson are seniors playing their final regular-season game Friday at 7 p.m. at Derrick Parke Memorial Field. Visiting for the Sawtooth Conference eight-man game is North Gem of Bancroft.
The #3-ranked Panthers (8-0, 6-0 league) have already nailed down their third consecutive Sawtooth title and will attempt to stretch their three-season Sawtooth winning streak to 25 games against a playoff-bound North Gem team (5-3, 4-2).
"It should be a pretty good test for us," said Carey coach Lane Kirkland. "North Gem has good size and decent speed and has developed over the course of the season."
North Gem (33.6 ppg offense, 24.5 ppg defense) has won three straight games including Friday's 40-18 league win over Camas County at Fairfield. The Cowboys lost at Oakley 50-6 and also lost at home to Mackay 26-12 and to Richfield 36-34.
Carey grid teams have won seven of their last 10 meetings against North Gem, and two straight including last year's 48-0 mercy-rule decision at Bancroft and a 58-22 home victory in 2006. But the Cowboys knocked Carey out of the 2005 playoffs 48-44, in Carey. The series dating back to 1985 stands even at 12 wins apiece.
Last year's State 1A Division 2 runner-up and the 2006 champion, Carey has already earned the top District 4/5/6 seed for November's eight-team 1A Division 2 playoffs. In the first round, Carey will host #4-seeded North Gem Saturday, Nov. 1 in a day game at Carey.
Fourth-ranked Mackay (8-1, 6-1), a 38-22 home winner over Dietrich last Thursday, is the Sawtooth Conference second seed and will host #3-seeded Richfield (5-2, 3-2) in the first playoff round next weekend.
Last Friday, senior Heith Adamson scored twice and junior quarterback Trevor Peck tossed a pair of TD passes as Carey won 38-12 at Murtaugh. The Panthers (239 rushing yards) led 30-0 at halftime.
Check today's Express Web site for statistics from Friday's Carey-Murtaugh clash.
