CAIRO —
Cairo’s defense faces its first big challenge of the season Friday.
The split-back veer offense awaits the Syrupmakers.
Cairo will play rival Bainbridge and coach Ed Pilcher at Centennial Field. This will be the eighth time Cairo coach Tom Fallaw has coached against Pilcher, whether it be at Thomas County Central or Bainbridge, Pilcher’s home the last three years.
Fallaw noted the difficulties in preparing for Pilcher’s run-oriented offense.
“Anytime you play Central and Bainbridge, you can try to duplicate the speed of which they do things, but you can’t,” Fallaw said. “A lot of times when you play them, you find yourself in an early hole. A lot of times against teams of their caliber, that’s enough to beat you. They’re going to be fundamentally sound on defense. If they can get a couple of scores up on you while you’re sleepwalking through the pace of their veer, they’ve got you beat.
“That happened to us last year. We made a couple of mistakes and, shoot, before we turned around, it was 16-0.”
Fallaw is 2-4 in six prior meetings with Pilcher.
n GOOD START: Cairo jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead last week against Drew and cruised to a 40-0 rout in its opener. The Syrupmakers tallied 390 yards of offense and limited the Titans to 21 yards.
“The good was the fact that we won,” Fallaw said, “the fact that our defense held them to 20 yards, whatever it was, one first down. There were a lot of negatives, too. We’ve still got a long way to go, pad level way too high. Missed tackles seem to be a concern. I would say just our tempo of play might be a concern also. We need to pick our tempo up a little bit.”
n LATMORE SHINES IN DEBUT: Grant Latmore was efficient in his first start at quarterback. Latmore completed 6-of-13 passes for 80 yards.
“We didn’t ask him to do a lot. We limited what we asked him to do because he is a first-year kid,” Fallaw said. “He did a good job directing the team. It was also simplified for him.
“Cairo’s known for playing good defense. The best-worst thing that we want to happen is for us to be able to punt. We don’t want to give the other team the ball in our territory.
“It’s not that we want to punt, we feel good about going back and playing defense. Don’t give the ball away. Don’t make dumb mistakes.”
Local Sports
Cairo defense ready for Bainbridge veer
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Bulldogs fall to Indians
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Lady Bulldogs hold off Squaws
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First place at stake
The kings of Region 1-AA are ready to defend their crown.
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Central wrestling ready for area tournament
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Two are bound for Massachusetts. One is set to suit up for a first-time program. All three made their collegiate decisions known on Wednesday when they inked letters-of-intent. -
Mosely bound for Southern; Cason headed to Holmes Community College
Two integral pieces of Cairo’s state semifinal team from last year are set to play at the next level.
Offensive lineman Anthony Mosely and linebacker Terrell Cason signed letters-of-intent on Wednesday, -
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Bench, Gurley lead Cairo signees
Four Cairo Syrupmakers signed letters-of-intent on Wednesday, National Signing Day, two were with FCS schools.
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