Syrupmakers seek offense, boisterous crowd in first round

Published 8:15 pm Thursday, November 12, 2015

CAIRO — The Cairo Syrupmakers don’t have the advantage from a pure record standpoint, but are hoping their home-field advantage can make up part of the difference.

Cairo (4-5, 3-1 Region 1-AAAA Division A) will host Spalding (9-1, 4-1 Region 4-AAAA ‘B’) tonight at 7:30 in the first round of the Class AAAA state playoffs at West Thomas Stadium.

Email newsletter signup

“The 12th man was huge for us last week. Our kids really responded to the big Syrupmaker crowd there,” Cairo head coach Steve DeVoursney said. “So hopefully we get that same crowd. I think that will be a plus for us. We have home-field advantage and it being a three-hour trip for their fans, we don’t know how many’s going to show up for that. I think it’ll be good for our kids. It’ll be an advantage for us.”

The Syrupmakers are coming off an eight-point 14-6 loss in the Region 1-AAAA title game to undefeated Bainbridge, who will host Griffin tonight. Spalding won its win-and-in with nary a problem, defeating Eagle’s Landing 38-6 in keeping with their season averages. The Jaguars have averaged 32.7 points a game while allowing only 8.8 points a game.

The region’s No. 1 seed Jonesboro, which hosts Thomas County Central tonight, was the only main problem. Jonesboro won 21-9, a season-low in points for Spalding and a season-high in points allowed.

“They’re a good football team,” DeVoursney said. “They’re 9-1, haven’t lost but one game, so it’s a big task for us. (They) do a good job offensively, real solid on defense (and) do a good job.”

Spalding has Brodarious Hamm, a four-star offensive lineman ranked No. 25 in Georgia according to 247 Sports.

DeVoursney stressed that the Syrupmakers needed to have a good game tonight, just as they put on last week.

“We played really good last week against Bainbridge,” DeVoursney said. “We’ve got to keep building on that and hopefully we can continue to get better and show it this week.”

Cairo had trouble scoring against Bainbridge in both games between the Region 1-AAAA teams. The Syrupmakers have scored 15 points or less in five of the nine games.

“We’ve got to score some points, one,” DeVoursney said. “We only scored six last week, but we only gave up 14, so we gotta, you know, hope the defense plays well again and hope we score offensively.”

Other than the fundamentals, DeVoursney said there’s nothing specifically the Syrupmakers were focused on this week other than holding on to the football. Cairo didn’t turn the ball over in any of its wins, but did in all of its losses.

“That’s a big correlation,” he said. “Make sure our quarterback’s smart with the ball, and our running backs, and just teaching ball security. And our receivers, too. It’s about all we can do.”

DeVoursney coached against Spalding when he was the head coach at Griffin. The two have been in the same Region 4-AAAA sub-region since 2012. DeVoursney went 4-0 against Spalding. Tonight he’ll coach against one of his former Griffin players, Deaundre Alford, a cornerback and halfback now with the Jaguars.