Sports

Dougherty, Americus swap spots in prep poll

• Early County and Monroe still hold top spots, Dougherty drops after heartbreaking loss.

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — After a week which saw four of the Herald’s Top 7 of ’07 rest idle, little movement occurred in the poll.

The big game of the week came in Americus where the Americus-Sumter Panthers upended Dougherty, 21-19.

The win moved the Panthers from No. 4 to No. 3. They are now 5-1 on the season, with the lone blemish coming at the hands of state power Tift County.

After Americus ascended the poll, only sitting behind recently crowned No. 1 Early County and previous top-spot holder Monroe, who both sat idle last week, the question become just how far the Trojans would drop after the loss.

Though it is probably hard for coach Charles Flowers to find much good in a difficult loss, the Trojans did dominate Americus-Sumter in most aspects of the game — statistically, anyway.

Dougherty outgained Americus-Sumter 316-153 in controlling the tempo. It can attribute the defeat to problems in special teams as they gave short fields after two blocked punts and also missed an extra point.

But due to the impressive performance in the other aspects of the game, the Trojans held barely above Bainbridge at No. 4.

As for the Bearcats, they didn’t play last week and thus held at No. 5.

Both No. 6 Deerfield-Windsor and No. 7 Calhoun County won big on Friday to stake claim to their positions.

Deerfield showed some defense in a season in which the explosive offense had carried much of the load. The Knights held Southland to seven points in a 28-7 victory, the lowest total allowed this year.

Meanwhile, Calhoun County wasn’t exactly impressive in racking up 300 yards in penalties, but still managed to beat winless Pelham comfortably to hold on.

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