Cairo close to perfect in first-round rout

Published 11:22 pm Friday, November 9, 2018

 CAIRO, Ga. — Going over the mistakes in Monday’s film session won’t take long for Cairo Syrupmakers coach Steve Devoursney.

When your team executes almost flawlessly in all three phases as his did Friday night in a 44-0 rout of Henry  County, finding those errors may take some doing.

“Oh,” Devoursney said as a grin creased his face, “we’ll find something. I promise.”

The Syrupmakers, now 9-2 after their ninth straight win, will host Thomson in the Class 4A second round. The Bulldogs downed Upson-Lee in their first-round matchup.

On Friday night at West Thomas Stadium, Cairo looked every bit the No. 1 seed against Henry County (4-7). 

The Syrupmakers never punted and never turned the ball over. They scored on seven of eight possessions. The only one that didn’t result in points was the final one of the night, when the Syrupmakers got to the 1-inch line with a minute to go before Devoursney opted to take a delay of game penalty and then call for a kneel down, rather than add another touchdown.

JaMarcus Vicks had two touchdowns and three other Syrupmakers also scored TDs in the blowout.

Cairo rolled up 417 yards of total offense and ran for 180 yards in the second half — even with a running clock.

The Syrupmakers’ defense held the Warhawks to 110 yards of total offense and Henry County only crossed midfield once. The Warhawks ran four plays on Cairo’s side of the 50, all going for naught before Cairo took over on downs. 

Jaron Carter also had an interception on the Warhawks’ second series to set up Noah Jones’ 43-yard field goal in the second quarter. Jones was 5-of-5 on extra points — after a penalty, Cairo opted to go for the two-point conversion but was stopped — and six of his eight kickoffs went for touchbacks.

Vicks capped Cairo’s first drive, a nine-play, 44-yard march, with a 2-yard run. 

After Jones’ field goal made it 10-0, the Syrupmakers began to pull away. Nick Gosier scored on a 9-yard run for a 16-0 lead, and Jacquez James’ 32-yard burst pushed it to 23-0. 

Cairo got the ball on the Henry County 44 with 50.4 seconds left in the half, and Marquil Lovejoy’s sliding catch on fourth down put the Syrupmakers at the 4-yard line. Gosier hauled in a slant from Matthew Peters with 11.6 seconds to go, and Jones’ PAT gave Cairo a comfortable 30-0 halftime lead.

“Other than the roughing the punter, we had a pretty good first half,” Devoursney said, referring to a penalty on Henry County’s opening possession.

Despite the explosive second quarter, Devoursney wants to see more of that from his team from the start.

“I think we can come out a little better than we did tonight,” he said. “For a playoff game, you’ve got to have a little more energy and I think we’ll get that going next week.”

Vicks’ 10-yard run made it 37-0 less than three minutes into the second half, and Devoursney played his reserves almost exclusively from that point.

They too got in on the act, as Kamaree Perry broke off a 17-yard run for the final touchdown of the night.

“We had some young kids step up and play well,” Devoursney said. “We still have a young team out there. It was good to get the win and get all those young guys in.”

Cairo will host again next week and Devoursney is glad to simply be advancing.

“The playoffs is a different season. You win, you move on. You lose, and you put your stuff up,” he said. “We’ll take it. Going to the second round with 16 teams, it’s going to get harder and tougher. But that’s what it’s all about. It’s the fun time of year.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.