With its 26-21 victory over Coastal Conference rival D.H. Conley last week, the Washington football team signed, sealed and delivered the signature win that head coach Sport Sawyer had been seeking.
The next challenge for Washington will be to garner a home playoff game, which it could potentially be awarded if the Pam Pack can distinguish itself from a three-team logjam at second place in Coastal Conference standings.
By topping Conley, Washington upped its record to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the conference and is tied with Jacksonville and West Carteret, each of whom have identical overall and league records.
With two games left in the regular season, the Pam Pack will close out its schedule by taking on South Central (3-6, 2-3) tonight, before it battles West Carteret in a game that could have tremendous playoff implications.
Before it’s showdown with the Pack, West Carteret must first hit the road for a clash with undefeated Havelock, the No. 3 ranked 3-A team in the state.
Jacksonville will travel to D.H. Conley tonight before it plays its regular season finale against a winless White Oak team.
“Havelock’s at the top but we’re trying to fight for second place,” Sawyer said. “We want to host a home playoff game because our fans have been great and they have been out there supporting us all year. We’d love to play another game or two at Wagner Stadium.”
First things first. The Pam Pack must get past a South Central team that has earned league wins over West Carteret and White Oak, who the Falcons beat last week 28-6.
“They run the spread on offense and have some real good athletes,” Sawyer said. “On defense, they run a 4-2-5 and they have some speed, they are able to make some plays.”
Washington has made some plays itself and will look to build on an inspired 26-21 victory over the Rams in which it battled back from a 21-19 fourth quarter deficit.
Senior QB Jimmy Williams was sensational as he ran for a TD and threw scoring passes to Stevie Green, Marquest Jackson and D.J. Bell.
Lost in the mix was the play of junior Daniel Maultsby and senior Dylan Cutler, who both gave gutsy efforts.
“We moved Daniel Maultsby from safety to wide receiver and he caught some key passes for us the other night,” Sawyer said. “Dylan Cutler, our center, was hurt but I thought he played well Friday night.”
The Pack offense also got a boost from the return of RB Markel Spencer, who pushed past the pain of an ankle injury to turn in some key runs.
The Washington offense could be without freshman RB Justin Heart due to injury, but could have junior rusher Trey Spruill (concussion) back tonight.