BEARVILLE — Pierce County puts its unbeaten record and topranked billing on the line when the Bears travel Friday to Cordele to face Crisp County.
The Bears (6-0 overall, 1-0 Region 3-AA), riding a schoolrecord 15-game winning streak, are coming in off a bye week following a 42-7 October 4 home victory over Cook in the region opener for both.
The Cougars (1-6, 0-1) opened region play last week at Appling County falling 24-7 to the seventh-ranked Pirates. It marked the fifth loss to teams currently ranked in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Top 10 poll.
“They have played a brutal schedule against two top five AAA and two top five AA teams,” said PCHS head coach Ryan Herring. “They’ve lost three games late. It’s been a challenge for everybody. It’s going to be a tough game and I expect nothing less plus it’s a 2 1/2 hour or so bus ride for us.
“As a coach, you’re just hoping the game you play them they don’t figure things out because they are knocking on the door. They are athletic enough to beat you, but just can’t seem to get over the hump.”
Friday’s matchup at Cougar Stadium is the third between the schools with the first two coming in the state playoffs.
Crisp County, ranked fifth, ousted the visiting Bears of head coach Sean Pender 56-21 in the 2016 Class 3A quarterfinals.
Fourth-ranked Pierce County’s wild fourth quarter rally at home from a 13-9 deficit for a 25-13 victory over the sixthranked Cougars in the 2020 Class 3A semifinals propelled the Bears on to their first state championship. Senior linebacker Austin Jernigan’s 70-yard fumble return with 1:45 remaining gave PCHS an 18-13 lead.
Crisp County is led by Lawrence Smith, the second coach in four years since the 2020 encounter. The Cougars are 13-17 in Smith’s three years suffering as many losses in their last 30 games as they did during a sixyear run from 2016-2021 (60-17) in which they captured five region titles and made two semifinal appearances.
The 2024 schedule for Crisp County has been challenging. The lone victory came against Class A DI pre-season thirdranked Swainsboro (2-5).
Offensively, the Cougars have struggled to score points averaging 14 points per game. Outside the 30-point outburst against the Tigers, Crisp County has failed to reach 20 points in the other six games and three times scored just seven points.
The difficulty in scoring can be traced to an offense averaging only 222.9 yards a game with 85.6 coming on the ground and 137.3 through the air.
Only once in seven games have the Cougars surpassed 100 yards rushing (Swainsboro - 225). They had 20 yards on 18 attempts vs. Appling County. Crisp County has thrown for more than 150 yards three times.
Junior quarterback Hagan Slimp (6-foot-2, 175), a southpaw, directs the spread offense which utilizes a lot of screen plays. He’s completed 70-of-135 passes (52 percent) for 961 yards throwing for seven scores against three interceptions. Slimp leads the rushing attack with 278 yards on 55 attempts with three of Crisp County’s six rushing touchdowns.
“The quarterback is really good and scares me,” Herring said. “He reminds me of Ken Stabler (Oakland Raiders). He’s scrappy, tough, can throw the ball and can escape. The one thing that is impressive about him is throwing checkdown passes which you don’t see at this level.”
Senior Jamarcus Bass is next in rushing with 153 yards while sophomore Derrell Brown is second in touchdowns with two.
Junior Deshaun Fedd (6-foot, 140) is the leading receiver pulling in 23 passes for 416 yards and four scores. Senior Keshaun McCray (6-1, 175) is second in receptions (16) and touchdowns (two) and third in yards (143). Senior Carmello Ervin (6foot, 145) has 10 catches for 229 yards and a score.
“They have long, rangy, speedy guys on the perimeter,” said Herring.
Crisp County’s defense has surrendered 20+ points in six of its seven games and 23 points on average. Playing mostly a 3-3, the Cougars switched to a 4-3 in the Appling County matchup.
“I don’t know what they may line up in against us,” Herring said. “Going from a 3-3 to a 4-3 is a different animal so our preparation has been a headache.
“The key for us is going to be ball control. We’ve got to be able to run the ball, throw the ball when we want and finish drives.”
Crisp County has seven players with 31 or more tackles led by junior inside linebacker Jordan Fox (6foot, 200) who leads the unit with 52 stops.
Senior defensive end Zymarion Hudson (6-foot, 220) has 43 tackles with 16 against Appling County, a team-leading eight tackles for loss and a team-high 6.5 sacks. Senior linebacker D.J. Harrison has been credited with 40 stops.
Junior linebacker Carlin Ervin has been in on 37 tackles, defensive tackle Grant Alexander (6-foot, 230) has 35 stops with three TFLs and senior defensive back Markevion Hartage is credited with 34 tackles.
