PREP FOOTBALL: Breaking down tonight’s playoff battles

There’s a fair amount of common ground between St. Anne’s-Belfield and Atlantic Shores Christian.
“We have two mirror images — we’re very simi-lar,” said STAB coach John Blake. “As far as athleti-cally, they have a very good quarterback who’s a senior, we have a very good quar-terback that’s a senior. They have a big receiver that’s a senior, we have a big receiver that’s a senior.
Not only that, but both teams are coming into the playoffs on fire, having taken bumps and bruises early in the season — St. Anne’s (7-3) because of a murderous schedule, Atlan-tic Shores because of a series of unfortunate inju-ries. The Seahawks (9-2), who lost to Covenant early in the season after an injury to starting quarter-back Josh Healey, seem to have come out on the other side better for it.
“I think it was just a situation where we were still getting a feel for where we were,” said Atlantic Shores coach Wayne Lance. “We’ve had injuries since and it was much smoother because you’ve got some battle-tested guys. I think a lot of them looked at it ike I’ve got too much invested in this to let this fall apart.”
Since the back-to-back losses in games two and three, little has fallen apart for the Seahawks. Healey has become a force, rushing for 207 yards out of Atlan-tic Shores’ spread attack against Virginia Episcopal in the state semifinal. The senior has thrown for over 1,000 yards on the season and has rushed for nearly 1,000 more.
When Healy and Parker Johnson, the Seahawks’ running back who has piled uip over 1,200 yards, get going they’re a tough one-two punch to stop. Throw in quarterback-turned-wideout Todd Haynes and the Saints will be contend-ing with an explosive of-fense.
“They want to spread it out more [to] run it at you, where we’ll line up and try to pound it at you — I think that’s probably the main difference between the two teams,” Blake said.
Blake’s team has shown they can pound away in the last four contests, and with any number of different running backs taking the carries. Aaron Clark, Will McGhee and Quincey Sep-tember have all rushed for over 100 yards in one of the last four outings. Most recently, September piled up 195 yards against Cove-nant in the state semfinal last Saturday.
St. Anne’s holds a deci-sive edge in postseason experience, with the Sea-hawks’ program having struggled in the past few years. But for a group of seniors that’s been to the state final every season of its prep career though, it may be all about mentality.
We’re much better when we’re relaxed than when we get uptight,” Blake said. “We’ve been here before — it’s the fourth year in a row we’ve been to the final. so the kids are nervous. But they’re going to be nervous. I think we’re right on schedule, we just need to stay focused.”

Monticello set for first step
For defending Group AA Division 3 champion Monti-cello, the march to another title begins tonight at 7:30 p.m. when the Mustangs take on Briar Woods in the first round of the Region II playoffs.
The Mustangs will have to account for a powerful led by Ray Taliaferro, who has crossed the 200-yard barrier at least twice this season including the Fal-cons’ regular season finale. Despite the rainy condi-tions during a chunk of the practice week, expect the Mustangs’ defense to be well-versed in Briar Woods’ attack.
Dylan Kavanagh, a Monticello senior, said the Mustangs are largely fo-cused inward going into the playoffs.
“We don’t know too much about them so we’ve been mainly focusing on getting our timing down,” Kavanagh said.
Kavanaugh is part of a senior class that includes running back Hines Banks, wideouts Jake Pelton and quarterback Michael Gra-ham, as well as a host of other contributors. That class appears to have taken a great deal of ownership in the fate of the Mustangs this season.
“Last year was kind of the seniors’ year and this year is sort of our year,” Kavanaugh said. “Hope-fully we can finish it out on top.”