Travis Long - tlong@newsobserver.com
Garner celebrates a 42-21 victory against Leesville Road last week.
It's another clash between the best of Wake County and the best in Cumberland County with a spot in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4AA championship on the line.
Britt has won nine straight and went five weeks without giving up a touchdown before Middle Creek put up two in last week's regional semifinal. The Bucs had four straight shutouts before last week.
Garner has met every challenge. The Trojans opened the playoffs by pounding Athens Drive, which tested them during the regular season. They beat speedy Wilmington Laney and ousted previously unbeaten Leesville Road.
Now comes the Trojans' Fayetteville test. Garner will have to match Britt's physical play and execution to make their third state final during the past 25 years.
The Bucs' ground game is effective (210.8 yards per game) and balanced. Lindon Watkins (5-foot-7, 155-pound senior) leads the team with 999 yards, but four other players have 200 or more yards rushing this season.
Junior quarterback Mark McRae (5-11) is a model of efficiency, completing more than 58 percent of his passes for 21 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Kenny Jenkins (6-1, 180, senior) has 12 receiving touchdowns.
The Britt defense, as usual, is an active one and can give opponents a 4-3 and 4-4 look.
Seven Buccaneers have more than 50 tackles: Marquis McMillan (112), Jordan Williams (93), M.J. Salahuddin (91), Stephen Huff (82), Dennis Gholston (64), Jovan Williams (60) and Andre Scott (52).
Salahuddin, a 6-3, 200-pound linebacker, has committed to N.C. State. McMillan (5-9, 190) is another likely college recruit.
Time to pass hasn't been plentiful for Bucs' opponents with Britt averaging nearly four sacks a game. Huff, a 6-1, 220-pound junior lineman, leads the team with 13 sacks.
"Defensively, they're not real big, but they're quick and very athletic," Garner coach Nelson Smith said. "... Jenkins is somebody we'll have to keep an eye on every play. Their backs all run hard, as does the quarterback. It'll be all about stopping their counter-trey and that zone read play for us."
"They slant a lot on defense, so we'll be using some different blocking schemes on offense as well."
"On the defensive line, we'll have to be real aware of who we need to block when those guards and tackles start pulling."
Said Britt coach Richard Bailey: "Garner's a team with two great tailbacks and an offensive line that really gets after it and plays well. I know one of their backs lines up as a fullback a lot, but they're really both tailbacks."
"When you see Nelson talk about it possibly being the best offensive line they've had, that speaks a lot, because they've had a lot of good ones up there."
"Defensively, they've really thrived when they've gotten ahead of teams. Garner knows how to get after teams when they're forced to be one-dimensional.
"We've played pretty good defense all year. It just looks like we've really stepped it up in the past several weeks because we haven't turned the ball over and put our defense in bad spots like we were doing earlier in the season. We've given up kick returns as well.
"We're not as explosive as we've been offensively, so we're playing to our strength, which is the defense. Now we're playing field position and trying to win 21-7."
