Sports

Playoffs land in Albany, Part II

• The Wildcats and Wolves will settle their playoff debate man against man.

Paul Dehner Jr.

Wildcats offensive coordinator Charlie Davidson held an extended pause earlier this week while wracking his brain in an attempt to recollect the last time a team played man-to-man defense against his athletic crop of receivers.

It has been a while.

"Uh, I guess it was Corpus Christi; they tried it in the first half," he says, almost surprised he could remember back to nine games ago. "It didn't last very long."

A confident grin fell over Davidson's face as he finished. The confident grin exposed a poorly kept secret about playing the South Georgia Wildcats: Teams don't try man-to-man against the deadly combination of Buchie Ibeh, P.J. Berry, Antwone Savage and Scott Cloman.

They just don't.

Whether it is the 4.4 speed of Berry, inside acceleration of Savage, leaping ability of the 6-foot-3 Ibeh or physical nature of Cloman, rarely does a team boast enough defenders athletic to hang with the Wildcats' assortment of weapons.

Tonight, however, the Manchester Wolves believe they can. In fact, they are willing to bet their season on it.

"This is what you live for," Manchester defensive back Carlton Brown said Friday. "We feel like as a secondary ... it is on us. We know we have to stop them to win."

All year, the Wolves have played man-to-man coverage. For Manchester coach Danton Barto, the straight-up defense has suited him since winning an ArenaCup championship with the Memphis Xplorers in 2005.

Although, this season, it seems he's more or less been stuck with it.

"It is not that we haven't tried to play zone," Barto said. "We are not the brightest secondary in the world."

Whatever his players lack in memory, they make up for in athleticism.

Brown, Dahnel Singfield and Al Phillips all cycled into the lineup midseason after injuries struck the unit hard. Brown in particular has shined, grabbing five interceptions in eight games played.

While Wildcats receivers salivated at the idea of facing man coverage this week, their coach didn't share the same eager attitude.

"I'm not necessarily happy because (Manchester) has guys that can actually cover," Stingley said. "You look out there, across the board they have some talented guys. Those guys have been making plays all year for them. We have to leave it up to our quarterback to put it in a tight enough area where only our guy can get it - because those guys can cover."

Wildcats quarterback Andrico Hines has had no problem hitting spots of late. He has 21 touchdowns to just two interceptions in his last three games.

If Hines' hot streak continues, Davidson knows that could mean a long night for the Manchester defense. Every possession would then become a process of elimination for his receivers.

"I will let them take turns at taking their shot at different DBs," Davidson said. "We will eventually find the weakest one and we will all take turns against him. That's our plan."

Barto also knows the plan and calls the Wildcats wideouts "the most talented group of receivers we have seen all year."

But with a combination of pass rush and play-making, he believes they can be stopped. Under the bright light of the postseason spotlight, he will find out.

"I told our secondary it is a huge challenge," Barto said. "A lot of you guys have been up and down from the AFL, if you want to go back you can either play your way into a contract in the playoffs or play your way right out. The challenge is, 'Can we stop these guys?' We got our work cut out for us."

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