Buccaneers host Atomsmashers in opener
Aug. 18—McIntosh County Academy knows records go out the window come playoff time — that's why the Class A, Division II Buccaneers have regularly opened the regular season by testing their limits since head coach Bradley Warren returned to the program.
The annual tradition will continue when MCA hosts Class 3A's Johnson Savannah at The Ship at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
"There's a lot of ways to build a successful program; I've just always wanted to build it through playing high-level football," Warren said. "You can't play high-level football if you don't play those teams, so I try to have a good mixture. Some years the schedule is too tough up front, some years it's a little too easy, but you can't pick and choose sometimes who you play."
Entering Year 4, Warren's philosophy has paid off handsomely thus far. The Buccaneers have hosted a playoff game each of the past three seasons, and each postseason loss in that span has been by a margin of six points or fewer.
This year, McIntosh will gauge itself against a Johnson program looking to take its own leap in its fifth season under head coach Kenderrick Bonner. The Atomsmashers have made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons after having missed the postseason six consecutive years.
Coming off a season in which it held opponents to 13.5 points per game, MCA will be tested against a Johnson offense that features a strong 1-2 punch of Amarion Scott and Samari Dowdy in the backfield.
Scott led the Atomsmashers with 724 rushing yards and eight touchdowns a year ago, while Dowdy racked up 797 yards of total offense (661 rushing, 136 receiving) at New Hampstead before transferring to Johnson this summer.
"Johnson is a spread offense with a good running back, a couple of good receivers," Warren said. "We're worried about the big play against them."
McIntosh County Academy is also looking to get rolling offensively as it acclimates to an attack built around quarterback JaReese Campbell.
"They do a good job," Warren said. "They run a 3-5 defense, and they get after it pretty good."
The Buccaneers struggled a bit to move the ball in a jamboree against Brunswick High and Long County last week, but MCA is no stranger to making readjustments after a slow start on offense. McIntosh averaged just 7.3 points per game through its first three games last season before scoring 27 points per contest the rest of the way.
"In the first scrimmage, I didn't think we played very well defensively, and we played pretty well defensively the other night," Warren said. "Long didn't have a first down, and Brunswick had one score on us. We played the run really well.
"This past scrimmage, we didn't do much offensively, so we've got to get back to doing the things we do well. We're going to look for hopefully improvement Friday night on the offensive side."
