Christmas: Trojans' ready for Elephants this year

GAINESVILLE - North Hall football coach Bob Christmas didn't mince words when describing last year's disappointing 65-21 blow out loss to Gainesville.

"(People) were expecting too much, too soon," he said as the two teams prepare for Friday night's huge battle for first place in Region 7-AAA.

"We were a little overrated last year coming into that game. People were just excited that we were 4-0 after the kind of years they had endured. So, we just weren't as good as people thought we were," Christmas said.

Both teams come into the game virtually identical to last year, sporting perfect 4-0 records overall and in Region 7-AAA play.

But Christmas said this is a new year.

"I think we're a lot better this year than we were last year. But how good we stack up against them, we'll find out (Friday night)," he said. "But I definitely think it'll be much more competitive."

Gainesville coach Bruce Miller says North Hall's offense, which features three primary backs - T.J. Pitts, Beau Whitmire and Michael Christmas - will be a huge test for his defense. Both teams feature explosive ground attacks in the wing-T offense.

Of course, Miller and the Elephants were in the same position last week against Johnson's vaunted ground game and shut down B.J. Jackson and Cardy McKenzey.

Miller says North Hall has a few more weapons offensively than Johnson.

"They're very, very explosive. It's a good test of their offense against our defense. I think that will be the key matchup in the game," he said."They have a three-headed monster back there and we've got to try to figure out how to stop it."

Against Flowery Branch, for instance, North Hall had the ball just five plays in the entire first half but scored twice and had a third TD called back on a penalty.

Christmas says whoever plays better defense will win - and he gives the edge to the Elephants

"If you look at how we've both played up to now, I think their defense has played better than ours has, though at times we've played pretty good defensively," Christmas said. "They have so many weapons (on offense). We're just going to have to play mistake-free to slow them down. It'll be a huge challenge."

Miller also says how his offense is able to move on the Trojans defense will be key

"We're getting better and better each week on offense and we just have to keep doing the little things necessary to win. But their defense is good, don't let anyone fool you," Miller said.

But Miller said mistakes will also play a factor

"Like all big games, whoever doesn't turn the ball over, whoever makes the fewer mistakes will win," he said.

Gainesville is led by quarterback Don Whitley, receiver Carlos Cobb and running backs Joseph Maheffey, John Castleberry.and Cedric Langston.