There is not some magical math equation that French Camp Academy has to solve in order to earn a spot in the MHSAA Class 1A State Football Playoffs that are set to kick off on Nov. 11. Win on Friday night and the Panthers are in. It's a simple as that.
FCA improved to 4-7 overall and 4-3 in Region 3-1A play with a 49-8 win over Ethel last Friday night. If the Panthers beat visiting Leake County on Friday night at 7, French Camp will earn the No. 4 seed out of the region for the playoffs.
Nanih Waiya leads the region with a 7-0 mark, followed by Sebastopol at 6-1, Noxapater at 5-2 and McAdams and French Camp at 4-3. FCA owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over McAdams.
Leake County comes into Friday night's game with a 3-7 overall mark and 2-5 league mark.
"On paper it is going to come down to the last game of the year," said FCA head coach Nathan Wright. "We are both (FCA and McAdams) in the same place, but we beat them. As long as we win, we are in. Coming into the season reaching the playoffs was a goal of ours, just like it is every year. ONce you get in, anything can happen. Now we are just one game away from that."
Wright believes his Panthers will have a healthy respect for the Gators going into Friday's game.
"We are not in the place where we can take anybody for granted," he said. "We will need to prepare and play our best."
The veteran head coach said he was very pleased with his team's effort against Ethel last week.
"We expected a tough game," Wright said. "We started a little bit slow, but we do that a lot. I thought defensively we had our best game."
FCA scored three touchdowns in the second quarter and four in the third to take the win.
Kendall Coleman scored on touchdown runs of 32 and 10 yards in the second quarter and then added a 13-yard scoring jaunt in the third quarter.
French Camp's other first-half touchdown came on a 21-yard pass from Holman Edwards to Aaron Witt. Ethel scored late in the half, as the Panthers led 21-6 at the break.
The third quarter saw Holman Edwards score on a two-yard run, Bradley Edwards score on a 13-yard run and Skylyr Effler return a fumble 46 yards for a score. Bradley McGlothin was good on all seven of his extra point attempts.
Coleman rushed for 119 yard on 13 carries, while Edwards ran the ball 10 times for 95 yards and hit on 10-of-18 passes for 110 yards.
Braxton Bright, Bruce Wood, Colin Perry and Coleman caught two passes each, while Fletcher Travis and Witt each had one reception.
Coleman and Wood each intercepted a pass for the winners, while Effler and Zac Gilmer each had a fumble recovery.
