Run-oriented Stratford Eagles visit run-oriented Mt. Paran Eagles in line-of-scrimmage showdown

          Mount Paran is in its 10th season of football, and already, the Eagles are postseason veterans.

          They reached the playoffs in their third and fourth seasons, missed in the fifth. Since then, they’ve reached the quarterfinals every year and won the Class A private state title in 2014.

          “They’re accustomed to the playoffs,” Stratford head coach Mark Farriba said. “They’ve been a very solid program for the past several years.”

          As has Stratford, which makes the road trip to north of Atlanta to Marietta for the Class a private quarterfinal game Friday night.

          Farriba wasn’t thrilled with his Eagles overall in their 30-27 loss to Aquinas for the Region 7 championship.

          “I just don’t believe we were ready to play,” he said. “I thought they just beat us in every way. We didn’t look like we were ready to go play, to set the tone. We were more reactionary than we were trying to initiate the intensity, that attitude.”

          But he was happy with the timing of the first-round bye.

          “We were minus two starters against Aquinas, and another couple guys were just not very healthy,” said Farriba, 70-37 in his ninth season overall at Stratford. “In the long run, just to get the bye week was good for us because we needed some recovery time.”

          Upon dispatching Fellowship Christian last week, the local Eagles were able to then turn their full defensive attention to a rarely used offense.

          “They run the single wing, which is a unique offense in itself,” Farriba said of Mt. Paran. “As far as I know, they’re the only people around that we’ve played that runs it.”

          In the 53-12 win over Mount Vernon Presbyterian, Mt. Paran got a 70-yard kickoff return to set up a touchdown after Mount Vernon scored to pull within 7-6. The Eagles then blocked a punt to set up another touchdown, and the rout was on, with a 32-6 halftime lead.

          Cam Moore scored on runs of 7, 1 and 5 yards, and Niko Vangarelli had a 64-yard touchdown pass and an 8-yard scoring run to lead the Mt. Paran offense. Kyle Terry also gets snaps at quarterback, and he and Vangarelli teamed for nearly 300 yards in total offense last month in a win over St. Francis.

          Mt. Paran beat Fellowship Christian, Stratford’s opponent last week, 26-7 in late August. The lone loss was 14-10 to Class AAA Bremen on Sept. 1. Only the 31-24 win in game 10 over Mount Zion-Carroll was close in the regular season, the Eagles allowing only 20 points in a four game stretch.

          A benefit for Stratford is some familiarity, at least as far as coaches go. Mt. Paran beat visiting Stratford 45-14 in the first round of the 2014 playoffs, Stratford’s first year in the GHSA.

          “They’ve had a good tradition for the last several years,” Farriba said. “They won the championship in ’14, had just a dominant team.”

          Mt. Paran averaged 44 points a game that season on offense and 12 on defense. This year, it’s 36.8 points on offense and 11.5 on defense. Stratford counters with 35.5 and 14.8, the defense led by Tobe Umerah, Jamie O’Quinn, Sammy Martin and Tucker Massey.

          Quarterback Christian Palmer, a junior, is finding a groove, and at the perfect time.

          “I think our quarterback the last three games has really come on and played excellent for us,” Farriba said. “Our quarterback is one that’s kind of stepped up the last three weeks and played real well.”

          Palmer played JV last year as a transfer, and joined a varsity unit that had experience, so there was a learning curve and adjustment, but one Farriba knew Palmer could handle.

          “We felt really god about him, but this is his first year as a varsity quarterback,” Farriba said. “We really liked the guy. He’s a good leader, good teammate, great character, everything you want in a player, especially at your quarterback.”

          The Eagles will count on sophomore back Deondre Duhart as well in this battle of run-first teams, and postseason veterans.

          “Most of our guys, they’ve just been in there,” Farriba said. “The ones that just continuing to progress and getting better, doing what they’re doing, they get more comfortable. They’ve been in the same system their whole high school career, both sides of the ball.

          “That’s a good thing.”