Mike Chastain is like pretty much every coach: a little paranoid.

          Strategy-wise, naturally, he looks ahead. But putting together how much time is left and what the score is and how good his team is playing, he’s unlikely to allow for that oh-so-brief realization that no, his team isn’t going to lose on a certain night.

          He certainly had that opportunity last Friday, and admitted allowing for such a thought for a millisecond.

          “I thought when we hit that one before half,” the second-year Warner Robins head coach said. “I started to feel better. Still ...”   

          Warner Robins recovered a fumble inside the final minute, and got a 24-yard touchdown run from Jarius Burnette with less than 20 seconds left to take a 28-17 lead. The onslaught accelerated in the second half, and the Demons hammered Carrollton 63-24 in a Class 5A quarterfinal game.

          The reward, other than substantial momentum and a performance that left the Demons and their fans buzzing, comes Friday night when Warner Robins hosts Carver-Atlanta for one of two spots in the state championship game.

          Buford visits Rome in the other semifinal.

          The Demons got a slightly better scouting report than usual, since Carver had to get past Jones County 26-21 in another quarterfinal on Friday. But more than that, what Chastain saw on tape dazzled him.

          “All I know is they got Ezekiel Elliott, Julio Jones, and Cam Newton playing on offense,” he said. “I’m not kidding you, man.”

          Elliott is sophomore running back Jo’Quavious Marks, Jones is receiver Quindarious Monday, and Newton is quarterback Octavious Battle.

          “Those three guys on offense can you beat you,” Chastain said. “Those three guys will play on Sunday.”

          Battle, a 6-4, 200-pound senior, has completed 72.9 percent of his passes for 2,995 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 42 passes going to Monday, who goes 6-4 and 175, for 952 yards and 14 scores.

          Marks (5-11, 184) averages 10.8 yards a carry, and has 1,980 yards with 19 touchdowns.

          Battle was 16-of-21 for 240 yards and two touchdowns against Jones County, Monday catching four for 65 yards and the scores with Marks adding 106 yards on 24 carries. Battle also ran five times for 82 yards, including a 50-yarder.

          That is Carver’s strength, more than up front, and it’s led the Panthers to a region title and 12-1 record, and third trip to the semifinals, first since 1968.

          The Panthers’ lone loss is to Class 6A Alexander, which finished 6-5 and lost by five to Harrison in the first round of the playoffs. Carver lost 35-32 at home Clarke Atlanta in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

          A week after a nothing-but-suspense 26-23 win over Eagle’s Landing in overtime, the Demons came out sizzling and turned in their best game certainly in Chastain’s short tenure, and maybe one of the top five performances he’s been a part of.

          “I haven’t been in that situation a lot in my career,” Chastain said of when game plan and execution were both on an almost dream-like level. “They’re really a good football team, so to come out like that and play like we did ...

          “Everything was working for us, and we made play after play after play. The coaches had a really good game plan. Everything worked.

          “From a team perspective, that’s the best four quarters I’ve been a part of in my recent (memory).”

          Quarterback Dylan Fromm responded in near-perfect form after a rough three-interception game against Eagle’s Landing, going 25-for-35 for 357 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions and adding 77 yards on the ground.

          “It went from him not playing really good in the Eagle’s Landing game, just playing mediocre, to playing out of his mind,” Chastain said. “His best game? Yeah, I’d say so.

          “He made the right decisions, whereas with Eagle’s Landing, we sometimes didn’t make the right decisions. Should’ve hit some more checkdowns, shouldn’t have been so greedy, those kinds of things.”

          A balanced run attack had 207 yards on the ground, and Jaeven West caught six passes for 97 yards and Julius Cobbs five for 122.

          Chastain said the offense was on point and offensive coordinator Shane Sams had just as good a night calling plays.

          The defense gave up 17 first-half points, seven in the second half.

          The line of Jam’l Dillard, Dillon Braunstein and Dalton Hedden helped shut the door in the second half, along with linebackers Bobby Kelly, Christian Anderson, Jerquan Parrish and Ahmad Walker.

          “I thought our defensive line played really well,” Chastain said. “Their offensive line is tremendous, with a lot of prospects. Our defensive line stepped up to the challenge and played great. Our front seven played really good.”

          As gratifying as all that was, the challenge is to come close to repeating it.

          “We’ve got to do what we do,” Chastain said. “We’ve got to work on getting better at the things we do and not worry too much about what the other team is doing.

          “We’re going to do what we’re really good at.”