Fort Valley

As he sits in the office of his head coach, Camron Woolfolk is facing a trophy case that almost looks like a leftover storage area for all sorts of Peach County hardware, from more sports than just football.

And the Trojans have racked up their share of trophies in football. Another chance awaits, with the Trojans taking on Calhoun on Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Class AAA championship.

Woolfolk and the Trojans’ offensive line have been a primary reason for the program’s first trip to the finals since 2011 when the Trojans lost 28-14 to Burke County.

Woolfolk, a senior who has been at left tackle for several weeks, knew the offensive line was going to be a serious strength. And it’s not a veteran unit.

Guard Cedric Hillsman and center Dylan Perry are juniors, and guard Octavious King and tackle Jamarian Lockhart are sophomores. And primary backups – who see plenty of quality snaps – Terrance Ferguson, Delvin Jackson and Cameron Perry are underclassmen, too, with Ferguson a freshman who started early in the year before an injury sidelined him.

“We knew we needed to find five,” Woolfolk said of the preseason look at the offensive line. “Coach told us we needed to find a nickel, not four pennies. We had four. We need all five. We got that nickel we needed.”

And some change with about eight linemen playing every game when healthy. The result of that depth?

Quarterback Antonio Gilbert is the latest in a long line of quarterbacks who have started more than one year and turned their senior season into a highlight reel and full resume.

Gilbert has completed 69.7 percent of his passes, going 209 for 300 for 3,031 yards, 23 touchdowns and only one interception.

“Antonio, he’s very smart,” Woolfolk said, starting to grin. “It shocks me, because Antonio don’t look like the person to be that way. He’s very talented. I don’t know. He’s kind of a funny one.”

Woolfolk keeps grinning, trying to find the right words.

“He ain’t quiet at all,” Woolfolk said. “I feel like if you’ve never seen Antonio before, he wouldn’t look like a football-type player. He’s so goofy, plays around.”

Until 7:30 p.m. on a Friday shows up.

“He’s got a different personality when he steps on the field,” Woolfolk said. “He’s focused. Real focused.”

And upright, because of an offensive line that can keep him in the pocket or move around when he moves around. Then there’s the run blocking, which has paved the way for 2,509 yards on the ground, 179.2 a game and 6 yards a carry, no matter who is running.

Starter Chris Gibson has 747 yards, but his season ended in game 9 against Pike County. Trevon Woolfolk was almost sharing snaps with Gibson and took over, and he has 1,152 yards on 136 carries – 8.5 per try – and 20 touchdowns.

But that’s a key trait in this year’s Peach County team, stepping up.

Gibson went down, Woolfolk took over. Wideout Kearis Jackson went out for the year with a wrist injury against Pierce County, and Gilbert continued to find a variety of receivers. Millard Thomas has 37 catches for 600 yards, second to Jackson’s 47 and 852 on the team. But Terkel Jefferson and Noah Whittington, underclassmen, have 25 and 22 catches for 282 and 277 yards.

“All the wideouts, they compete every day to get better,” Cameron Woolfolk said. “They’re giving Antonio targets.”

The execution of the offensive line leads the way with all that, and helping Peach County to a program record 640 points this season (one more than Greater Atlanta Christian in AAA). The Trojans rank fourth in scoring in all classes in the GHSA, behind Warner Robins’ finale opponent Rome (720 points), Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy (Class A private, 687 points, 13 games) and Rabun County (Class AA, 661 points).

There’s been mild tweaking of the line, but it has been exemplary for 14 games.

“The offensive line, I thought it could be (special),” head coach Chad Campbell said. “We have more depth than we’ve had than I can remember, and they’re all gonna be back except for one kid (Woolfolk). We thought we could be pretty decent up front.”

And Campbell knows where the foundation of success is laid. Campbell has groused about the line’s performance at times, and it still has paved the way for big wins. Now, it’s on a roll, coming off a semifinal win in which it sustained long drives and controlled the line of scrimmage.

“We didn’t have a lot of big, explosive plays last week,” Campbell said of the 28-23 win at Greater Atlanta Christian. “We methodically had good drives. We’d get 7 (yards), we’d get 12, we’d get 5, we’d get 3, we’d get 12, we’d get 15. Wasn’t no big plays. We took what they gave us.

“It was good for us. We kept their offensive off the field. Same thing for Friday. We want to control the game.”