Lamb, Bulldogs Prepared For Playoff Push

Clay County head Football Coach Bruce Lamb said the Bulldogs have worked hard all year to be in this exact position.

The Region Champions enter the postseason on a five-game win streak with an 8-2 record. Sale Creek will come into Celina at 4-6. Lamb said he has a tremendous respect for Panther Head Coach Jason Fitzgerald and expects their best performance of the season this Friday night.

“They like to line up and play power football,” Lamb said. “They’ve got a super athletic quarterback. And defensively, they try to sit back and let you make your own mistakes. So, we’re going to have to come out focused and ready to play.”

This season the Bulldogs have not lost a game at home, Lamb said the Celina crowd was as rowdy as it has been in years last week versus Gordonsville. He said there is a seemingly tangible excitement in the halls of the school and in the streets of Celina.

“It’s exciting for me just like it is for those guys, I feel like I’m one of them getting to go on and play,” Lamb said. “We talk about it, we talk about it every year, playing 15 games and that’s the goal. We’ve reached one of them, we won the region championship, and the next one is to win a state championship.”

The Bulldogs earned region champion honors by coming back from multiple second half 14 point deficits to defeat Gordonsville. Tiger quarterback J Foster put it on the Bulldogs before exiting the game with an injury, carrying the ball just twice for 77 yards and a score.

Lamb said he sees a lot of similarities between Sale Creek’s quarterback Khari Escobar and Foster.

“All we try to do is limit the big plays,” Lamb said. “You just try to contain them as best you can. You know they’re going to break one every now and then, but you just try to limit what they can do.”