Class 3A Lower State Final Preivew

Rhythm vs. Rest. Which one means more late in the football season? We’re about to find out. In the Class 3A Lower State final, Gilbert and Camden will put their unbeaten records to the test against opponents who they’d face no shame in losing a game to. The Indians and Bulldogs are a couple of bruisers that both deserve a shot to play for a state championship next week at Spring Valley High School. Unfortunately, only one will move on to do just that. Whomever that is will almost certainly factor in the type of scoring bonanza we’ve seen from these two squads so far this year. Gilbert has dropped 46 offensive touchdowns on their foes so far this year, while Camden has 39. That’s a whole bunch of points. How did they do it? For the Indians, it starts with tailback <strong>Colton Mason</strong> (1,656 yards, 18 touchdowns). His 7.3 yards-per-carry average dipped some last week against Dillon with a paltry (we’re joking, of course) 6.4. However, that’s because he rushed 36 times for 230 yards. He failed to reach the end zone, but that’s because <strong>Izayah Whiteside</strong> took on the scoring duties. The Indians quarterback threw for three scores and 107 yards and rushed for another touchdown and 72 yards. It bumped up his season totals to 1,265 and 19 passing and another 208 and four on the ground. He’s sort of the wild card for this offense. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="59407" first="Jaffari" last="Pearson"]</strong> takes on that role for Camden. The senior quarterback has passed for 832 yards and eight touchdowns against three interceptions while rushing for 351 yards and 11 touchdowns. Those figures have come in six games, meaning he’s basically good for three scores every time the lights come on. Add in Camden tailback <strong>Willis Lane</strong> and the Bulldogs have every bit of the one-two punch Gilbert does. The 5-foot-8, 170-pound senior has gone over 100 yards in all six games this year, piling up 964 yards and 12 touchdowns. Because of a COVID-19 quarantine to start the year, a late-season bye week thanks to some scheduling woes and last week’s forfeit win over Oceanside Collegiate due to the Landsharks’ own COVID-19 issues, and Lane, Pearson and the rest of the Bulldogs have had to make due with the extremely limited time on the field they’ve gotten to this point. <strong>PREP RED ZONE’S PICK</strong> It’s awfully hard to go against Camden after the Bulldogs took down Class 5A power Byrnes in the regular-season finale and then found a way to win an absolute shootout against Brookland-Cayce to open the playoffs. But this Gilbert team has basically roughed up everyone, including the best team in the class over the last decade, Dillon, just last week. The Indians are our pick to compete for a state championship.