Baker School's football team has plenty to be proud about after the Gators beat Graceville 21-7 Friday for their first playoff win since 2001.
However, the work is only starting if Baker is to make a run for its first state championship since 1993. But as Gator Coach Matt Brunson said after the win over the Tigers, “You have to win the first one before you can get on a roll in the playoffs.”
Any team that wins the Class 1A state championship will earn it. The eight teams left in the Class 1A playoffs have a combined record of 65-13.
Four teams — Baker, Vernon, Trenton and Dixie County — have won 10 games.
Trenton is the defending Class 1A state champion and Blountstown, the 2013 runner up, is still in the hunt after beating Liberty County last week.
The Gators will be tested Friday when they travel to Vernon to take on a red hot Yellow Jacket team that has won 10 straight games. Vernon has averaged 44.2 points a game while holding its opponents to 9.2 points a game, during the winning streak.
That’s not to say the Yellow Jackets can’t be beaten. They lost their season opener 27-16 to a Chipley team that finished the year with a 3-9 record.
And it’s not always wise to look at how many points a team has scored. Some coaches don’t mind pouring it on the opposition, but Brunson is one of the quickest coaches I’ve seen to take his foot off the accelerator when a game is well in hand.
One of my favorite sayings from the old television Western, "The Big Valley," comes from Heath Barkley. Heath once said, “There ain’t a horse that can’t be rode and there ain’t a man that can’t be throwed.”
Heath Barkley might not have been grammatically correct, but his point is pertinent when it comes to things like high school football playoffs. Another way to put it is expect the unexpected on any given Friday night.
Brunson has done a tremendous job in his four years at Baker. In his 42 games as the Gator head coach the team is 33-9 and has back-to-back District 1-1A championships and10-win seasons.
Brunson was an assistant coach under Jeff Webb in 1993 when the Gators won their last state championship. I recently saw Webb, who is retired and living in DeFuniak Springs, at the Baker-South Walton game. Webb told me he thinks this year Brunson has done his best job of coaching a group of kids and getting the most out of them.
Brunson will need to do another great coaching job Friday night if the Gators are to advance to the semifinals. At this point in the season every game is worth fighting for and anything is possible.
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Anything possible in playoffs