It all sounds very heady.

Playing on the field that’s home to the top team in college football.

A second state championship in three years.

High expectations.

Soaring emotions.

But Keith Etheredge didn’t want to hear about it.

“We’re not playing into any of that stuff,” he said as the Leeds Green Wave was on its way to Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium to play for the Class 3A state title.  “The atmosphere will be a little different, but it’s just another game for us.”

Leeds’ schedule was loaded with big games this season – the coach particularly noted Handley, Clay County twice, Bayside Academy, and Gordo – but it’s hard not to see today’s 11 a.m. match-up with the Hamilton Aggies as the Green Wave’s biggest.

Both teams remain undefeated after last week’s semifinals, Hamilton having eliminated defending state champion Piedmont and Leeds rolling on momentum from a 25-7 win against Gordo.  The Aggies have outscored their playoff opponents 109-42, while the Green Wave has won by a cumulative margin of 113 points.

Stats and earlier wins aside, Etheredge said, “our situation is that we’re not finished yet.  Our goal at the start of the season was to be 15-0 and win a state championship, so this game is about finishing what we started.”

To do that, Leeds will have to get past what the coach described as a good, fast football team.  “They’re not one of the biggest teams we’ve played, but they have a lot of speed.  Their quarterback is a real threat. He’s fast, he can do a lot of things, and he plays on defense.  What we’re going to do is get the ball out on the perimeter and let our backs go at him.  Tackling our backs should be a tall order for him.”

Etheredge said he expects senior running back Deadrick Forsythe to make it an especially tall order.  “He does well in big games.  Your real good players peak at the right times.”

The right time for Forsythe was last Friday at Gordo, when he accounted for 258 of Leeds’ 336 yards of total offense. He’d racked up 200 yards rushing by the end of the first half and scored three touchdowns on runs of 72, 44, and 23 yards.

Jonathan Rose provided the Green Wave’s other touchdown, returning a kickoff 98 yards to answer a Gordo scoring drive that began after Leeds lost a fumble.  Ronnie Sheppard and Ronald Woods, who made 15 and 10 tackles, respectively, led the defense, along with Jermaine Smith, whose third quarter interception set up Forsythe’s final touchdown.

“Our defense has played well all year, and I expect the same thing from them (today),” Etheredge said, hoping that the defense will allow the offense as much time as possible on the field. “We want to control the pace, we want to control the line of scrimmage, and we want to control the football. They have a lot of weapons they can use on offense, so the longer we keep our hands on the football, the better off we’ll be.”

And as much as he wanted to downplay the emotional significance of the game, the coach expects it to be bittersweet, regardless of the outcome. 

“This will be the last high school football game for many in the winningest group ever to come through Leeds.  We have a great senior group, and most of them were on the state championship team two years ago.  It’s going to be emotional for all of us after the game.  Hopefully it will be a good emotion, because these guys want to make a statement, go out with a bang, and end it in a big fashion.  I think it will be the ending they deserve.”