Syrupmakers set to take on the Drew Titans here Friday night

The Cairo Syrupmakers open the 2010 football season this Friday night against the Drew High School Titans. Drew, located in Riverdale, Ga., in Metro Atlanta, is a member of region 4-AAA and will be playing its first full varsity schedule this season.
Last season, the Titans were 1-5 against several other first-year programs. Its lone win came against Arabia Mountain in Lithonia. Drew lost to another first-year team, Locust Grove, twice last season. Now, the Titans must quickly adjust to playing a full varsity schedule without a senior class. Junior Rasha Bennett will take over the starting quarterback job in coach Garrett Laws’ multiple spread offense.
One thing the team won’t lack is speed. All four members of the school’s first 400-meter relay team that won the Clayton County Championship last spring. The foursome of Jadarius West, Devon Miller, Bradley Street and Tim Barnes gives the team some speed on defense. “We are going to try and maximize the speed,” said coach Laws.
“Although they are basically a new school, they draw students from Mt. Zion and North Clayton High School, which are playoff contenders just about every year,” said Cairo coach Tom Fallaw. “They have a lot of team speed and athletes that have experience at their other schools,” Fallaw added.
In building a new team from the ground up, coach Laws called Cairo looking for a game. “They called us looking for a game, and we wanted to get a nonregion AAA game on the schedule for a possible tie breaker,” Fallaw said.
The Syrupmakers defeated Tift County 3-2 in their preseason game two weeks ago. “We saw some good things and we saw some things we want to keep working on. This time of year, nobody is going to be where they need to be, but our goal is to be there when we hit our region games and work toward making the playoffs,” said Fallaw.
Game time this Friday night is set for 7:30 p.m. at West Thomas Stadium.