<p>Harrells’ Devin Gardner rounds the corner last Friday night and picks up nice yards for his Crusaders. Harrells will host the first round of the playoffs tonight.</p>

Harrells’ Devin Gardner rounds the corner last Friday night and picks up nice yards for his Crusaders. Harrells will host the first round of the playoffs tonight.

Harrells Christian Academy will get their postseason adventure underway this evening, hosting Cabarrus Acaddemy out of Concord in the NCISAA Division II Playoffs. With postseason play limited to just four teams, the competition is surely to step up big time tonight. Let’s jump right on in and breakdown this battle.

The Warriors come into this contest boasting a 5-2 overall record and an undefeated 4-0 mark in the NCISAA Piedmont Conference. An impressive record, no doubt, but Cabarrus actually have a pair of common foes from this season with HCA: North Raleigh Christian and Hickory Grove Christian. The Crusaders picked up solid wins over both schools, but for the Warriors, they split with those teams, defeating NRCA 21-14 and falling to HGCA 16-15. Looking at this initial head to head comparison, HCA has the advantage here.

We’ve talked all season about the strong offensive weapons the Crusaders spotlight: Devin Gardner, Xavier Arrington, Ethan Spell, and Isaac Underwood. Those four guys have seen a lot of the action this season, and while Gardner is clearly the workhorse of the group, all four could explode for a big play at any time. For instance, Spell’s bouncing off at least three defenders last week for a touchdown run from midfield. The Crusaders defensive frontline is also a solid core of athleticism and offenses have not had easy success this year agains that HCA defense.

It goes without saying that Harrells is more than capable of taking home the win tonight.

But, what exactly does Cabarrus have to offer? Well, peaking at their stats from this season, the first thing that jumps out is the passing game. The Warriors may be the first team that could truly test the Crusaders through the air. Freshman quarterback Tyler Green has passed the rock 173 times, completing 95 of those attempts for 1,308 yards and eight touchdowns against just four interceptions.

In the rushing department, Cabarrus has far less yards, compiling just 611 total yards on the ground. Another freshman, Will Jones, leads that category with 438 yards on 113 carries.

It looks like Harrells could expect to see a blended effort, but clearly the Warriors bread and butter is their passing game.

Can the Crusaders shut that down and advance to next week’s Division II Championship? It’ll be interesting to see how they respond to a pass-heavy offense but they have, in fact, shown this season that when teams do pass the ball, the Crusaders haven’t had a ton of trouble counter-measuring it. Will be fun to see!

Game time tonight, barring any changes from the recent heavy rains, is set for 6 p.m. Should the schools decide on the contingency plan, kick off will be moved to Friday evening.

Reach Sports Editor Daron Barefoot at [email protected].