CAIRO – Cairo’s return to the field Friday night after a pre-playoff bye week ended in the Syrupmakers’ first playoff victory since 2022.
Cairo kicker Dray Bass booted five field goals, the Syrupmakers recovered their own kickoff in the end zone for a touchdown and the Region 1-AAA champs throttled the visiting Liberty County Panthers 36-7 in the first round of the state playoffs.
It was the Syrupmakers’ ninth straight win and sets up a second-round matchup with Troup County, a 45-14 winner over Westover, at West Thomas Stadium. Liberty County ends its season at 7-4.
“That was good to come out and get a first-round (win),” said Cairo head coach David Coleman. “We’ve got to execute better in a lot of different things that we need to work on and improve going into next week.”
Led by Xiquavian Teal’s 106 yards, the Syrupmakers ran for 162 yards as a team and threw for 111 more. But the Syrupmakers only managed two offensive touchdowns, a 46-yard pass from Bryce Puckett to Bryian Duncan and a Jaylen Teall’s 9-yard gallop.
Bass connected on field goals of 31, 40, 20, 23 and 43 yards.
“We’ve just got to execute better and keep preparing each day,” Coleman said. “Dray Bass did a great job with the opportunities that he had. He had plenty of them and did a great job in converting them. That phase of our game was good tonight.”
Special teams play was especially strong for the Syrupmakers. They blocked a punt early in the first quarter, leading to Bass’ first field goal.
With Cairo up 3-0, Bryce Puckett hit Bryian Duncan out of the backfield, and the Syrupmakers star running back turned that into a 47-yard touchdown pass to give the Syrupmakers a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter.
After Duncan’s catch and run, Liberty failed to haul in a pooch kick deep into Panthers territory. The ball bounced into the end zone, and the Syrupmakers recovered for a 17-0 lead.
The Panthers got on the board with a 72-yard touchdown run, but Bass kicked two more field goals to give Cairo a 23-7 lead at the half. Bass opened the third quarter with his fourth field goal of the game, and Teall’s TD in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach.