Friday night stakes: what’s on the line this week

Published 10:30 am Wednesday, November 1, 2017

CORDELE — This week will mark the end of the regular season for Georgia High School Association schools and the beginning of the state playoffs for teams in the Georgia Independent School Association.

Crisp County (7-1, 3-0) has locked up their second consecutive Region 1-AAA crown after defeating Dougherty in the Den on Friday night. The Cougars will be finishing out the season with a home game against Worth County (0-9, 0-3). Worth, once projected to challenge the Cougars for the region title and finish second, has had a nightmare of a year.

The Rams have been outscored by a total of 223 points, including an average margin of defeat of 20 points in region play.

Crisp County has shown improvement every week, something Head Coach Brad Harber has said is needed. The Cougars have scored 125 points in the three region games they have played, while only giving up 13 points per game.

The only question to be brought up in this game is if Crisp County will be looking ahead to a week to its first round matchup against Tattnall County (3-5) on November 10.

Wilcox County(2-7, 1-5) will also end the regular season at home, taking on Atkinson County (1-8, 1-5).

The Patriots are coming off a crushing 21-20 loss to Turner County last Friday, while Atkinson has lost the past two games by 40 points each.

This is a must win game for Wilcox County to keep any post season hope alive. The Patriots are ranked No. 28 in the standings and on the outside looking in. They’ll need some help with Telfair County needing to lose to No.7 Clinch County.

Wilcox County will be looking to snap three straight losses against the Rebels and a chance to post their best record since 2014.

Two schools, Crisp Academy and Fullington Academy are both hosting their respective first round state playoff games this Friday night.

Crisp Academy has locked up home field advantage up until the state championship following a 10-1 regular season. The best season in school history has seen the Wildcats capture the 8-man division South Region title and will have them take on No.4 seed People’s Baptist Academy (3-7, 1-4).

Crisp Academy should find a way to pull this out as the Knights are apt to giving up big plays and have a porous defense, allowing an average of 34.6 points per game. The Wildcats are firing on all cylinders, scoring 186 points in the last three games, while People’s Baptist has lost the past two games.

Fullington Academy will host Sherwood Christian Academy this week for its classification’s opening round. Both teams are no strangers to one another, having played earlier this season on August 18.

The Trojans are coming in with some confidence, having defeated SCA by a score of 46-38. This will be the only home game that Fullington will play during the state playoffs, having secured the No. 2 seed, if they win they will have to travel to Skipstone Academy.

Overall, it sets up to be a good week for locals teams. Contributing Writer Joe Joe Wright has already predicted the Cougars to roll over Worth County. Dooly County has been a hot team as of lately and look to have a big game from the quarterback and defense to lock up a state berth.

Wilcox comes out on top in a must win situation and the two private schools (Fullington and Crisp Academy) advance to the State Quarterfinals following a blowout win by CA and another tight win by FA.