In Part I of our Eight Greats Around the State we take a look at one of the titans in class A over the last few years, the ELCA Chargers. ELCA travels to Pace Academy and puts their 37 game win streak on the line Friday night…Stratford Academy will travel over to Savannah to take on the Savannah Country Day Hornets. The Hornets will be looking for their first win in that series. Ware County steps up in competition from last week and will visit the Burke County Bears, who lost a heartbreaker last week to Benedictine. Finally, we preview the Ridgeland-Troup County game. Ridgeland is looking to bounce back after a tough loss to Calhoun while the Troup Tigers look to get their season off to a fast start with their high-octane offense.
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Key:
TFR – Turd Ferguson Report
GSWA – Georgia Sports Writers Association
NR – Not Ranked
The Skinny
The Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy Chargers, (better known as ELCA) have not lost a football game in 37 times out. They have dominated Class A during that time. This week, they look to get a stiff test from Class AAA Pace Academy. Last week, ELCA was again led by quarterback Brayden Rush and running back Keaton Mitchell. Both Mitchell and Rush accounted for all of the touchdowns for the Chargers and all of them were on the ground. Keaton accounted for 4 while Rush accounted for 2.
The ELCA defense will need to slow down running back Keashawn Perryman and wide receiver Jaylen Thomas. The Knights rushed for 224 yards last week. Both of these teams have the ability to put up some big numbers on the ground. We believe the ELCA survives a close game on the road and beats Pace by two field goals this week.
The Skinny
The Ware County Gators got their season off to a great start by overpowering Pine Ridge out of Florida. The Gators were able to score on 2 special teams plays and got a huge performance from sophomore running back, Dream Gainer. Coach Stephens will return home to Burke County where he knows that Burke will be a step up in competition for his youthful Gators. Burke County lost a heart-breaker to Benedictine in the wee-hours of Sunday Morning in the final game of the Erk Russell Classic.
One of the keys for Ware County will be their ability to slow down the Burke County ground game led by running back Leon McGee and quarterback Juanya Dove. The two combined for 315 yards and 3 TDs. This game has the makings of being a classic that goes down to the wire. We like Burke to defend home turf and win this one by less than a field goal.
The Skinny
The Ridgleand Panthers will host the Troup Tigers on Friday as they hope to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Calhoun. Ridgeland showed signs of explosiveness last week, but they game got away from them in the second half. Jordan Blackwell showed was impressive at running back for the Panthers, rushing for 142 yards on 14 carries. This week they will host a Troup County Tigers team that is looking for a replacement at quarterback Montez Crowe. Whoever coach Glisson plugs in at quarterback will have several weapons around him including wide receivers, Jamari Thrash and Kobe Hudson and running back Mark Anthony Dixon.
The Troup County defense will be led by linebackers King Mwikuta (an Alabama signee) and Joko Willis. Troup will look to pass the ball all over the field, we think they will be about to create matchup problems for the Ridgeland DBs. This one could be a shootout, but we like Troup by 10 points on the road.
The Skinny
The Savannah Country Day Hornets will try to beat the Stratford Academy Eagles for the first time in five tries. The Hornets will be looking to replace All-State running back Adam Byck and four starters along the offensive line. Savannah Country Day does return three of their top receivers from last season, led by Win Johns. We won’t be surprised if quarterback Cole Gambino looks for Johns early and often.
Stratford Academy will begin the 2018 looking to continue their tradition of deep playoff runs. Last season the Eagles advanced to the quarterfinals. We expect for Stratford to rely on the legs of Deondre Duehart and the arm of Christian Palmer to shoulder a lot of the production on offense. This game should be closer than last season’s matchup, but we like Stratford to win on the road by 10.