Our GHSA 7-A-Quarterfinal playoff previews are listed below. This preview features matchups between Lowndes-Grayson, Milton-Hillgrove, Tift County-Archer, and North Gwinnett-Colquitt County. Congratulations to these final 8 teams on a successful season. Best of luck to you all as you compete this Friday.
As always, thanks for reading. Please feel free to contact me if there are any errors.
Key:
TFR – Turd Ferguson Report
GSWA – Georgia Sports Writers Association
NR – Not Ranked
The Skinny
The Lowndes Vikings will be back on the road this week as they travel to Northeast Metro Atlanta to take on the Grayson Rams. Grayson has won both of the previous meetings between the two schools. Last week the Vikings got a big game from freshman Jacurri Brown, as he rushed for 135 yards and 1-TD. Travis Tisdale added 63 yards on the ground. The Vikings also got a defensive touchdown, en route to a shutout victory over Westlake. The Grayson Rams also had a big night from a young back as sophomore Phil Mafah rushed for 168 yard on 14 carries and scored a touchdown as the Rams downed Norcross. This week, we are interested to see if the Vikings can find any running lanes against a Grayson defense that features the likes of Owen Pappoe, Tru Thompson, and Kevin Harris. We like the Rams at home by a field goal over Lowndes.
The Skinny
The Milton Eagles are back in the quarterfinals for only the 3rd time in school history. Last week, Jordan Yates passed for 275 yards and 2-TDs to lead Milton over Mill Creek. The Georgia Tech commit has passed for 2,157 yards and 21-TDs on the season. The Hillgrove Hawks got past Walton on a last second field goal. Issaiah McCray and Tre Walker combined to lead the Hawks on the ground with 156 yards rushing. As most know, Hillgrove has done most of their damage on the ground this season. So can Milton slow down the Hawks run game? No one has been able to figure it out this season. But we think the Eagles figure it out and win this one by a field goal on the road.
The Skinny
Tift County has made the most of their “at-large” appearance in the 2018 playoffs. The Blue Devils are making their second consecutive quarterfinals appearance. Last week, Mike Jones carried the ball 21 times for 125 yards and 2-TDs as Tift came from behind to beat East Coweta. Jones has rushed for 1,130 yards on the season with 12-TDs while Patrick Felton has passed for 1,401 yards and 13-TDs this year. Archer also had a big week from Semaje Banks (95 yards rushing) and quarterback Carter Peevy (192 yards passing). The Blue Devils are racking up some travel miles, in 3 weeks they will have traveled well I excess of 1,100 miles roundtrip. We think Tift County runs out of gas this week. We like the Tigers by 10 at home on Friday.
The Skinny
This game is a rematch of the 2017 State Title game that went down to the wire last season. North Gwinnett got 3 touchdown passes from J.R. Martin while Ty Goodson added two rushing touchdowns in the win over West Forsyth. The only touchdown that North Gwinnett allowed last week was a fumble returned for a touchdown. The Colquitt County Packers got a big game from Ty Leggett and Daijuan Edwards as the two backs combined for 188 yards on the ground and 5 combined TDs. Colquitt surrendered the highest point total of the season on Friday night, allowing 29 points to McEachern. If the game comes down to special teams, we give the edge to Colquitt County and their kicker, Ryan Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has made 14 of 17 field goals, with a long of 57. We don’t think this game will come to that. We like Colquitt by two touchdowns over North Gwinnett.