Part II of our Week-3, Eight Greats Around the State features a top-10 battle as North Georgia and South Georgia clash when Lowndes travels to Parkview…Upset minded Peach County will travel to Leesburg to take on the defending Class 6A state champion Lee County Trojans. Class 3A Peach County is no slouch. Not only are they the 3A runner-up from 2017, they also knocked off 6A Warner Robins last week and have the pedigree to pull the upset…The Jones County Greyhounds will travel to Warner Robins to face the Northside Eagles. Will their passing attack be as efficient against Northside? And finally, in a battle of 4A powers, defending state champion Blessed Trinity travels to College Park to face Woodward Academy. There are some great games going on all across the state. Make sure to get out and support these young men and their communities!
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Key:
TFR – Turd Ferguson Report
GSWA – Georgia Sports Writers Association
NR – Not Ranked
The Skinny
The Lowndes Vikings will visit the Parkview Panthers in an early season 7A top-10 matchup. Both teams have been relatively untested early on in the season, but all of that will change on Friday in the Big Orange Jungle. Lowndes is led on offense by quarterback Andrew Koenemann, running back Travis Tisdale and receiver Tony Wiseman. The Vikings have been able to run and pass the ball effectively. So the Panthers will have their work cut out for them.
One of the battles to watch will be along the line of scrimmage. It will be interesting to see if Justin Triplet and Bryce Wilson can disrupt the Lowndes attack. For Parkview Jordan Williams and Jakeim Thompson led the way on offense. Malik Washington is always a big play threat for the Panthers. It will be interesting to see if the bye week help or hurt Parkview or if the long trip from Valdosta to Lilburn will have an effect on the Vikings. Lowndes is no stranger to traveling, but this team is untested. Even still, we like the Vikings by the slimmest of margins to get the win on the road by 1.
The Skinny
Peach County pulled off a big upset in Macon as they beat Northside Warner Robins last Saturday. This week they will attempt to duplicate that success against class 6A power, Lee County in a battle of the Trojans. Last week, running back Preston Simmons led the Lee County attack, scoring 3-TDs and picking up 79 yards on the ground. The Trojans will also be looking for someone to step in for Chauncey Magwood as he may be unavailable for this game.
The Peach County defense will be led by Clemson commit, Sergio Allen. They yielded 24 points to Northside Warner Robins last week, but may be facing a more difficult foe. Quarterback Jaydon Gibson accounted for three touchdowns last week; two through the air and one on the ground. While Peach County looks to be a contender in 3A we think Lee County is just too much this week. We like Lee by two touchdowns.
The Skinny
The Northside Warner Robins Eagles will look to get back on track this week, but the opponent won’t be an easy one. The Jones County Greyhounds will bring their aerial assault into McConnell-Talbert Stadium on Friday night looking to go 3-0. Jones County is led by Hunter Costlow, who passed for 229 yards and 3 TDs last week against Baldwin. Jontavis Robertson and Maleek Wooten had big games receiving whil Semaj Ingram picked up over 100 yards for the Greyhounds.
Northside will counter with an offense led by quarterback Jadin Daniels and running back Eric Smith. The Eagles are averaging 210 yards per game on the ground early in the season, but Daniels has attempted 40 passes. So Northside isn’t afraid to mix up the run and the pass to keep the defense honest. Tubby McCall will lead the Eagles secondary as they try to slow down Maleek Wooten and company. Northside has owned this series, but the Greyhound passing game will be difficult to contain. This has the makings of a shoot-out, and we like Jones County by a field-goal to pull the upset.
The Skinny
The defending 4A state champion travels to College Park to take on the Woodward Academy War Eagles. Blessed Trinity has a very talented roster. The Titans come into this week after two dominating performances to open up the season. If Woodward is going to slow down the Titan express, they’ll need to find a way to slow down Elijah Green and Steele Chambers. The two backs have combined for 281 yards rushing and 4-TDs not he ground. And even if Woodward can slow down the ground game, Jake Smith is a veteran quarterback and has a veteran receiver in Ryan Davis who doesn’t miss many passes thrown in his vicinity. Davis has already hauled in 10 receptions and 1-TD this season.
The War Eagles are no slouch. The bounced back after a mild upset in week-1. Mark Wright and Tahj Gary will key the offense. Wright is a dual-threat quarterback who has passed for 213 yards on the season and rushed for 232. While Gary is averaging an astonishing 18.4 yards per carry through two games. Woodward is an extremely talented team, but we don’t believe there is enough fire-power for the War Eagles to hang with Blessed Trinity for four quarters. Blessed Trinity pulls away late and wins by 13.