Are you ready for some championship football?
This weekend, the Georgia Dome will play host to 10 football teams, representatives from just about every major state newspaper, and tens of thousands of fans from all over Georgia. For the first time ever, we get all of Georgia’s high school football championship games in one place, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Despite the different criticisms (and there are many) from fans about the new location for the championship games, it’s certainly exciting for people covering the games, and for fans of high school football in general, to be able to sit back and watch five title games in a row, if they so choose. There’s certainly something to be said about hosting 10 semifinal games over two days in the Dome—which was the old format—but the championship games are the big ones, the ones that will be remembered. It only makes sense to hold them at a neutral site, and for GPB to televise all of them (up until this year, GPB only broadcasted the Class 5A and 4A championship games). Yes, Camden County, Emanuel County Institute and Cairo have quite a hike to get to Atlanta; but is it fair to have a North Gwinnett travel to Lowndes for a state title game that was marred by terrible field conditions? The Dome serves to eliminate weather, thus making the playing field—literally—more even. Not to mention just about every other state in the union holds its title games in a central location. Truth is, seven out of the 10 teams participating in games this weekend have a very manageable commute to downtown Atlanta.
Now that I’m off my soapbox, let’s look at the matchups.
Peachtree Ridge always seems to be playing from behind coming into the postseason, even though the Lions garnered the No. 1 seed out of Region 7 (the previous two years, The Ridge was a four-seed and still excelled in the playoffs). Camden County is no surprise, but the Wildcats have come up short in the playoffs ever since their first and last state title in 2003. This should be a good one: does Peachtree keep the momentum going and make a quiet bid for a dynasty title?
Tucker-Marist. There’s no telling how this game will go. One thing I would bet the farm on is that it will be dramatically different than the 38-0 drubbing that Marist put on the Tigers back in Week 4. The saying goes, “It’s hard to beat a team twice.” Personally, I think the pressure is on Marist.
Flowery Branch is looked at as a Cinderella, but this team has as much talent (especially on the offensive side of the ball) as anyone in Class 3A. Cairo was a field goal away from a title last season, and can really run the ball. D-linemen Daniel Drummond and Izaan Cross (who also factor into the passing game on offense) will be challenged early and often by the Syrupmakers’ ground game.
Buford will be Buford, that we know … the question is, can Calhoun keep up with the Wolves’ offense? Calhoun is certainly capable of lighting up the scoreboard, as evidenced by the 180 total points the Yellow Jackets have put up in four playoff games. Both teams have underworked punters. The questions is, can Calhoun score enough, and slow Buford down enough, to make it a close game?
ECI is an interesting case. The Bulldogs have more talent than anyone in Class A, but haven’t rolled through the playoffs like they did last season on the way to a title (they didn’t win by less than 17 points last year in the postseason, but this year have won three games in the playoffs by one score or less). ECI has found a way to win, but Wesleyan is the hot team right now and is coming off the best win (over Lincoln County) that either team has managed in the postseason. This is perhaps the most intriguing game of the weekend, and unlike most observers, I think Wesleyan has a shot to pull off the upset.
Stay with Score Atlanta and GPB.org/football for continuous coverage of every game throughout the weekend. There will be a live online stream of each game on GPB.org, as well as a link to our “Road to the Dome” blog, which will give you up-to-the-second analysis of every title contest.
Ewalt can be reached at aewalt@scoreatl.com.
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