Week 2 Football Preview: Northeast and Southwest clash, ACE opens season against Central

With Week 1 finally over after the long wait for football season, most of Macon’s teams have the first-game jitters out of the way and are ready to dig into the rest of the schedule.

The opening week had some zany close games and some blowouts, but every team learned something about itself regardless of the final score. Here’s a look at some of the key games coming up in Week 2.

Northeast (0-1) @ Southwest (1-0), at Thompson Stadium

Last meeting: 2024, Northeast won 36-14. Last week: Northeast lost 33-14 at Peach County, Southwest beat Macon County 38-13.

The rivalry of streaks picks up for the 56th time when the 1-0 Patriots welcome the 0-1 Raiders to the Raiders’ home field.

Northeast has won seven straight in the series and leads 30-25. This streak came after Southwest won four straight, following a five-game Raiders’ run — that’s how the series has been.

The Raiders unveiled some new offensive schemes in Friday’s 33-14 loss at Class 3A Peach County. Freshman quarterback Jordan Wiggins, son of head coach Jeremy, made his debut, subbing in and out with returning quarterback Bam Glover. He had a nice game on the ground, but Northeast’s passing game struggled.

The son of another head coach was not part of the preseason conversation but was in uniform anyways
Friday night when Southwest’s Chase Dupree led the Patriots to a 38-13 win over Macon County for their first season-opening win since 2020. It was Southwest’s biggest win over a playoff-caliber team since the Patriots beat Macon County 31-0 in Week 2 of the 2019 season.

Aside from a few miscues — a bad snap and a special teams coverage bust were the only things that allowed Macon County to get on the board — Southwest played lights-out defense and moved the ball with ease on offense. The Patriots’ defense held power-4 prospect Noah Parker and the Bulldogs’ run game in check.

Northeast hasn’t opened 0-2 since 2022, and Southwest hasn’t been 2-0 since 2009.

ACE (0-0) @ Central (0-1), at Ed Defore, 7 p.m.

Last meeting: ACE won 38-6 at home in 2024. Last week: ACE did not play, Central lost 51-14 against Dougherty.

In an intra-Macon matchup with a much shorter history, relative newcomer ACE once more takes on Central in an early-season matchup.

The Gryphons may have only been playing football since 2018, but they have clashed with the Chargers every year since 2022 and won all three meetings handily. Nonetheless, ACE head coach Keith Hatcher was in the stands for Central’s season opener Thursday afternoon scouting the competition.

“He’s a hard-working coach and he’s always going to be a challenging opponent,” Central head coach Jarrett Laws said after the Chargers’ loss to Dougherty last week. “We gotta get in better shape and we gotta count. Coach Hatcher is one of the best coaches at manipulating numbers and making your kids think. We’ve gotta go through all the possibilities of what could happen from an alignment standpoint.

“We’ve gotta get a little tougher. We have to be more aggressive on the line of scrimmage, and we have to learn how to count. They’re not gonna make it any easier on us.”

The Gryphons’ 38-6, 48-0 and 32-6 wins in the three all-time meetings don’t bode well for the Chargers, who showed flashes on offense but had trouble on defense against Dougherty last week. Central did score two touchdowns and notch a safety against the 3A Trojans, marking a better start than last season.

ACE has yet to play a game but will look to get off to a running start. Quarterback Ace Hatcher has more reps and running back Bryson Vincent should finally get a full season after going down with an ankle injury in last year’s opener against the Chargers.

Mount de Sales (0-1) vs. Deerfield-Windsor (1-0)

Last meeting: Deerfield-Windsor won 35-14 in 2024. Last week: Mount de sales lost 28-26 to Loganville Christian, Deerfield-Windsor defeated Southland Academy 35-13

The Cavaliers brought a lot of starters back from a very young team last season but could not finish off a game against Loganville Christian Academy in the season opener, as they went for a two-point conversion to tie things up in the fourth quarter but came up short on the road.

The loss came after Mount de Sales defeated the Lions 47-35 at home to start last season. Now the Cavaliers will hope for another reversal against the Knights, who are the defending state champions of GIAA Class 3A, after losing to them last year 35-14.

Mount de Sales is 5-12 all-time against Deerfield-Windsor and had won the last two meetings prior to 2024’s loss, both under former Cavs head coach Keith Hatcher. Prior to that, though, the Knights won seven straight meetings between the two teams dating back to 2001.

While Deerfield-Windsor’s championship roster did list 12 seniors on MaxPreps last year, this year’s squad opened the school’s title defense with a convincing win over Class 2A Southland Academy.

Young quarterback Zavion DeShazier and the Cavaliers will try to open at home on a high note Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Other Macon games

Those three games are the only ones in town, as every other Macon squad hits the road or gets an early week off.

The Tattnall Trojans (0-1) have a difficult road trip, travelling right back to Columbus after a disheartening 49-6 loss at Brookstone to begin the season. 

They will face St. Anne-Pacelli (0-1), which looks to bounce back from a blowout loss at the hands of Stratford. The Trojans have played the Vikings five times — none of those in head coach Barney Hester’s first stint at Tattnall — and have a 4-1 record against them, including a 27-0 win last season.

Stratford had perhaps the best Week 1 of any Macon team when it manhandled Pacelli 49-17 in its opener. It was an even bigger win for the Eagles than their 27-13 victory over the Vikings last season and signified another strong start to the year for head coach Paul Carroll in his second season at Stratford.

The Eagles will try to continue that fast start against GIAA 3A Pinewood Academy in Bellville. Stratford defeated the Patriots 48-7 last season at home.

After a momentum-building, typical last-second victory against cross-town rival Howard, Westside (1-0) will travel to Prince Avenue Christian (1-0) for a challenging matchup against one of the state’s top private school teams in Athens. The Wolverines were dominant last season, winning their region and earning the No. 5 seed in the bracket before they it all the way to the GHSA Private School State Championship last season. Georgia High School Football Daily ranked Prince Avenue Christian as the No. 1 private school team in the state in its power rankings after Week 1.

The difficult matchup for Westside replaces what would have been the home side of a two-year series with First Baptist Academy, a private school in Naples, Florida. The Seminoles have never played Prince Avenue Christian.