HS Football preview: Northeast finally clashes with Dublin, Tattnall and Stratford meet

The high school football playoffs are rapidly approaching, and Week 9 features some big games for region positioning that got rescheduled. A showdown between two undefeated region juggernauts in A-Division I, a quest for a first win at home in 2A and another GIAA rivalry headline this Friday’s slate.

Northeast @ Dublin

Originally postponed after Hurricane Helene ravaged much of the Southeast and flipped football schedules around across the state, Region 2-A Division I’s biggest game of the year is back on the menu this week.

Both squads have another notch on their belts, as the Raiders manufactured a second-half comeback against Bleckley County last Thursday while the Fighting Irish dispatched of the ACE Gryphons with ease the following Friday night to stay undefeated in the region.

Dublin is undefeated overall as well, but has perhaps faced lower quality competition than Northeast, as the Raiders were tasked with knocking off a strong Peach County team in the season opener — without its star offensive player in Nick Woodford and rolling out a new QB, Northeast lost in blowout fashion.

But the Raiders have not faltered since, rolling to a 5-0 record without having a particularly close game until the 33-30 win against the Royals last week. That game, a home affair in which Northeast went down 23-12 at the half, tested the Raiders’ late-game resolve in a way few other contests have so far this year.

Penalties and discipline have been issues for Northeast at times — a dominant 46-0 win over local rival ACE was blemished only by an array of flags that disgruntled head coach Jeremy Wiggins — but those issues looked cleaner against Bleckley.

The Fighting Irish have looked dominant, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. A fault for Dublin was its supposedly weak schedule, though they’ve put some of those qualms to rest after thoroughly manhandling ACE 48-3 last week.

That win also gave the Irish defense some more bragging rights, as they had allowed some teams to get on the board a little too often despite the Dublin offense giving them a cushion. The Gryphons had as many interceptions, five, as they did completions last week.

With each team’s reputation as a region powerhouse settled, all that’s left is the game itself. The matchup should loom large in playoff seeding with the two tied atop the standings. Dublin may have a home field advantage, but Wiggins and
Northeast look stronger than they have in the past.

-Micah Johnston

Tattnall vs. Stratford

A week of tough practices culminates in the 59th meeting between the Eagles and Trojans.

Each team will have a more strenuous week of prep for different reasons, though.

Stratford (6-2/1-1) head coach Paul Carroll will be focusing on toughness and being physical, the Eagles coming off a 28-14 loss to FPD in which the Vikings were stronger up front, despite Stratford running more plays.

The Vikings didn’t give standout Stratford running back Tyler Stephens any room or momentum into the secondary, holding him to three carries of 10 yards or more, and to his second-lowest yardage total (75) in seven games.

FPD put something on a beating on quarterback Connor Fitzpatrick, too, whose quick feet make it hard to get a solid hit on. He couldn’t break out much running and completed less than 50% of his passes.

But he has 1,035 yards passing this season and 12 touchdowns to five interceptions, plus 412 rushing yards and six scores.

Tattnall (5-1/1-0) drew texting and social media attention Friday night, but for the wrong reasons.

The Trojans couldn’t get out of their own way for more than a half against Mount de Sales, which was looking for its first win over one of the three city rivals since edging Tattnall 24-21 at the end of the 2020 season, a 6-5 year for the Cavs.

Tattnall threw a pick six early, and its first points came on a safety, the Trojans playing a chunk without two-way standout Antone Johnson, in and out with injuries.      

They finally settled in for a 31-18 win, sweating it out until Whit Davidson’s pick six sealed the deal with 70 seconds left.

The Eagles will key on Johnson, who moves around and went for more than 200 yards and punched in two scores last week despite not playing a normal number of snaps. He’s near 750 rushing yards for the season. Tattnall averages almost 140 passing yards a game.

Tattnall will try to mimic FPD’s success against Stephens and Fitzpatrick while slowing down sophomore receiver George Dunn.

Tattnall leads the series, dating back to 1973, 32-26, and the teams have split the last eight games. And how even have those last eight games been? Stratford has outscored Tattnall 197-194.

-Michael A. Lough

ACE vs. East Laurens

Originally scheduled for two weeks ago, ACE will now host the Falcons coming off of back-to-back blowout losses to top region foes.

The Gryphons struggled against Northeast and Dublin, putting up just a single field goal across the two games while allowing 94 points combined. The Fighting Irish got as many interceptions, five, as ACE had completions in their game.

The Gryphons are anything but pushovers after those two losses, though. Quarterback Ace Hatcher still has his earlier performances to fall back on, and the team showed it can compete with top competition when it took Dodge County — a team that’s still undefeated and sparring with the Raiders and Irish for the region’s top slot — to the wire last month.

The two drubbings put ACE in fifth for the moment, though. Washington County is ahead of them in fourth, but only because of an extra game played — in other words, the Gryphons are far from dead in the playoff race.

And with that, East Laurens comes to town. The Falcons have been a hard team to pin down so far this year. They’ve faced two of the top teams, allowing 66 points to Dublin and 46 to Dodge County, while also getting an early game against region cellar dweller Central, a 49-0 win.

One telling game here, a 42-6 blowout at the hands of Bleckley County, could be a good litmus. The Gryphons should have a good shot at a get-right game, but it remains to be seen if ACE’s offense can bounce back from two very rough performances.

-Micah Johnston

FPD @ John Milledge

The good news for John Milledge is that of all the teams the Trojans steamrolled en route to a 62-game winning streak, FPD was in the way only twice.

The Vikings fell 27-22 last year, one of a few times in two years that John Milledge came to Macon and was taken to the limit. The Trojans won 56-7 in 2022, a season in which the Trojans won by an average of 38.7 points a game.

FPD was en route to a 2-9 year in 2022 in head coach Greg Moore’s final season.

So the Vikings won’t necessarily be slobbering for revenge against John Milledge after years of getting popped, but there are no doubt a few players still left from that 2022 drubbing.

Life has changed for both teams.

For a few different reasons, graduation and injuries leading the list, John Milledge is 1-6 and losing by 20.4 points a game, destined for their worst record since going 0-10 in 2009, and hoping to be closer to the 3-6-1 record a year earlier.

John Milledge is 0-1 this year against Macon’s Big Four, losing 42-7 to Stratford two weeks ago, though the Trojans did finish with an impressive scoring drive that lasted more than 15 minutes.

Nevertheless, they failed to crack double digits for the third straight game.

FPD (7-1/2-0) is on something of a scoring run after consecutive six-point games earlier in the year — an 18-6 loss to St. Anne-Pacelli followed by a 6-3 win over Brookstone.

Since then, the Vikings have reeled off 47, 28, 45 and 28 points.

FPD will have a size and experience advantage in all areas, and the Vikings will look to slow down junior running back Cole Vining, who has 768 yards.

Brady McHugh and Major Simmons are among several defensive playmakers for FPD.

The Trojans will face a multi-faceted offense led by Simmons at quarterback, who ran for 75 clock-eating yards and passed for 216 against Stratford.

“We were able to throw the ball deep, which we haven’t done all year,” FPD head coach Brett Collier said of the Stratford win. “I’m confident in our throwing.”

-Michael A. Lough

Other teams

Rutland will search for its first win of the year yet again, this time against another strong team in Callaway. The Hurricanes have had their work cut out for them so far this year with tough non-region opponents and a tricky region schedule, and the Cavaliers present no escape.

Callaway’s only two losses, to 4A Cass and Alabama powerhouse Opelika, came in its first two games of the year. The Cavs went on a four-game winning streak after that, including a torching of 2A Redan and a solid win over Westside in their region opener.

Southwest and Central both have the week off as of Tuesday, though Central is in need of a rescheduled game after last week’s matchup with Jefferson County went by the wayside. Most of the A-Division I region is off, with Northeast-Dublin and ACE-East Laurens the only games this week. Howard is also off in 3A. Mount de Sales has the week off in GIAA as well.

Westside faces the 4-2 Pike County Pirates in a tough region game before getting next week off. After an inspiring win over Lamar County and a close loss in a thriller against then-No. 2 Morgan County, the Seminoles looked less sharp against Callaway last week. The home tilt with the Pirates will be crucial for the region standings if they want to snag a playoff spot.

Windsor gets another home game, this time against Flint River Christian Academy. The Knights have lost four straight since starting 2-0 in their foray back into 11-man football this year, largely thanks to a very tough schedule so far. The Wildcats do little to break up that run of good opponents, as FRCA comes into the game 6-0.