And then there were 3
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Only three local teams will be moving on to the state playoffs this season, as Carrollton and Bowdon will host playoff games next Friday night as No. 2 seeds, while Bremen will hit the road as a No. 3 seed.
The Trojans (9-1), who suffered a 27-25 setback to Ridgeland on Friday night in the Region 6-AAA championship game, will play Creekview (9-1), the No. 3 seed out of Region 7-AAA.
Bowdon (9-1), which defeated the Blue Devils, 30-10, on Friday night to secure the No. 2 seed, will host Washington-Wilkes (5-5), the No. 3 seed in Region 7-A, while Bremen (6-4) will travel to Irwinton to face No. 2 Wilkinson County (8-2).
Central and Villa Rica could have both secured playoff spots on Friday night with a win, but the Lions dropped a 14-7 decision to Ringgold in their Region 6-AAA playoff contest, while the Wildcats suffered a 41-6 loss at Starr’s Mill in their Region 5-AAAA playoff.
Down to the wire
Everyone expected Friday night’s Region 6-AAA championship game to go down to the wire, and they weren’t disappointed. Well, Carrollton fans would be by the outcome, but you couldn’t complain about the entertainment value as the Panthers and Trojans left it all on the field down to the final minute.
It was one of those matchups that if they met 10 times, Ridgeland might take five and Carrollton might win five. The Panthers just happened to win this one.
“It was definitely an emotional roller-coaster. I mean, we hit them in the mouth. They hit us in the mouth,” said Trojan senior defensive back/split end Parker Tuggle. “It just went back and forth all game. It was everything you want a region championship to be.”
Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis said he told his players all week it was going to come down to who could make plays in the last few minutes of the ball game, and both teams did plenty of that.
“It was just two great football teams. Both of them have athletes that are explosive, defenses that are tough and are stingy with points,” Mariakis said. “It was just a typical great championship ball game.”
Missed opportunities
And while you have to give the Panthers credit for making the big plays to win the ball game, Carrollton left the field on Friday night with a lot of what-could-have-been, what-should-have-been scenarios.
The Trojans ran 64 plays to the Panthers’ 34. Carrollton had possession of the ball for 30 minutes and 20 seconds to Ridgeland’s 17:40. First downs were 19-7 in favor of the Trojans. But the only thing that mattered in the end was the final on the scoreboard, which was obviously in the Panthers’ favor.
“We definitely had momentum, and they had momentum. They just ended up playing better than us. We had too many mistakes,” Carrollton junior defensive back Austin Collins said. “Missed tackles. Incompletions. Penalties. Everything.”
A fumble on the Trojans’ opening drive ended what had been a smash-mouth possession for Carrollton. Then a blocked punt on the second possession set up the Panthers’ first score early in the second quarter.
Carrollton converted a pair of fourth-down plays on its final drive of the first half — one that seemingly had a great spot — but couldn’t get any points out of it as a holding penalty and a sack pinned it in a 3rd-and-long situation where Trojan coach Rayvan Teague opted to just take a knee and go into the locker room and regroup.
The Trojans also failed to convert on a pair of two-point conversions in the second half, including the last one where junior quarterback A.J. Barge got tripped up at the 1-yard line with 48.8 seconds left in a game-tying situation.
And while the loss was tough, Teague said his team definitely needed a game like this after playing in several non-competitive affairs in recent weeks.
“We needed to see where our weaknesses were,” Teague said. “We needed to see that we definitely haven’t arrived yet. That we’ve got to continue to improve.”
Tuggle agreed that this game will certainly help more than it will hurt come playoff time.
“We’re definitely going to have to use this game as a motivator,” Tuggle said. “Get back on Monday, see the film. Watch the film and see what we did wrong and correct some things before the playoffs.”
Better as a No. 2?
It’s funny thing how things work out sometimes when you get to the postseason and see how the brackets unfold. Because while the Trojans obviously wanted that top playoff seed, had they won on Friday night, four of the top five teams in the state would have been on the same side of the bracket.
With No. 1 Gainesville and No. 2 Peach County in the upper side and No. 3 Carver-Columbus on the bottom half, the Trojans would have had a tough road to the Georgia Dome.
And while opening against the ninth-ranked team in the state isn’t ideal either with Creekview, Carrollton still has a chance to run the table with where it sits right now.
Should the Trojans get past a tough Grizzly squad, they would likely have a second-round rematch with Eastside. The winner of that could run into Jackson or LaGrange. Fourth-ranked St. Pius X is the top-ranked team in the upper bracket on Carrollton’s side.
And while all that is speculation right now, Teague didn’t shrug it off, either.
“It could be. You never know,” Teague said of whether it is actually better where they ended up. “The bottom line is you’ve got to beat everybody to get there. So that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to work.”
Another year, another Bowman
It’s fairly safe to say that the Bowman family won’t be getting a Christmas card from Teague this year.
After older brother Michael Bowman terrorized the Trojan defense a season ago in the region title game, his younger brother, Devin, did just the same this time.
The Panther junior running back bounced off into open space far too often on Friday night, bursting out for a game-high 179 yards on just 11 carries, including touchdown runs of 79 and 25 yards.
“He’s got two brothers playing major college football. I’m sure he’ll be the third,” Teague said.
Collins said the speedy Bowman proved to be too much when he got to the outside.
“He’s probably one of the best in the state,” Collins said. “He was just too fast for us.”
Bowman said when he gets loose like that, you’re not going to catch him.
“Oh, nah. When I’m out there, I’m gone,” Bowman said. “There’s nothing they can do. Nothing.”
Avoiding big plays, making them, too
Bowdon’s defense made sure offensive success came rarely for visiting Bremen in Friday’s win for the Red Devils. Bowdon coach Dwight Hochstetler attributed much of that to his defense’s ability to prevent big plays.
“Defensively we didn’t give up the big play,” Hochstetler said. “And that was the key.”
While the Red Devils were busy keeping their rivals from making such plays, they made a few of their own. One of the biggest was Nathan Montgomery’s 41-yard run on a fake punt in the final minute of the first half that set up Maricio Askew for a 13-yard scoring run on the next play. That made it 23-7 heading into the half and effectively ended the Blue Devils’ hopes of making it close.
Bowdon senior running back Eric Slaughter knew the trick play would work.
“I knew we had it because everybody had shifted to the right side, so I said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got this,’” Slaughter said. “As soon as he said ‘hike,’ there he goes down the sideline.”
Home, sweet home
The Red Devils certainly wanted to beat Bremen on Friday for many reasons, but one of the most important by-products was that Bowdon will host Washington-Wilkes this coming Friday rather than hitting the road for the first round of the Class A state playoffs.
“Home field in the first round is so important,” Hochstetler said. “You don’t have to worry about getting on the bus, making eating arrangements going and coming.”
Plus, Hochstetler said his guys feed off the home fans. He said Washington-Wilkes is solid for a No. 3 seed, which makes home-field advantage in the first round even more important.
“They’re like Holy Innocents’ last year,” Hochstetler said. “They are a real good No. 3 seed.”
The Red Devils lost that first-round matchup to Holy Innocents’, 13-0, at home in 2008, something they hope changes this season.
Perhaps the biggest task, though, will be helping his players realize they can’t rest on the laurels of what they did against Bremen.
“It’s hard to get your kids back and ready, regardless of playoff game or not (after Bremen),” Hochstetler said.
Fun finale for MZ
What made Mt. Zion coach Bill Bailey happier than the program’s first-ever win over Gordon Lee on Friday night was seeing his eight seniors get to enjoy it in their final game.
“It was great after the game to see the smiles on those seniors’ face. They’ve been through a lot of adversity this year. I was real proud for them,” Bailey said. “It was just a great way to send them out. They were very deserving of it.”
And with no playoffs on the line, a long bus ride to Chickamauga and facing a fourth-quarter deficit, Bailey said it showed a great deal of character to pull together for the 24-13 victory.
“We played that game like it was our playoff game or state championship game,” Bailey said. “The kids, they really responded. We challenged them to step up, shake it off and lean on each other. And they did (Friday night).”
Times-Georgian Sports Reporter Clark Leonard contributed to this story.
The Trojans (9-1), who suffered a 27-25 setback to Ridgeland on Friday night in the Region 6-AAA championship game, will play Creekview (9-1), the No. 3 seed out of Region 7-AAA.
Bowdon (9-1), which defeated the Blue Devils, 30-10, on Friday night to secure the No. 2 seed, will host Washington-Wilkes (5-5), the No. 3 seed in Region 7-A, while Bremen (6-4) will travel to Irwinton to face No. 2 Wilkinson County (8-2).
Central and Villa Rica could have both secured playoff spots on Friday night with a win, but the Lions dropped a 14-7 decision to Ringgold in their Region 6-AAA playoff contest, while the Wildcats suffered a 41-6 loss at Starr’s Mill in their Region 5-AAAA playoff.
Down to the wire
Everyone expected Friday night’s Region 6-AAA championship game to go down to the wire, and they weren’t disappointed. Well, Carrollton fans would be by the outcome, but you couldn’t complain about the entertainment value as the Panthers and Trojans left it all on the field down to the final minute.
It was one of those matchups that if they met 10 times, Ridgeland might take five and Carrollton might win five. The Panthers just happened to win this one.
“It was definitely an emotional roller-coaster. I mean, we hit them in the mouth. They hit us in the mouth,” said Trojan senior defensive back/split end Parker Tuggle. “It just went back and forth all game. It was everything you want a region championship to be.”
Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis said he told his players all week it was going to come down to who could make plays in the last few minutes of the ball game, and both teams did plenty of that.
“It was just two great football teams. Both of them have athletes that are explosive, defenses that are tough and are stingy with points,” Mariakis said. “It was just a typical great championship ball game.”
Missed opportunities
And while you have to give the Panthers credit for making the big plays to win the ball game, Carrollton left the field on Friday night with a lot of what-could-have-been, what-should-have-been scenarios.
The Trojans ran 64 plays to the Panthers’ 34. Carrollton had possession of the ball for 30 minutes and 20 seconds to Ridgeland’s 17:40. First downs were 19-7 in favor of the Trojans. But the only thing that mattered in the end was the final on the scoreboard, which was obviously in the Panthers’ favor.
“We definitely had momentum, and they had momentum. They just ended up playing better than us. We had too many mistakes,” Carrollton junior defensive back Austin Collins said. “Missed tackles. Incompletions. Penalties. Everything.”
A fumble on the Trojans’ opening drive ended what had been a smash-mouth possession for Carrollton. Then a blocked punt on the second possession set up the Panthers’ first score early in the second quarter.
Carrollton converted a pair of fourth-down plays on its final drive of the first half — one that seemingly had a great spot — but couldn’t get any points out of it as a holding penalty and a sack pinned it in a 3rd-and-long situation where Trojan coach Rayvan Teague opted to just take a knee and go into the locker room and regroup.
The Trojans also failed to convert on a pair of two-point conversions in the second half, including the last one where junior quarterback A.J. Barge got tripped up at the 1-yard line with 48.8 seconds left in a game-tying situation.
And while the loss was tough, Teague said his team definitely needed a game like this after playing in several non-competitive affairs in recent weeks.
“We needed to see where our weaknesses were,” Teague said. “We needed to see that we definitely haven’t arrived yet. That we’ve got to continue to improve.”
Tuggle agreed that this game will certainly help more than it will hurt come playoff time.
“We’re definitely going to have to use this game as a motivator,” Tuggle said. “Get back on Monday, see the film. Watch the film and see what we did wrong and correct some things before the playoffs.”
Better as a No. 2?
It’s funny thing how things work out sometimes when you get to the postseason and see how the brackets unfold. Because while the Trojans obviously wanted that top playoff seed, had they won on Friday night, four of the top five teams in the state would have been on the same side of the bracket.
With No. 1 Gainesville and No. 2 Peach County in the upper side and No. 3 Carver-Columbus on the bottom half, the Trojans would have had a tough road to the Georgia Dome.
And while opening against the ninth-ranked team in the state isn’t ideal either with Creekview, Carrollton still has a chance to run the table with where it sits right now.
Should the Trojans get past a tough Grizzly squad, they would likely have a second-round rematch with Eastside. The winner of that could run into Jackson or LaGrange. Fourth-ranked St. Pius X is the top-ranked team in the upper bracket on Carrollton’s side.
And while all that is speculation right now, Teague didn’t shrug it off, either.
“It could be. You never know,” Teague said of whether it is actually better where they ended up. “The bottom line is you’ve got to beat everybody to get there. So that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to work.”
Another year, another Bowman
It’s fairly safe to say that the Bowman family won’t be getting a Christmas card from Teague this year.
After older brother Michael Bowman terrorized the Trojan defense a season ago in the region title game, his younger brother, Devin, did just the same this time.
The Panther junior running back bounced off into open space far too often on Friday night, bursting out for a game-high 179 yards on just 11 carries, including touchdown runs of 79 and 25 yards.
“He’s got two brothers playing major college football. I’m sure he’ll be the third,” Teague said.
Collins said the speedy Bowman proved to be too much when he got to the outside.
“He’s probably one of the best in the state,” Collins said. “He was just too fast for us.”
Bowman said when he gets loose like that, you’re not going to catch him.
“Oh, nah. When I’m out there, I’m gone,” Bowman said. “There’s nothing they can do. Nothing.”
Avoiding big plays, making them, too
Bowdon’s defense made sure offensive success came rarely for visiting Bremen in Friday’s win for the Red Devils. Bowdon coach Dwight Hochstetler attributed much of that to his defense’s ability to prevent big plays.
“Defensively we didn’t give up the big play,” Hochstetler said. “And that was the key.”
While the Red Devils were busy keeping their rivals from making such plays, they made a few of their own. One of the biggest was Nathan Montgomery’s 41-yard run on a fake punt in the final minute of the first half that set up Maricio Askew for a 13-yard scoring run on the next play. That made it 23-7 heading into the half and effectively ended the Blue Devils’ hopes of making it close.
Bowdon senior running back Eric Slaughter knew the trick play would work.
“I knew we had it because everybody had shifted to the right side, so I said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got this,’” Slaughter said. “As soon as he said ‘hike,’ there he goes down the sideline.”
Home, sweet home
The Red Devils certainly wanted to beat Bremen on Friday for many reasons, but one of the most important by-products was that Bowdon will host Washington-Wilkes this coming Friday rather than hitting the road for the first round of the Class A state playoffs.
“Home field in the first round is so important,” Hochstetler said. “You don’t have to worry about getting on the bus, making eating arrangements going and coming.”
Plus, Hochstetler said his guys feed off the home fans. He said Washington-Wilkes is solid for a No. 3 seed, which makes home-field advantage in the first round even more important.
“They’re like Holy Innocents’ last year,” Hochstetler said. “They are a real good No. 3 seed.”
The Red Devils lost that first-round matchup to Holy Innocents’, 13-0, at home in 2008, something they hope changes this season.
Perhaps the biggest task, though, will be helping his players realize they can’t rest on the laurels of what they did against Bremen.
“It’s hard to get your kids back and ready, regardless of playoff game or not (after Bremen),” Hochstetler said.
Fun finale for MZ
What made Mt. Zion coach Bill Bailey happier than the program’s first-ever win over Gordon Lee on Friday night was seeing his eight seniors get to enjoy it in their final game.
“It was great after the game to see the smiles on those seniors’ face. They’ve been through a lot of adversity this year. I was real proud for them,” Bailey said. “It was just a great way to send them out. They were very deserving of it.”
And with no playoffs on the line, a long bus ride to Chickamauga and facing a fourth-quarter deficit, Bailey said it showed a great deal of character to pull together for the 24-13 victory.
“We played that game like it was our playoff game or state championship game,” Bailey said. “The kids, they really responded. We challenged them to step up, shake it off and lean on each other. And they did (Friday night).”
Times-Georgian Sports Reporter Clark Leonard contributed to this story.
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