Packers playoff seeding could have been worse

Published 9:47 am Monday, November 6, 2023

MOULTRIE — Colquitt County has no other team ranked above it in its quadrant of the Class 7A playoff bracket, but if the 10-0 and No. 3-ranked Packers continue to win, they are likely to have to face either Buford, Grayson or Norcross in the semifinals.

Defending state champion and No. 1-ranked Mill Creek and No. 2 Walton are on the other side of the bracket, as is No. 5 Carrollton.

Parkview, which will visit The Hawg Pen to play the Packers on Friday for a first-round game, was ranked No. 7 in Class 7A before being dismantled by Grayson last Friday, 41-14. The Panthers have dropped out of the top 10.

If the Packers can get by Parkview, they will meet the winner of the game between Marietta, the No. 3 team from Region 3, and Westlake, the Region 2 runner-up.

Potential quarterfinal opponents are Region 6 champion Milton, Region 5 runner-up North Cobb, Collins Hill and Duluth.

Region 1 runner-up Valdosta will open at home against Archer, but then is likely to have to go to Carrollton.

If the Wildcats can get wins in their first two games, they would likely have to face No. 2-ranked Walton in the quarterfinals.

Camden County, Region 1’s No. 3 team could pose problems for Region 4 runner-up Newton in the first round.

Camden head coach Jeff Herron has not missed the playoffs since he was the head coach at Wheeler back in 1996.

Richmond Hill is back in the postseason after missing out last year, but the Wildcats will face a Grayson team that has defeated its last two opponents — Archer and Parkview — by identical 41-14 scores.

Of this and that:

• Just down the road a piece, Thomas County Central goes into the Class 6A playoffs with a region championship and a 10-0 record for the second year in a row.

The Yellow Jackets, 22-1 since former Packers coach Justin Rogers took over the program last year, will play host to St. Pius X in the first round on Friday.

• Colquitt County’s season-opening opponent Dutch Fork of Irmo, S.C., is 6-5, but has won four in a row, including a 56-7 victory over Boilling Springs in its playoff opener.

• Stockbridge High, which has won eight straight games since losing 47-27 to Colquitt County back on Aug. 25, won the Region 5-AAAA championship and will play host to North Hall in its postseason opener on Friday.

• Tift County finished 2-8 this season, did not make the Class 6A playoffs, lost coach Noel Dean and likely will be back in the state’s highest classification the next two years.

The Blue Devils’ final game of the season was a 65-14 loss to Lee County.

• The Trojans, who lost to the Packers 37-20 at The Mack on Sept. 8, finished second in Region 1-6A and will play host to Dunwoody on Friday.

• Cedar Grove, which also lost to the Packers this season, finished 5-5, but 3-0 in Region 5-AAA and will be home to play host to Hebron Christian in the first round.

• Cook High, under former Colquitt County assistant Byron Slack, won its final game of the season over Fitzgerald under adverse conditions to win the Region 1-AA title.

The Hornets had been forced to forfeit five victories for using an ineligible player.

But a Superior Court judge issued a restraining order negating the GHSA decision.

The Hornets, now 8-2 after the forfeits were overturned, will play Washington County on Friday in the first round.

• and what about Lowndes?

After going 5-6 last year, the Vikings went 4-6 in the regular season this season and didn’t qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2014.

In 2022, they defeated Richmond Hill for a lone Region 1-7A win that got them into the postseason.

This year, under head coach Adam Carter, who had led Grayson to a state championship in 2020, the Vikings got behind Richmond Hill 30-0, lost 37-14 and went 0-4 in the region.

• Also remaining home as the playoffs begin is Pell City, Ala., Rush Propst‘s latest stop.

The Panthers finished with a 1-9 record that included the forfeit of a victory over Center Point after it was determined the team used an ineligible player in that game.

• Worth County went 5-5 this season in the second year of Jeff Hammond‘s tenure.

The Rams finished third in Region 1-AA and will travel to Augusta to face Laney in its playoff opener.

• Dacula went 1-9 in Reggie Stancil‘s first season as the program’s head coach.

Playing in a Region 8-7A that also includes Mill Creek, Buford, Collins Hill and Mountain View, the Falcons lost their last six games in a row and did not qualify for the postseason.

• Daijun Edwards continues to lead 9-0 Georgia in rushing.

After gaining 77 yards on 16 carries in the Bulldogs 30-21 win over Missouri last Saturday, the former Packer has rushed for 644 yards and eight touchdowns.

• Ryan Fitzgerald, Edwards’s former Colquitt County teammate, converted after all three Florida State touchdowns and added a 32-yard field goal in the Seminoles 24-7 win over Pitt.

For the season, Fitzgerald has made all 45 of his extra-point attempts and is 11-for-12 in field goal attempts.

The 9-0 and No. 4 Seminoles will be in Tallahassee to face Miami on Saturday.

• Kaleb Dawson got his third interception of the season in Alabama A&M’s 42-28 loss to Florida A&M last Saturday.

Dawson also had three assisted tackles from his spot in the secondary.

The Bulldogs will play at Bethune-Cookman on Saturday.

• Raheim McBride had four total tackles and Julian Harper had two in Thomas University’s 37-24 loss to Florida Memorial University last Saturday in Thomasville.

The Nighthawks will play at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Saturday.

• Steven Krajewski completed 11-of-23 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in Wagner College’s 34-26 loss to Duquesne last Saturday.

The Skyhawks, now 3-6, will travel to play Long Island University on Saturday.

• Sophomore Maggie Bishop competed in two individual events and was on Piedmont’s University’s 200-yard freestyle relay team that took a third-place finish in the recent sweep of Warren Wilson College and William Peace University in Asheville, N.C.

Bishop was second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 6:06.21.

She also competed in the 400-yard individual medley.