Colquitt County senior safety Jack Luttrell will lead a stout Packers defense against Harrison High on Friday in a second-round playoff game.

MOULTRIE – The passing statistics of the two quarterbacks who will face off on Friday in the second-round Class 7A playoff game between Harrison High and Colquitt County compare favorably.

The Hoyas’ Braylan Ford has completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 2,186 yards and 21 touchdowns.

The Packers’ Neko Fann has completed 62.9 percent of his tosses for 1,930 yards and 21 touchdowns.

The difference between the offenses the two junior quarterbacks operate is that Harrison has found it difficult to rush the football in its first 11 games, only four of which it has won.

The Hoyas have run for 734 yards this season, but only for an average of 2.5 yards a carry.

Their leading ball carrier is Alexander Perry, who has rushed for 351 yards. and the Hoyas have scored just five times on the ground this year, including a 2-yard run by Ford with 4:37 left to beat Brookwood last Saturday in their first-round playoff game 21-17.

The Packers, who will take an 11-0 record into their 7:30 p.m. meeting with the Hoyas on Friday on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium, have two backs who have gained more than Perry, including Charlie Pace, who has 947 yards to his credit and has run for 12 touchdowns.

Fann has run for 412 yards and the trio of Ramsey Dennis, Chad White and Day’Shawn Brown has put up 296, 255 and 242 yards respectively.

Brown, a sophomore who has become much more involved in the rushing game in the last few games, has scored five touchdowns himself.

He rushed for 110 yards in the win over Pebblebrook last week.

Harrison does not have a running back who has run for 100 yards in a game this season.

The Packers will be sure to try to exploit its ability to both run and throw the ball successfully.

Harrison won the Class 6A state championship with a 15-0 record in 2019, but has struggled mightily since then, going 4-6 in 2020 and 4-7 last year.

The Hoyas opened this season losing six of its first seven games.

But they have rallied to win three of their last four, finish 2-2 and claim the third spot in Region 3 and then knock off Region 4 runner-up Brookwood last week.

“They are going to be confident when they come down here,” Packers coach Sean Calhoun said. “And they should be.

“They found a way to get into the playoffs and they have played a lot of people tough. They are a tough, hard-nosed team that will fight you from the opening whistle.”

Among the Hoyas seven losses is a 31-14 defeat at the hands of Pebblebrook, the team the Packers whipped 56-16 last Friday.

And Harrison caught a break when Brookwood was forced to play last Saturday without AJC Super 11 quarterback Dylan Lonergan, who was injured.

But Calhoun is not dealing in what-ifs this week.

“We can’t just roll our black helmets out there and expect them to lay down,” he said. “They will present us with some challenges.”

Harrison has produced a number of fine quarterbacks over the years, including Justin Fields, who went on to star at Ohio State and now plays for the Chicago Bears.

The Hoyas will rely on Ford to make plays to help keep his team in the game on Friday.

“They throw it a lot,” Calhoun said. “They are going to put us in a lot of stressful situations.”

Ford hit on 19-of-30 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown to Brady Kluse, who is the Hoyas leading receiver, in the win over Brookwood.

Kluse has caught 62 passes for 1,003 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Senior Reggie Brigman has 39 receptions for 546 yards and five touchdowns.

Grayson West was Harrison’s leading rusher against Brookwood with just 26 yards on eight carries.

But the Hoyas will throw on Friday at their own peril.

The Packers have intercepted 10 passes, including five by senior safety Lyric Thomas.

Colquitt had two picks last week. Jack Luttrell and Nick Pace took them to the house.

Luttrell and Thomas are the Packers safeties. Carlos Moore and Raheim McBride are the corners.

They will be on high alert.

Calhoun said defensive coordinator Jeremy Rowell, cornerbacks coach Dextra Polite and safeties coach Brian Simmons will have their low-number guys ready.

“They’ll have a heck of a plan,” Calhoun said. “But at the end of the day, the kids will have to execute.”

The Packers hope to get some pressure on Ford with a defensive front that includes Tyshon Reed Jr., Julian Harper and Amari Wilson.

Wilson, the sophomore defensive end, leads the Packers with 12 tackles for loss, including a team-high four sacks.

Nick Pace leads the Packers with 117 total tackles. He and Kamal Bonner play the inside linebacker positions.

Daveon Hunt and Qway McCoy patrol the flanks.

All four linebackers have enough speed to discourage opposing offenses from trying to reach the edge.

Colquitt County has nearly double the number of points that Harrison has scored this season.

The Packers have scored 436 points; the Hoyas 223.

To that point, not many teams in the state can boast a receiving corps as deep as Colquitt County’s.

Georgia-committed Ny Carr has 43 receptions; Landen Thomas, also expected to head to Athens, has 36; Za’Mari Williams has 30. They have combined to catch 16 touchdown passes.

And keeping Fann pristine and creating seams for Charlie Pace, Dennis, White and Brown is an offensive line that perhaps has not received its due this season.

The tackles are Keshaun Palmore and Turk Daniels, who has started 32 straight games.

Cole Holmes and Ja’nas Daniels are the guards, Jay’Den Williams is the center and Khalil Collins fills in admirably.

While Harrison kicker Rudolph Gleason is 29-for-29 in point-after attempts and 2-for-5 in field goal attempts, the Packers can send out Brett Fitzgerald who has converted after 44 touchdowns and has kicked 10 field goals.

Unheralded Ethan Ramirez, who handles the kickoffs smartly, has five extra points and a field goal to his credit.

Both are sophomores.

Luttrell does most of the punting and he handles kickoff and punt returns as well.

Will Tapscott snaps both long and short and Eli Meads is the holder.

And here is something else for the Hoyas to chew on when they venture into The Hawg Pen on Friday.

Colquitt defends its turf tenaciously.

Since 2010, the Packers are 19-2 in home playoff games.

And with a favorable coin flip that ensures a third straight playoff game — against either Lambert or North Gwinnett — if they dispatch Harrison, the Packers are likely to be that much more determined.