MOULTRIE – It’s hard to imagine that Friday night’s meeting between Colquitt County and Thomas County Central could be anything like the last two meetings between the teams.

In 2004, the Packers went to Thomasville and blasted the Yellow Jackets 42-30.

In perhaps his finest game as a Packer throwing the football, quarterback Sam Heath completed 5-of-8 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns.

Heath threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Sherard Reynolds with seven seconds left in the first half to give the Packers a 20-17 lead.

Then, less than two minutes into the second half, Kevin Watts ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run.

Also in the third quarter Heath scored on a 1-yard run and sophomore Orion Ponder scored his second touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run.

The Packers led 42-17 at one point. Ponder also had a 65-yard touchdown run in the game and Heath and Reynolds also connected on another score.

Not to be outdone, Thomas County Central came to Moultrie last season and returned the favor, winning 41-21.

The Yellow Jackets rolled up 430 yards of offense, all on the ground.

Junior Chester Hightower carried the ball 15 times for 276 yards and had touchdown runs of 60, 87 and 1 yards.

Ponder had a 70-yard touchdown run for the Packers.

The scores of those two games are atypical of those that make up the history between the two schools, who will be meeting for the 31st time on Friday when the Packers travel to the Jackets Nest.

Last year was the first time the Yellow Jackets had scored more than 35 points against the Packers.

The 42 points in 2004 marked just the third time the Packers had scored 42 or more points against the Yellow Jackets and the first time since 1979.

Yet both teams could have potential to put similar numbers up this week.

Hightower and junior fullback Debrale Smiley are back for the Yellow Jackets, who also have a pair of dangerous quarterbacks in P.J. Williams and Dontavia Bogan.

The Yellow Jackets ran up 260 yards in a 19-6 scrimmage victory over Lowndes on Aug. 25, with Hightower racing 78 yards for one touchdown and Bogan scoring from 42 yards out on another.

Smiley had an 85-yard run to the end zone called back on a penalty.

And while Yellow Jackets coach Ed Pilcher said his team struggled offensively in last Friday’s 21-7 victory over Thomasville at Veterans Stadium, Central still got touchdown runs of 66 and 47 yards from Bogan and 63 yards from Smiley.

Rain in Thomasville may have slowed the Yellow Jackets. As did an interception in the end zone an a fumble deep in Yellow Jackets territory.

The Packers don’t want to get into a track meet with their hosts on Friday, but they also have some speed this year, perhaps the most in many seasons.

Colquitt has played well in its two games so far, although the varsity has been on the field just five quarters.

In three quarters of play against Cairo in the scrimmage on Aug. 24 at West Thomas Stadium, Colquitt won 21-0.

In just two quarters in Adel last Friday, the Packers led 28-0 before the game was called after the first half because of lightning.

In those five quarters, Packers quarterback Channing Hudson has completed 22-of-36 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns. He has thrown just one interception.

Hudson hit 9-of-10 for 148 yards and two scores against Cook last Friday.

Counting the third quarter of the scrimmage against Cairo, he has completed 15 of his last 19 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns. And no interceptions.

Hudson appears comfortable either under center or in the shotgun and is distributing the ball well. Four Packers caught passes on Friday in Adel, with Vance Cuff grabbing three and Ponder, Jarvis Lambright and B.J. Howard getting two each.