GHSA Quaterfinal Preview: Four Middle Georgia Teams Remain

The Northeast Raiders, Dublin Fighting Irish, Peach County Trojans, and Houston County Bears All Remain in the GHSA State Tournament

MIDDLE GEORGIA – (41NBC/WMGT) – I spoke will all four Head Coaches earlier in the week before their big games Friday night.

First up is the Northeast Raiders, coming off that comeback victory at home over Lamar County, now look ahead to Fannin County way up on the border of the state, in Blue Ridge.
At Rebel Stadium is where Northeast Head Coach Jeremy Wiggins and the Raiders will look to advance to the Final Four in Class A Division One, and hope to make to the semifinals for the first time in program history. Coach Wiggins spoke to me Monday about what the message to the kids has to be this week in practice.

“I was talking about that earlier. We just came up short with the couple of mistakes we made against Dublin” said Coach Wiggins.

“Then we get to Lamar and we made a couple mistakes, but we corrected. The thing we are trying to teach them now is just there’s going to be some adversity. Some other teams are going to make some plays because its the playoffs. Just trying to keep our composure. Just trying to make sure we do well what we do well. Make sure the kids understand that even though you might get down or something might not go your way, we just got to keep our composure, and just do our job, and do what we are supposed to do.”

At the Shamrock Bowl, the undefeated Region Champion Dublin Fighting Irish look to make it back to the semifinal round for the first time since Head Coach Roger Holmes took this Dublin team and won it all back in 2019. At 12-0 this Irish team has a chance to go undefeated for the just the third time in program history – joining the 2006 and 1959 teams.

They have scored 605 points while just allowing 154 all season, not to mention they have scored 105 in their first two playoff games while just giving up 13 total points. Coach Holmes thinks this team is capable of going all they way because they play for each other, and knows consistency is what will help them get there, but it doesn’t happen without a win over Thomasville Friday night.

“Well, it wasn’t the expectation to be sitting here at 12-0. I’d be lying to you if I told you that. We knew that we had a chance to have a good football team, there’s no question about that, with about 13 seniors” said Coach Holmes.

“When I say they come to work everyday, I don’t think there’s but two times all year where I’ve walked off the practice field and felt like we didn’t have the effort that we needed to try to get better
so they’ve shown up to work everyday. The other thing that I’m very proud about is the simple fact that all these young men, there’s no egos floating around on the Dublin football team. Everybody understands their roll and they chip in the best they can and that’s what makes me the most proud about them. The message maybe to those seniors is you deserve to be where you are… Go finish.”

At Trojan Stadium in Class AAA, where 11-1 Region Champion Peach County is rolling on a 10-game win streak, and scored over 100 points so far in these playoffs in two games.

Trojans Head Coach Marquis Westbrook is not new to success, having reached the state championship four consecutive years with the Warner Robins Demons winning back to back titles, but neither is Peach County. With three state championships, this Trojans team knows how to win, however the Trojans have had 11 region titles since their last state championship in 2009.

All the pieces are in place, and this team is healthy, so coach Westbrook says the team in ‘The Valley is hungry and poised to win a state title, but they’ll need to continue to shine at home if they are going to want a win against another storied program in Calhoun, the winner of four state championships and 25 region titles to go along with it, including one this season.

“Try to take it one game at a time. We feel like we got a couple guys in the program who matches up very well with them. They do a great job of game planning and self scouting and putting their kids in good positions” said Coach Westbrook.

“We just got to take this approach, not like its just another game, but we don’t want to get outside of ourselves. We want to just make sure to stay the course and do the good things that got us here. Maintain that consistency and play hard and play fast. That’s all we can ask out of them. They play hard and they play for each other.”

In Class AAAAA, the 8-4 Houston County Bears have now gone three years in a row where Head Coach Jeremy Edwards and these Bears have not had one home playoff game. This quarterfinal matchup against Milton – the second best nationally ranked team in the country, according to MaxPreps, will be their eighth straight playoff game away from Freedom Field. This season HOCO wants to make it past the Quarterfinals for the first time since 1993. The Bears have had extra time to rest and it has showed, including putting up 132 points over the first two rounds.

Now, coach Edwards tells me they have their hands full against the defending AAAAAAA state champs that haven’t lost since September 22, 2023, a 22 game win streak.

“Obviously, it’s a blessing to be able to play right now this time of year” said Coach Edwards.

“To be be able to practice during thanksgiving and I’ve just been really proud of our team. Proud of the culture we have here that our kids have bought into and that 1-0 mentality and just flush it and move onto the next one. To go on the road and play a region champ and knock them off and then play another team that was 10-1, on the road again, just says a lot about the git of our team.
They’re the road warriors. We’ve done that the last three years we’ve gone on the road so its nothing new, but obviously spring boarding into this game against a monster like Milton. We’re definitely felling confident right now and we should, and we’re healthy, and the things that you want. You want to peak at the right time and I feel like our team is doing that. We got to go out and we got to play clean football, and play with lots of energy, and have fun doing it, and we’ll see what happens.”

41NBC Pregame Coverage from the Shamrock Bowl will start on 41NBC at 5 p.m.

Catch highlights and scores from all across the state during Friday’s edition of The Endzone on 41NBC at 11 p.m.