TIFTON —
The Fitzgerald High Purple Hurricanes extended their winning streak to ten games with a dominant win over the McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers, blowing them out, 41-14.
Kaleb Nobles, who has now passed for well over 5,000 yards in his career, added another impressive performance to an already great career, completing 12 of his 15 passes for a season-high 171 yards and four touchdowns.
As good as Nobles was, the ground game was even better. The Hurricanes ran at will, picking up 187 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Fitzgerald’s opponent for the second round will be the Adairsville High Tigers, who earned their spot in the round of sixteen by beating Banks County, 21-3.
They led only 7-3 at halftime, but quickly added two touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game out-of-reach. That was no surprise for the Tigers, who have been a second half team all season.
“It seems like we’ve probably scored 90 percent of our points this year in the third quarter,” Adairsville coach Jim Kremer told The Daily Tribune News.
It took Adairsville only 48 seconds to score in the second half, after recovering a fumble on Banks County’s first play from scrimmage. Six minutes later Mike Upshaw scored his second touchdown of the quarter, giving Adairsville their first playoff win since 2003.
The Tigers are in the middle of a break-through season, not only have they won their first playoff game in eight years, but they have also won 10 games for the first time in a decade, and only the second time in 40 years. There is still one thing that Adairsville needs to mark off the list though — they have never beaten a Region 1-AA school.
That being said, they have never actually played a school from Region 1-AA either, but Fitzgerald will be trying to make sure that they never want to play one again.
Despite going 9-1 on the regular season Adairsville is the third seed from Region 7-AA. With 14 teams in the region it has been divided into two sub-regions. After a loss to Pepperell in region play the Tigers were bumped down to the third-seed behind Pepperell and Calhoun. Calhoun has been to the state championship game three years in-a-row, losing to Buford each year.
Fitzgerald has struggled with teams from the Tigers’ region over the years. Though they have only played four games against teams from Region 7-AA, the Hurricanes have only won one of those. The last team they played from the region was Calhoun in last year’s quarterfinals. Calhoun won that game 31-13, ending Fitzgerald’s season at 10-3.
The Hurricanes are one of three teams from Region 1-AA remaining in the playoffs. Last season all four teams made it to the quarterfinals before being swept. This year Fitzgerald, Cook and Brooks County are remaining, while Thomasville has been eliminated in the first round by Appling County.
Fitzgerald will be trying to improve their record against Region 7-AA teams, while the Tigers will be looking for their first win against Region 1-AA. Kickoff for the game will be at 7:30 tonight at Jaycee Stadium in Fitzgerald.
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