TIFTON — Five area teams will compete in the Georgia high school football playoffs Friday including Tift County, Fitzgerald and Turner County which will all host postseason games.
The Tift County Blue Devils (9-1) will host the East Coweta Indians (6-4) Friday at Brodie Field in Tifton. The Devils locked up their first region title in 23 years Friday by beating Colquitt County 38-35 in triple overtime. The Blue Devils go into the postseason as the No. 1 seed out of Region 1-AAAAA while the Indians are the No. 4 team from Region 4-AAAAA.
The other playoff teams from Tift’s region are No. 2 Warner Robins, No. 3 Coffee and No. 4 Houston County.
The Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane (10-0) will have its undefeated season on the line at home against the Bleckley County Royals (6-4). Fitzgerald swept its region schedule to win a tough Region 1-AA while Bleckley is the No. 4 team from Region 4-AA.
The Turner County Rebels (9-1) will host the Bryan County Redskins (5-5) Friday in Ashburn. The Rebels claimed the Region 2-A title by going undefeated in the region after beating Wheeler County 46-0 Friday in the Region 2-A playoffs. As the No. 1 team from its region, Turner will face the No. 4 team from Class 3-A.
The other playoff teams from Region 2-A are No. 2 Johnson County, No. 3 Wilcox County and No. 4 Hawkinsville.
The Cook High Hornets (5-5) will travel to Dublin Friday to face the undefeated Dublin Fighting Irish (10-0). Although the Irish would appear to be the heavy favorites, the home team was the favorite last year when Cook upset Dublin 20-14 in the second round of the playoffs. Last year, the Irish looked invincible at 11-0 after setting a state record for points scored in a season and posting nine shutouts. Now Dublin, the No. 1 team from Region 4-AA, is looking for revenge against Cook, the No. 4 team from Region 1-AA.
Besides Fitzgerald and Cook, the other playoff teams from Region 1-AA are No. 2 Early County and No. 3 Thomasville.
The Worth County Rams (3-7) slipped into the playoffs after winning their last two games and will travel to Jackson Friday to play the Jackson Red Devils (9-1). Worth finished fourth in Region 1-AAA, while Jackson was the No. 1 team from Region 4-AAA. Jackson’s one loss came early in the season to Tift’s opponent, East Coweta.
The other playoff teams from Region 1-AAA are No. 1 Monroe, No. 2 Cairo and No. 3 Crisp County.
All the other area teams’ seasons are over. The Berrien High Rebels finished their season out of playoff contention two weeks ago. The Irwin County Indians were eliminated in the Region 2-A playoffs Friday by the Johnson County Trojans. The Tiftarea Academy Panthers’ season ended with a 7-6 loss to the eventual GiSA Region 3-AA champions, the Valwood Valiants.
The Associated Press Georgia high school football poll, which is usually released on Monday, was delayed until today. The sports writers poll released today will be the final football poll of the season. Tift, Fitzgerald and Turner were all ranked in the top five for their classifications in last week’s poll.
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