TIFTON — After a first week that saw Worth County, Cook High and Fitzgerald eliminated, the only two high school football teams from the Tiftarea still remaining in the state playoffs are the Tift County Blue Devils and the Turner County Rebels.

Tift County advanced in the Class AAAAA tournament with a 22-7 win over the East Coweta Indians. The Devils will now face the Union Grove Wolverines in a second round matchup Friday at Brodie Field. Union Grove advanced with a 10-0 first round victory over Windsor Forest.

Turner County will take on the Pacelli High Vikings Friday at Ashburn’s Alan Hobby Field for the second straight season. Turner defeated Pacelli, 12-7, last season in a first round contest.

The Rebels advanced this postseason with a 33-16 victory over Bryan County, while Pacelli made it to the second round with a 28-6 win over Terrell County.

In its matchup against East Coweta, the Blue Devils got off to a slow start in the first half and had a 10-7 lead at intermission. However the second half saw Tift dominate as the Devils outgained the Indians in yardage by a 172-to-40 margin.

Tift is led on offense by running back Kaream Hess, wide receiver Israel Troupe and quarterback Sean Baxley.

Hess has rushed 221 times this season for 1,104 yards and he has also caught 37 passes for 311 yards.

Troupe has caught 48 passes for 498 yards, and has also returned five kickoffs for 109 yards and 11 punts for 102 yards.

Baxley has completed 63.9 percent of his passes, 152-for-238, for 1,414 yards. The senior has thrown for 12 touchdowns and has been picked off eight times.

Place-kicker Charlie Edwards is also a potent weapon for the Devils.

He currently has 39 field goals in his career, which is believed to be the second highest total in Georgia football history. Cairo’s Jake Bundrick holds the state record with 46

Edwards has 16 field goals this season, which is only three short of the state record of 19 set by Lovejoy’s Chris Ray in 1997. Edwards almost got that mark as a junior as he kicked 18 field goals in 2005.

The Tift offense will be going against an Union Grove defense that not only shut out Windsor Forest, but accounted for the game’s only touchdown. That score came late in the fourth quarter when Wolverine defensive back Owen High returned an interception 55 yards for a touchdown.

Union Grove will be missing the services of linebacker Kyle Jackson, who has committed to Georgia Tech. Jackson was injured in a recent game and will probably miss the remainder of the Union Grove season.

Besides Jackson, Scott Kennedy, from the national recruiting service Scout.com, is also high on the Wolverines’ Steven Sylvester, a junior 6-foot-2, 220 pound linebacker/running back.

“He is a monster,” Kennedy said of Sylvester.

Up in Ashburn, Pacelli earned a return trip to Alan Hobby Field with an impressive 28-6 victory over Terrell County.

The Vikings were led in that win by Jacquise Terry, who rushed for 143 yards.

Quarterback Stuart Wilkerson was 6-for-16 for 87 yards passing. His favorite target against Terrell County was Mark Legree who had two catches for 66 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown pass.

The Pacelli defense that held Terrell to only 170 total yards Friday will get a stiffer test against the Rebels.

Turner County put up 488 yards of total offense against Bryan County, 362 on the ground and 126 through the air.

Kevian Prather had 28 rushes for 202 yards and two touchdowns and caught three passes for 42 more yards to lead the Rebel offense. Prather has now rushed for 1,165 yards on the year and has scored 11 touchdowns.

Demario Barber caught three passes for 63 yards and one touchdown against Bryan County. Barber has now caught 32 passes for 529 yards in 2006.

Dontavious Smith is Turner’s leading receiver with 34 catches for 621 yards.

Quarterback Jeremy Stevenson has completed 70-of-144 passes for 1,206 yards. He has thrown 15 touchdown passes and has only been picked off three times. He has also rushed for 450 yards on 71 carries.

The Devils-Wolverines contest will be at 8 p.m. and the Rebels-Vikings game will be at 7:30 p.m.



Tift tickets

on sale

TIFTON — Class AAAAA state playoff tickets are currently on sale for Friday’s Tift County-Union Grove game set for 8 p.m. Friday at Brodie Field.

Reserved seat tickets will be $15.

The tickets will be sold today from 8:30 a.m.-noon and from 1-4 p.m. at the high school office. On Wednesday, reserved seat tickets will be sold from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and from 4-6 p.m. at the high school office. Also on Wednesday, reserved seat tickets will be available to the general public as any remaining reserved seat tickets will be sold.

General admission tickets will be sold for $10.

The tickets will be sold today from 8:30 a.m.-noon and from 1-4 p.m. at the high school office. On Wednesday, general admission tickets will be sold from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and from 4-6 p.m. at the high school office

General admission tickets will also be sold those two days at the Northeast campus and at Eighth Street Middle School.

Also, general admission tickets will be available at the visitor’s box office at Brodie Field at 2 p.m. until game time Friday.