By Steve Carter
TIFTON — After defeating two non-ranked teams in the opening rounds of the state Class AAAAA football playoffs, things get a little tougher this week for the Tift County Blue Devils.
Tift, ranked third in the last Associated Press poll of the regular season, will host the fifth-ranked North Gwinnett Bulldogs at 8 p.m. Friday. The winner will advance to the state semifinals to be played at the Georgia Dome.
The Tift-North Gwinnett winner will take on the victor of the Roswell-Houston County contest at 6 p.m. on Dec. 9. The other semifinal will be at 9 p.m. that day and will feature the winners of the Stephenson-Peachtree Ridge and Norcross-Warner Robins contests.
Quarterback Michael Tamburo leads the North Gwinnett spread offense. The sophomore is 172-for-250 passing this season for 1,946 yards. He has thrown 20 touchdown passes and has only been intercepted five times.
Tamburo is also the team’s second leading rusher with 414 yards on 128 carries, an average of 3.2 yards per carry. Tamburo has 11 rushing touchdowns.
Ryan McDaniel is Tamburo’s favorite target. He has caught 68 passes for 924 yards and 13 touchdowns. McDaniel’s reception total is a Gwinnett County record.
The 6-foot-3, 195 pound McDaniel also has 28 punt returns for 332 yards and eight kickoff returns for 218 more yards.
Other top receivers for the Bulldogs are Brandon Rodd with 29 catches for 415 yards and Tyler Jarry with 23 catches for 189 yards.
Evan Gilles is the team’s leading rusher with 676 yards on 127 carries, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. He also has rushed for nine touchdowns.
Besides his rushing Gilles also has 19 catches for 140 yards.
In North Gwinnett’s 31-7 second round playoff victory over Etowah, Tamburo was 9-for-12 passing for 94 yards. He was intercepted once and threw for no touchdowns.
On the ground, Tamburo had 13 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown.
Gilles rushed for 93 yards on 18 carries, while McDaniel had four catches for 64 yards.
Tift advanced to the third round with a 38-23 victory over the Union Grove Wolverines.
According to the official statistics taken from game film by Tift coaches, the Devils gave up 29 yards on 18 carries and allowed 186 yards passing.
The stats also had Tift quarterback Sean Baxley completing 20-of-27 passes for 333 yards. The senior has completed 172-of-265 passes this season for 1,747 yards.
Israel Troupe caught seven passes for 107 yards against Union Grove. On the season, the senior has 55 catches for 605 yards.
Kaream Hess has 19 carries for 48 yards against Union Grove and caught six passes for 77 more yards.
The junior has rushed 240 times in 2006 for 1,152 yards. He has also caught 43 passes for 388 more yards.
While the teams are preparing this week, tickets are now on sale at Tift County High School.
Tickets are $15 for reserved seats and $10 general admission. The tickets will be available for the rest of the week from 8:30 a.m-noon and from 1-4 p.m.
On Friday, reserved seat tickets for the general public will be available at the office from 8:30 a.m.-noon.
Then from 4 p.m. until gametime Friday night, general admission tickets will be on sale on the visitor’s side at Brodie Field. Those tickets will be $10 apiece.
There will also be another community pep rally this week sponsored by OneVision Media. It will be held from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the mall parking lot and will feature nationally-known comedian and Tifton native Michael Prince as the host of the event.
All former Tift County football players and cheerleaders are invited to attend.
Lil’ TRILL will be performing the “Devil Walk” live and will also be available to sign CD’s and DVDs. Tift County football players and cheerleaders will also be available for autographs.
North Gwinnett in
for new experience
Records on the Georgia High School Football Historians Association Web site (ghsfha.org) show something interesting about the North Gwinnett Bulldogs football team.
According to those records, which go back to 1960, North Gwinnett has never played anyone south of Interstate 20 in Atlanta.
That means Friday’s contest against the Tift County Blue Devils will be the first time the Bulldogs have played in South Georgia.
It will also be the first time in school history North Gwinnett has played a South Georgia team.
