Central Georgia polls

          Can somebody input all sorts of stat stuff and pit Jones County and Warner Robins in a computer and/or video game?

          They’re that close in Division I, and West Laurens has made a jump after a dominant offensive and defensive performance Friday in a romp over Howard.

          Division II is a weekly swapfest, with things getting a little better among the smaller schools. But we’re still looking at a lean postseason field from Central Georgia in Class A, with Mount de Sales a lock and Taylor County nearing “lock” status.

 

Division I (6A, 5A, 4A)

1. Warner Robins

          The Demons continue to impress by doing the same thing they’ve done the past few years, albeit while looking a little differently doing it. They survive their own mistakes and make opponents pay for theirs. The underrated part of this team is the defense, with some sporty underclass talent.

2. Jones County
          The gap is still very snug, the difference between WR and JC. But the Greyhounds are focused on a tough region, with one region-championship-type game this week at Dutchtown (6-0, 3-0), a week off and then a romp coming over Eagle’s Landing before Ola (4-2, 1-2) and then Stockbridge (6-0, 3-0). The region has three ranked teams.

3. West Laurens
          The Raiders have become a complete team, tough in all three phases. They’ve had a quality kicker for a season or two in Cam Coup, and the offense around QB A.J. Mathis has gone from “just missing” to clicking like they’ve been doing this for awhile. And the Raiders have a defense that leaves a mark, statistically and physically.

4. Veterans

          The timing for a Friday night of was good. The Warhawks need to tighten some things up, and getting healthy in time for a visit from defending 5A state champ Bainbridge is huge.

5. Houston County

          In the three-game stretch against Peach County, Veterans, and Warner Robins, the Bears scored 48 points and gave up 67. The numbers last year: 68 and 133. Clearly there’s been progress, but Houston County had too many hiccups against Warner Robins. It’s a hefty underdog against Valdosta, off last week after being shut out 24-0 by Lowndes. Every region game is something of a measuring stick for the revived Bears.

 

Division II (3A, 2A, A, others)

1. Peach County
          Two games in a row, the Trojans have pulled the starters for the second half. The bad news: too many routs can have an impact in the fourth quarter of a close game. The good news: All those future starters are getting serious playing time. They need a challenge before the playoffs, and don’t seem likely to get one.

2. Dublin
          The Irish were sloppy in the second half Friday and failed to finish off Bleckley County, who battled and got within legitimate range of pulling off the upset. Not throwing a pass remains interesting, and something to remember down the line.

3. Washington County
          We didn’t learn anything this week from the Golden Hawks, having played East Laurens. But their 68 points rank in the top 15 in program history. Still …

4. Westside

          The Seminoles were in serious danger to losing to Central for the first time ever, in 18 games. It was the closest game with the Chargers since 24-21 in overtime in 2015, and one of only three times the Seminoles had won by single digits. Westside hasn’t lost two region games in 2016, a streak worth keeping an eye on.

5. Lamar County
          The Trojans are a hair behind Westside, still undefeated after a quality and gutty win over Spencer in a game as tough as expected. Lamar County is showing an ability to grind out wins and survive close games. Region play will no doubt change it, but the Trojans’ 10.5 points a game allowed is fourth-best in program history.

6.  Bleckley County

          The Royals were very close to losing to Dublin by nearly as much as some predictions said, but impressively battled back to within nine points with enough time to actually pull off a win. Sure, Dublin may have slowed down a little with 23-point lead – a teaching moment for the Irish – but Bleckley County didn’t slow down with a 23-point deficit, and that’s impressive.

7. Dodge County
          The battle with Northeast may have been unexpected to some, but that was more a tribute to Northeast’s improvement than any digression by the Indians. Gutting out a fourth-quarter win on the road against a quality opponent is pretty much a win-win, and that’ll show down the line. Maybe this week.

8. Mount de Sales
          More and more, the Cavs are showing that it’s much more than the Dexter Williams Show, and they’re doing so on both sides of the ball. And thus, the prediction that they’ll take the sub-region this year and sweep their main rivals. MdS seems to have something going a little more than last year.

9. John Milledge
          The Trojans had Friday off, so a team that has given up 23 points all season and won four of five games by at least 37 points is the most well-rested team in the state.

10. Northeast
          Granted, we still have more Division II teams below .500 than not, but the Raiders’ game against Dodge County on both sides earns them a ranking despite a 2-4 record. Oddly, Northeast has scored 37 more points than it’s allowed, which is notable, and will be notable down the stretch.

 

The Days of Our 2-4A Lives

          The Statement Game of the Week was made in West Laurens rout of Howard.

          Didn’t expect a rout. Could’ve seen the Raiders by a couple touchdowns, maybe three with a late cheap one. But pretty much domination from opening kickoff to horn?

          Impressive. The Raiders are more balanced than in the past, a philosophy made easier by a typically beastly defense. Howard battled field position problems and couldn’t get the feet going properly in one direction consistently, and had a little bit of a growing-pains game.

          The game didn’t change the belief that Howard is the second-best team in the region, although the gap behind West Laurens is bigger and the gap ahead of Perry, Upson-Lee, and Mary Persons is barely discernible.

          Perry and Upson-Lee are, as their game Friday only backed up, a weekly Six Flags ride. Blindfolded. And you don’t know the ride before you get on it.

          Perry scores three, then 36, then 13, then 45, then three, then 22. The margins of loss have dropped from 31 to 20 to 10.

          The Knights are struggling on the ground with less than half of the passing yards. Conversely, they’re struggling through the air. Four interceptions against Perry, and they still almost won. A late pick by Fitzgerald stopped a last-minute comeback.

          Upson-Lee is very much an enigma, a so-so team in a rebuilding mode that has a win that coulda been a loss and two losses that coulda been wins and a thumping that nobody saw coming.

          Mary Persons? The top program in the region is 3-3, has given up six more points than it’s scored, has lost to two teams it routed last year, was running-clocked against Peach County, has one winnable loss and two losable wins.

          Yeah, flip a coin with these teams on a given week.

          Half the region is off this week, adding to the drama.

          Mary Persons can all but eliminate Upson-Lee – all but, figuratively – with a win this week, because the Knights still have Howard and West Laurens, back to back with a week off in between.. An Upson-Lee road upset would add to the plot twists that we’ll see the rest of the season.

           The Raiders get some depth against Spalding.

          And then things get rocking. There are all sorts of scheduling issues that are major: Perry has Mary Persons and West Laurens back to back, Mary Persons finishes with West Laurens, Perry, and Howard, with two on the road, and Perry ends the reglar season with Mary Persons and West Laurens.

          Bet on nothing.

          Except West Laurens.

          Probably.

 

Loughdmouthings

          The weekly plot twists in Region 2-4A have potential to be matched in 3-2A.

          After Dublin.

          Washington County is the second-best team, and there’s a gap. Then? Records aside, it’s hard to say who the third-best team is, with Bleckley County, Dodge County, and Northeast.

          There is the Dublin effect: how do you do after playing the Irish, and how healthy are you, and is there a good/bad hangover.

          Bleckley County gets Washington County, which no doubt raise the intensity of practice after how well the Royals stood up to Dublin.

          The Royals and Indians are the favorites for the final two playoff spots, so Northeast – clearly on par with both teams – is likely to need some serious help to play an 11th game despite being definitely better than last year’s playoff team.

          The Raiders are looking at a 2-2 region finish, with wins over Southwest and East Laurens and losses to Dublin and Washington County. That puts them at 2-4 in region play, and they lose head-to-head tiebreakers with Bleckley County and Dodge County. …

It’s time for Bibb County to just go ahead and skip worrying about playing at Henderson Stadium this season.

          There’s a game scheduled each week for the rest of the regular season, but there’s no point in playing there just to play there and risk screwing up all the work put in on the turf.

          Change the schedule now for those games, and make a big deal next year – a celebration of sorts – for the first game at Henderson, with the new field and whatever else is new by then. …

          The step back of last week was taken by ACE, which lost to Central Fellowship, a member of the Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools, formerly the GICAA.

          It’s a huge win for the Lancers, whose next step up in competition comes on Oct. 25 when they visit Tattnall, in between the Trojans playing Mount de Sales and FPD.

          The teams haven’t played since 2007.

          Alas, finding scores and standings and information for GAPPS teams remains quite the work in progress. …

          First to 1,000 in rushing yards in Central Georgia – as per stats reported by teams to MaxPreps - will be Dodge County’s Daylon Gordon, who is averaging 150.8 yards a game, a stat already no doubt shared with Dublin’s defense.

          After that, well, John Milledge’s Amaad Foston gets 126.6 a game and has 633 yards, but he’s hurt by getting so few four-quarter games.

          He’s still a player, competition or not.

          Northeast’s Deondre Duehart has 621 yards, so he probably needs one big game to go with the norm to clinch the magic number. …

          Memo reminder to all coaches using Hudl for box scores and stats: please check the final numbers out before sending/finishing, because the majority of boxes forwarded the past few weeks – and much appreciation – have had incorrect scores all over the place. More, in fact, have been wrong than right.

          And it’s never a bad time to check rosters on MaxPreps and Hudl and anywhere else.

          It really isn’t, because there are issues.

         

Note to keepers of standings, results

          In this age of technology, certainly more teams can have stats on Friday night or Saturday morning to send to centralgasports@gmail.com so folks can find out what happened – everybody loves reading about high school football on a Saturday morning - other than seeing video of a few plays that don’t tell much about the game.

          Thanks last week to Brentwood, Mount de Sales, Westfield, Dublin, and Perry for Friday night’s boxes, Peach County on Saturday, and info Northeast, Howard, and Upson-Lee on Saturday and Sunday. Alas, that’s still only nine out of about 50.