Northeast or Toombs County will eat for the first time as a state champion Tuesday night after performing on a stage they’ve only dreamed about
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Dublin? On preseason lists every year as a team to watch make a deep postseason run, and contend for a state title.
Fitzgerald? On preseason lists every year as a team to watch make a deep postseason run, and contend for a state title.
Both have packed up the equipment, courtesy of a pair of newbies headed to the first state championship games in program history.
Eyes may be a little wide for both Toombs County and Northeast when they battle at 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the GHSA Class A/Division I state championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“You’ve got to let them get there and get it all out, one good time,” Northeast head coach Jeremy Wiggins said of pregame jitters in the massive dome. “Then you start making them lock in. Let them enjoy it. A lot of times, you see a lot of kids in the bowl games and stuff, they get to the game and the coach lets them walk the field, take pictures, stuff like that, get it out of the way before they start getting to pregame.”
Toombs County second-year head coach Buddy Martin and his staff hit the phones, too, for advice.
“It’s definitely something you think about, something you talk to your kids about,” said Martin, promoted two years ago from defensive coordinator. “It’s a 100-yard field, by 53 1/3, like every field you’ve played on your whole life.”
But Martin admitted that during last Tuesday’s meeting in Atlanta of all the championship coaches, it got to him a little.
“I’m a 41-year-old man,” he said. “I caught myself. I’m looking up in the rafters. ‘Look at this place.’”
On-site classes for schools in the Northeast district – Bernd Elementary, Burdell-Hunt Magnet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Elementary, Appling Middle, and Northeast are off as an asynchronous learning day.
Toombs County Schools dismissed at noon on Monday, and are closing on Tuesday.
Toombs County and Martin are 12-1, following up on last year’s 11-2 quarterfinal season. Northeast and seventh-year head coach Wiggins are 12-2, after an 8-3 season and first-round loss in 2023.
Toombs County has tied its school mark for wins in a season, matching the 12-1 year of 1995 that ended in the quarterfinals. Northeast set its program mark with the second-round win over Lamar County, and tied the Bibb County public school mark, matching Westside’s 12-1 season in 2008, Robert Davis’s final year as head coach.
Both teams advanced with eye-opening semifinal wins.
Toombs County strolled into Dublin and convincingly ended the perfect season of the Irish with a 42-15 win. The Bulldogs handed Dublin its worst home loss since Brooks County’s 41-7 win in the second round of the 2020 playoffs.
The win itself was huge, but the opponent was undefeated in nine games against Toombs County.
“Our kids got after it,” Martin said. “Played really well, executed really well. They love to compete.”
The Bulldogs got off to a dream start on offense and defense, and did what Dublin does: maintain control.
Northeast took control early and kept it with a 46-14 win over Fitzgerald. It was the Purple Hurricane’s biggest margin of defeat since, ironically, Brooks County won 49-17 late in the 2017 regular season.
Fitzgerald had a much stronger postseason history, but the Raiders were confident against the Purple Hurricane, considering they had a road win against No. 1 last year, and let slip a chance a year earlier to beat No. 1 before losing by one.
“They beat Dublin, who is known for being in the championship,” Wiggins said. “And we beat Fitzgerald, who has been in like four straight semifinals.”
Not that too much went wrong last week for either team, but they get a little extra time to tweak some things and get a little healthier. Weather this week is the opposite of last week, so conditioning will get a little boost.
And there’s that much more time to watch tape and learn about the opposition.
Quarterback T.J. Stanley, headed to Georgia State, was a solid 10-of-12 for 150 yards and three touchdowns against Dublin, leading the run game with 97 yards – including a 60-yarder- and a touchdown.
Stanley has had five games in which he has completed at least 70 percent of his passes, all with double-digit attempts. He was huge against 5A power Rome, completing 25 of 34 for 255 yards and two scores.
He has 2,315 yards on 68.5-percent completions, with 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions. In 26 games as a two-year starter, Stanley has completed 62.3 percent of his passes for 4,717 yards, 57 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, adding 19 rushing touchdowns.
“He does a good job,” Wiggins said of Stanley. “Whatever the defense gives them, that’s what they kind of take.”
The Bulldogs’ passing game is efficient and deep, with three prime targets: LaGonza Hayward, Gavin Fletcher, and Mike Polke have between 35 and 50 catches, and from 514-739 yards. Hayward has 13 TD catches, Fletcher nine and Polke three.
Only against Swainsboro has Stanley not had a positive TD-INT ratio, when he threw two of each. He has seven touchdown passes and no interceptions in his last two games.
But it’s not a breakaway pass offense, even with Florida commit Hayward. Only three of Stanley’s passes have gone for more than 50 yards.
Dabvn Wadley, a state champion wrestler, has 1,084 rushing yards in 11 games with 13 touchdowns, and Stanley adds 530 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“They remind me a lot of Carver-Columbus,” said Wiggins, whose team beat the 2023 semifinalist Tigers 25-18 last year and No. 2 Tigers 26-8 in 2022. “Carver is always athletic, big, fast. That’s who they remind me of.”
The Bulldogs face one of the state’s rushing leaders in Nick Woodford, off two straight 300-yard playoff games. He’s up to 6,173 yards for his career, moving into the top 30 all-time in Georgia.
Quarterback Reginald Glover has crossed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing and passing.
For both teams, the key is defense, for both face a quality 1-2 punch at quarterback and running back.
Stanley and Wadley have combined for 3,937 yards of total offense and 54 touchdowns, to 5,078 and 70 for Glover and Woodford.
“The way they play defense, they kind of forced Dublin to get off of what they do,” Wiggins said. “They did a couple things that made it hard for Dublin. They found something that was working.”
Toombs County’s top four tacklers have combined for 57 tackles for loss and the unit has 24 sacks. Four of the Raiders’ top five have 62.
Northeast has more of a ball-hawking pass defense, led by Kortnei Williams’ 10 interceptions, one more than Toombs County.
While teams have their different strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies, games come down to pretty much the same priorities for Northeast is an underdog against the top-ranked Bulldogs.
After addressing nerves.
“You always gotta play good defense,” Wiggins said. “The most important thing to me is playing good defense and not turning the ball over. Those are the most important things to me.
“If we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win the game. If they can’t score, they can’t win.”
