High school football is built on rivalries.
They’re the games that pit small community vs. small community or separate larger towns right down the middle. And they fill stadiums with passionate fans looking for a bragging rights win over a neighbor or even a family member.
And that’s certainly true in our state.
Valdosta-Lowndes.
Parkview-Brookwood.
Hart County-Elbert County.
Charlton County-Clinch County.
Those are annually some pretty hotly contested games, and the list goes on and on throughout the state. But none of the rivalry games in this state get any bigger than Northside-Warner Robins, and that series continues tonight at McConnell-Talbert Stadium.
The series started in 1964 with a Warner Robins victory, and that was a trend throughout the early years of the rivalry. The Demons won 20 of the first 25 meetings with the Eagles, but things have leveled off since then.
Northside won three straight after a loss in 1985 and despite a six-game losing streak in the 1990s, the Eagles have gone 14-12 since their early struggles in the series. And Northside has dominated recently, winning nine of the past 11 games, including four straight. That four-year run is the Eagles’ longest in the series, while the Demons have had two seven-game winning streaks and a six-game winning streak.
But that’s what makes the series so great.
Since Warner Robins’ early control over the International City games, the Northside-Warner Robins series, for the most part, has been competitive. It’s not a given which team is going to win each year, and that gives fans hope that their team can get the best of their rival in any given year.
There are ebbs and flows to the matchups, for sure, as the teams improve within the high school football landscape. The Eagles and Demons climb and drop as the cycles in talent work their way through their programs, but both of these teams have remained pretty close to the top, adding even more importance to the series. It’s definitely a big game in Warner Robins, but it’s also a key series in the state.
Warner Robins has won four state titles and has a .696 winning percentage while Northside owns two state titles and a .708 winning percentage. That adds up to two heavyweight programs meeting yearly in Warner Robins on a big stage.
While this year doesn’t appear to be a classic matchup in the series’ history with 8-0 Northside being a favorite over 5-3 Warner Robins, it is Northside-Warner Robins week, after all.
And that’s all that really matters.
Contact Daniel Shirley at 744-4227 or dshirley@macon.com
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