Halfway through the season, the real games begin in Region 7A-1A
FPD head coach Greg Moore likes to compare the competition in GHSA Region 7A-1A to the type of play his college alma mater, Alabama, faces when it goes up against its SEC West foes.
It could be said the sub-region has strong competition. Moore, whose team is one of three in the sub-region without a loss to a team in Georgia, says it goes well beyond that.
“That is a gross understatement,” Moore said jokingly. “It is a super, super competitive region, full of extremely good players and athletes that are very well coached by the staffs that are heading programs in this sub-region. Congratulations, I guess, for getting a great start to the season. The reward is, it just gets harder.”
In Region 7A-1A, or the western sub-region of a region that went largely unchanged during realignment, five of the six teams are ranked in the top 24 in their respective public and private power ratings. Because of playoff expansion, only Wilkinson County would miss the playoffs if the bracket were set today.
In addition, teams from the A-side of the region have enjoyed some success against the B-side, the side that won the region championship last year. FPD (Warren County) and Stratford (Lincoln County) have victories over top contenders, and Mount de Sales was competitive in a loss to defending region champion Aquinas.
“This sub-region can go any number of ways,” Twiggs County head coach Ashley Harden said. “Just about any team has a shot. Last year, this region had six or seven teams (between the two sub-regions) in the playoffs, and that says a lot about the competition in this region.”
In terms of power ratings alone, the top matchup in the sub-region comes at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, when FPD, the top team in the private school power ratings statewide, travels to Twiggs County, the No. 2 team statewide among public schools.
For a pair of teams that exited in the first round of the playoffs last season, the lofty power ratings might come as a surprise to those not closest to their respective programs.
Both teams gained from strong offseason player development. The offensive lines for both the Vikings and Cobras took major strides, and in turn that has allowed the respective offenses to move the football.
The difference between the teams? Twiggs County runs the ball, while FPD is running and throwing out of a spread.
“They have a very good football team and believe in what they’re doing and are executing very well,” Moore said of the Cobras. “They are taking care of the ball and are playing good, aggressive, fast defense. Nobody has really come close to stopping them. Every phase of the game will have to be right. We’ll have to play all parts of the game right to beat them Friday, and it is a tall task.”
FPD (4-0) is averaging 225 passing yards per game while getting 142 yards per game on the ground, with quarterback Dalton Cox setting the tone with five passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns and no interceptions.
Twiggs County (3-1) suffered its only loss to a top-five team from Florida’s Class 2A and is averaging 305 rushing yards per game, with senior Ja’mon Height and junior Javoris Smith having 1,071 yards and eight touchdowns between them.
In other Region 7A-1A action Friday, Mount de Sales (2-2) is at Stratford (3-1) and Tattnall Square, the other unbeaten team in the sub-region, hosts winless Wilkinson County.
“It should be a good game,” Harden said. “They like to throw the ball around, and we like to grind it out. It’s strong-man football against the new west coast stuff.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Halfway through the season, the real games begin in Region 7A-1A."