Round 2 Playoff Predictions- NGA & WNC

FANNIN VS JEFF DAVIS

The lone team remaining in our North Georgia coverage area after Lumpkin and Gilmer went down last week, Fannin County remains undefeated on the year thanks to their round 1 blowout of Vidalia. Things get tougher from this point on, as a legit Jeff Davis team comes to town on Friday. Jeff Davis comes to Blue Ridge with an 8-3 overall record, including a big 26-20 victory over Fitzgerald. The Yellow Jackets are a bit one dimensional, averaging just over 200 yards per game on the ground and just 75 yards per game through the air. The Senior backfield duo of Colby Beach and Kyrice Hunt shoulder most of the load offensively for the Jackets, and with the way those guys run it will be important for the Fannin County linebackers to maintain their assignments and stay home Friday Night.

From what I’ve seen on tape, the Jackets Secondary looks like something Lawson Sullivan and his band of receivers could take advantage of. Carson Callihan is going to get his shine in the rushing attack, but if Fannin opens up the playbook and lets Sullivan spin it, we could be looking at an offensive explosion for the Rebels and a whole lot of cannon fire.

Bottom line: Fannin 35 Jeff Davis 17

MURPHY VS CHRIST THE KING

Christ The King pulled off the upset in round one over Alleghany, but the buck stops here for the crusaders. Murphy is rolling, and they are good at jumping out early on teams they outmatch. This one is probably over by halftime. If CTK has any chance, they’ll need a few more of those 60 yard touchdown runs from Brennan Wallace like he had last week. While the Crusaders have a sophomore qb in Jamison Ehret who completes passes at about a 50% clip and has surpassed the 1k yard mark on the year, he also has a poor 8:12 TD to INT ratio, which is does not bode well going up against the ball hawking Murphy secondary.

Bottom Line: Murphy 41 CTK 14

ROBBINSVILLE AT BESSEMER CITY

This is probably the game of the Week in the playoffs as far as the Smoky Mountain Conference teams are concerned. Robbinsville held off Thomasville in round one and Bessemer City flexed their muscles in a round one victory over South Stokes. The winner Of this one will go on to face Murphy on black Friday at David Gentry Field, and I have a good feeling it’s setting up to be a Murphy-Robbinsville rematch in round 3.

Robbinsville is a much different team at this point in the year than they were earlier this season. They are having to rely on some freshman to play a big role on their team, which they aren’t quite used to doing at this point in the year. While I don’t think Robbinsville is a state championship winning team, I do think they received a pretty good draw when it comes to the bracketing in the playoffs this year. This second round game, while it is on the round, is against a Bessemer City team who in my opinion only received the 6 seed due to a flaw in the rankings system. They finished third in their split conference, but were the highest placing 1A team and therefore got the “conference champions” seeding. The Jackets are 8-4 on the year, but they have not beaten a team that is above .500. The 8 teams they’ve beaten have a combined record of 20-65. In week 4 of the season, Bessemer City lost to Union Academy at home by a score of 20-10. Last week, Hayesville traveled to Union Academy and beat the Cardinals 37-35.

All that being said, it is a long road trip for Robbinsville, and they are without some of their best players. If they play their brand of football and the young guns don’t let the moment get to them, then I think the Knights will live to see another day.

Bottom line: Robbinsville 21 Bessemer City 14

HAYESVILLE AT MOUNTAIN HERITAGE

The Clay County boys pulled off the upset in round one, knocking off previously mentioned Union Academy by a score of 37-35. It was good to see the Jackets offense come alive and light up the scoreboard, something I’ve been waiting on them to do all season. Tre Graves ran like a man possesed, rushing for 283 yards (10.3 yards per carry) and 5 TDs. if Hayesville plays with that same tenacity they brought last week, then they can keep this game closer than most people expect. Injuries plagued the Jackets all year and it looks like they may be finally getting healthy, it just may have come a few weeks too late.

Bottom line: Mountain Heritage depth and athletes too much to overcome, Heritage 41 Hayesville 14

CHEROKEE AT EASTERN RANDOLPH

Last week vs Carver the Braves had a nice balanced attack, getting it done thriugh the air and on the ground. This week the task at hand is much taller, as they travel to Ramseur to take on the unbeaten ER Wildcats. 11-0 and not a single stat listed on MaxPreps, all I can tell ya about Eastern Randolph is they’re big and they put up a lot of points. They’ve got big wins over Randleman and Central Davidson on their resume, and just beat Swain County 49-0 last week. Cherokee is always dangerous thanks to their deep passing threat, but I think ER will just overpower the Braves in this one.

Bottom Line: ER 33 Cherokee 7