This week’s high school football action starts with two games on Thursday, including a new city rivalry game at Rip Hewes Stadium.
Houston Academy and Northside Methodist, two schools located 2.9 miles apart in north Dothan, meet for the first time on the high school gridiron when the two teams kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Rip Hewes for a Class 3A, Region 2 contest.
People are also reading… It’s the fifth game since 2007 for HA at Rip Hewes, but just the second as a visiting team. The Raiders were visitors in a 2009 game against city rival Providence Christian in the second meeting between the two after the series started in 2008 at Rip Hewes with HA as the home team.
Both teams are 3-0 in six-team 5A, Region 2 with just two region games remaining. Headland is third with a 2-1 record followed by Carroll in fourth at 1-2 and Rehobeth and Greenville tied for fifth at 0-3. CHHS and Eufaula can’t be caught by Rehobeth or Greenville and both have already beaten fourth place Carroll, meaning the two can finish no worse than third among the four playoff spots.
Going for a region title, part II: Early County, the top ranked team in Georgia Class A, Division II, can clinch a region title with a win Friday at Randolph-Clay. The Bobcats are 5-0 in Region 1-A, Division II play and Friday’s game is their last region contest of the year. Randolph-Clay is 1-0 in region play and is the only team that can unseat Early County as a region champion. All the other region teams have one or more losses and all have lost to the Bobcats.
300-yard passers: Three Wiregrass quarterbacks -- Pike Liberal Arts’ Dawson Bradford, Eufaula’s Copeland Cotton and G.W. Long’s Bryson Hughes -- had 300-yard passing efforts last week. Horne earned five pass receptions for 198 yards and two scores, Mitchell caught eight passes for 187 yards with one score and Booth snared six receptions for 174 yards with two TDs.
The defensive players honored were Rehobeth’s Blake Hataway and Parker Peacock, Ashford’s Jay Ragland and Wicksburg’s Maddox Burkhardt, Jacob Cox and Isaac Murphy.