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Sports Scene
With it being week five for the public schools that meant teams were allowed to step out of their region and play someone from the area. That opens the door for the annual Clarke County High-Jackson meeting. This year marked the 92nd time these two schools have met since 1917. The math doesn't work because they have played twice in a season three times. Clarke Prep was hosting Morgan in a game that features two of last year's defending state champions. There is not a lot of love between the Selma schools and the Gator faithful, stemming from reclassification. Both of those are huge games, to be certain. But in my mind I saw another that has been jumping off the schedule at me since it was announced back last year. Sweet Water headed to Leroy to take on the Bears. Both squads claimed state crowns back in 2004 and both are poised at making possible runs again this year. The Bears entered the game as the top-ranked team in Class 2A while the Bulldogs were ranked third in Class 1A. their only blemish was a 20-14 loss to top-ranked Thomasville in Class 4A. Both schools are coached by some of my favorite coaches and men who have been my friends for many years. Plus it just looked like this had all the makings of a classic that would be talked about for years. Ironically it will be, but not for the reasons I thought. I saw it as a heavy-weight boxing match, with each team landing punch after punch. That was not to be as Sweet Water took advantage of five Bear turnovers, including taking two of them back for scores to earn a 35-6 win. I was at the Jackson-Leroy game to start the season and this game felt eairily like that one. You were left to wonder what the game might have been like had it not been for the turnovers. But that is the game of football and good teams take advantage of any mistakes. The people from Sweet Water will add this win to the long list of big ones in that school's history while the Bear supporters will talk about how this was one of the biggest loses they could ever remember. But despite all of that you have to love the fact that the schools can play the out-of-region games. When I got to Palmer Stadium there was a huge crowd set up outside tail-gating prior to kickoff. There was a festive air about the game as the two squads warmed up. It felt like a playoff game. The same could easily be said about the CCHS-JHS as well as the Gator-Morgan contest. County bragging rights were at stake between the Bulldogs and Aggies and in the end it was the game that kept your attention from beginning to end. A field goal with a minute to go in the game to decide who wins is always the kind of game that fans talk about for years to come. When the Gators knocked off Morgan there was a sense of accomplishment for Clarke Prep's folks. Some people feel that the powers that be at Morgan had a hand in the way the school's enrollment is counted in classifing the different schools. The new counting method kicked the Gators up to AAA. So they had that motivation, as well as the chance to beat the defending AAA champion. Combine those with a stingy defense and a ball-control offense and you can see why the Gators finished with a victory. This week Thomasville hosts T.R. Miller in a game that could easily decide the region championship, barring any upsets by either in the weeks after the game. Thomasville is ranked number one and Miller is number two. It just doesn't get any bigger than that. But you know what? We are used to games like that around these parts. Even if we can't figure how to do anything else right, we can play football as good as anyone...anywhere. So a game like the one between Thomasville and Miller is old hat for us. Good luck teams. That's all folks.........
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