As you digest your last official holiday of summer, take a moment to look ahead to the week that shall be in Augusta-area high school football.
Many of the area’s teams were off this past Friday, perhaps ahead of a long, holiday weekend. But this week, only five teams in our 33-team coverage area — Harlem, Augusta Christian, Edward Burke Academy, Lincoln County and Thurmond (S.C.) are off. Everyone else is in action playing their second, third or fourth games, depending on the schedule.
Game of the season…so far?
Two games of interest in Columbia County last week set the stage for what will arguably the game of the week across our entire coverage area.
It was Evans knocking off rival Grovetown in impressive fashion, along with Lakeside keeping Jevon Edwards and South Aiken corralled enough to walk away with a win.
That game sets the stage for Friday’s big matchup between Columbia County rivals when Lakeside visits Evans at 7:30 p.m. for the 33rd game in the series that began back in 1990 when Lakeside first opened. Evans holds a 21-10-1 advantage, but this has been a fairly closely contest rivalry where neither team has beaten the other more than five times in a row. That last happened when Evans ripped off five straight against the Panthers between 2004 and 2008.
Believe it or not, this will also be the first time both teams have entered this game undefeated after having played at least two games.
The last three years have been really tight. Last year, Evans edged Lakeside 16-15 avenging a 21-20 loss to the Panthers in 2022. In 2021, Evans took home a 37-29 win in a game that was a bit of a shootout.
This year’s contest should be just as competitive, with both teams having enjoyed a bit of an offensive overhaul, while also playing aggressive, stingy brands of defense.
And if that weren’t enough intrigue, Friday’s game is the Region 1-AAAAA opener for both teams, which means a chance for the winning squad to gain some early-season pole position on the region race.
We’ll analyze the matchup later in the week. But suffice it to say, if you were looking for the most draama in the CSRA in one football game, you might want to make your way to Evans High Friday — and pull up early.
Early-season region play kicks off
Several of the regions our coverage area teams play in are beginning region play just three games into the season. Lakeside and Evans are two of those teams in Region 1-AAAAA, but the other two are Aquinas and Hephzibah out of Region 4-AAA
If you were looking for an area runner up for game of the week accolades, this may be the one. Both teams split their two non-region games with Hephzibah beating Washington-Wilkes 34-24 in Week 1 while losing 30-21 to Laney the following Friday. The Rebels have had an extra week to provide from what they’ll see from a potentially potent offense led by 6-foot-4 quarterback Jim Franklin.
The Fightin’ Irish lost its season opener 45-22 to Athens Academy (3-0) which isn’t necessarily something to feel too bad about considering the Spartans are one of the best programs in Georgia, regardless of classification. Aquinas bounced back to knock off Bryan County 42-20 two weeks ago when it played its first game inside a new stadium.
Franklin’s already thrown for close to 400 yards in both games with four touchdown passes to zero interceptions. Aquinas’ defense will have the arduous task of limiting a potent rushing attack led by quarterback J.J. Gant and sophomore tailback Reante Byrd. Byrd looked impressive against a stout Laney defense, carrying 11 times for 183 yards — that’s 16.6 yards per carry. In his first two games, he’s averaging almost a first town every time he touches the ball.
The Rebels’ big, stout offensive line against an active Aquinas front seven led by sophomore DE Jaden Wuerth will be a matchup within the matchup you’ll want to watch.
Head of the class
As far as other fall sports go, nobody’s outpacing Grovetown softball right now in terms of being the Augusta-area’s standard bearer. The Warriors (14-1, 8-0 in Region 4-AAAAAA) haven’t just won. They’ve dominated.
Since losing dropping a 9-3 decision to Greenbrier during the August 7 season opener, the Warriors have ripped off 14 straight victories, including a 12-6 “get-back” win against Grovetown on August 28.
During that stretch, pitching and defense have been premium as the Warriors have posted six shutouts during that time, and only two teams — Archer and Greenbrier — have scored more than four runs during that stint.
Freshman Yessy Lugo is tied for second best team batting average, swinging at a .462 clip with 8 RBI. But senior Maddy Harl has been phenomenal.
Harl’s also batting .462, but she’s second on the team with 19 RBI, behind junior Josalyn Sergent’s 20 and Hart’s five homers are best on the squad. Grovetown’s not only doing it better than most in Georgia, but also in the country. Maxpreps considers the Warriors the 20th ranked softball team in the country, based on its latest rankings. They’re one of a whopping 12 nationally ranked Georgia teams in Maxpreps’ poll.
Speaking of standard bearer’s, Lakeside would fit that bill as far as volleyball goes.
The Panthers (18-2, 4-0) are on a nine-match winning streak, and in that streak, have only dropped two total sets — one against Richmond Academy on August 27 and one in a region win against Effingham County six days earlier.
Senior Blakely Johnson has been strong on the attack registering a team-high 206 kills. Her 33 aces lead the team. While sophomore Avery Miller has tallied a team-leading 316 assists.
In Richmond County, as usual, Richmond Academy (12-1, 1-0) is pacing the action having only lost to Lakeside. The Lady Musketeers have a pair of juniors north of 100 kills in Caitlyn Rivers (151) and Kate Dunagan (101). They’ve won their last two matches against Grovetown and Aquinas since the Lakeside loss during the last week of August. They’ll look to stay undefeated this week with Region 4-AAA matches against Westside and Cross Creek.
The Friday football slate
Let’s wrap up the rewind with a look at where each of our coverage area’s football teams will play this week.
RICHMOND COUNTY
Johnson County (1-2) at Butler (1-0)
Cross Creek (1-1) at Baldwin (0-2)
Fox Creek (0-1) at Glenn Hills (0-2)
Hephzibah (1-1) at Aquinas (1-1)
Josey (0-2) at Hancock Central (1-2)
Oglethorpe County (0-3) at Laney (2-1)
Westside (2-0) at Richmond Academy (0-2)
COLUMBIA COUNTY
Lakeside (2-0) at Evans (2-0)
Statesboro (1-1) at Greenbrier (1-1)
Thomson (1-2) at Grovetown (0-3)
Harlem (2-0) — BYE: Next game vs. Baldwin (9/13)
AUGUSTA AREA PRIVATE
Hephzibah (1-1) at Aquinas (1-1)
Augusta Christian (0-3) — BYE: Next game at Porter-Gaud (9/13)
Trinity Christian (1-2) at Augusta Prep (2-1)
Edmund Burke Academy (3-0) — BYE: Next game at Glascock County (9/13)
Harvester Christian (2-0) at Westminster (1-0)
GEORGIA CSRA
Warren County (2-1) at Burke County (2-1)
Lincoln County — BYE: Next game vs. Elbert County (9/13)
Thomson (1-2) at Grovetown (0-3)
Washington County (1-2) at Dublin (3-0)
SOUTH CAROLINA CSRA
Aiken (0-1) at Hilton Head (1-1)
Fox Creek (0-1) at Glenn Hills (0-2)
Lexington (0-2) at Midland Valley (2-0)
South Aiken (1-1) at North Augusta (1-1)
Hampton County (2-0) at Silver Bluff (0-2)
Thurmond (2-0) — BYE: Next game vs. North Augusta (9/13)
