GMC, Crawford Co. to break 4-4 tie

Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, August 21, 2024

The Georgia Military College Prep and Crawford County High School football teams have met eight times in history.

The series between the Milledgeville and Roberta schools that began back in 1982 stands tied at four wins apiece heading into Friday’s meeting when the Bulldogs will travel face the Eagles.

The teams traded blows in ‘82 and ‘83 then met four straight years in the early ‘90s with Crawford taking the first three matchups in that stretch. GMC Prep won a 7-6 decision to open the ‘93 season with the help of an Eagle fumble late. Then came a long break in between meetings until 2020 and ‘21, both easy wins for the ‘Dogs.

Now the schools separated by about 60 miles are getting ready to break their 4-4 series tie, and both are looking to get into the win column after losing in week one. Following a long road trip, GMC Prep last week lost to Atkinson County 35-16 while Crawford fell 34-20 at home to Pike County.

For the Bulldogs, they’ll be taking the field for a second straight week with a newly-minted varsity quarterback under center. Freshman Matthew Webster has the reins while the team awaits senior Logan McMillan to undergo an MRI on his throwing elbow. In just a short time, Webster has a believer in his head coach/offensive playcaller Gavin Tierce.

“He has so much poise as a freshman it’s unbelievable,” Tierce said Tuesday. “I’ve never seen it. I have coached teams where a freshman has had to step up at quarterback, but not as a full-time starter … I cannot believe how well he’s handled it. He took some licks Friday that scared me to death and he popped right back up. He’d come to the sideline and ask what he could do to get better. That coming from a 14-year-old is special.”

In positive injury news, the Bulldogs will get back junior tight end/defensive end Cam Lango, who went down with full-body cramps last Friday.

Lango, Webster and company are taking on a Crawford County team that is looking for the program’s first winning season since 2016. Despite that losing stretch, the Eagles have made the playoffs in each of the last three years, though two of those postseason trips were simply due to the fact that there were only four total teams in Crawford’s region. There won’t be any automatic bids for the Eagles in 2024 as there are seven squads from Region 6 vying for four playoff spots.

Crawford hopes to be one of them with its up-tempo, pro-style spread offense.

“They’ve got a quarterback that can throw and he will make plays if you let him sit back there in the pocket,” Tierce said. “He’s got good scrambling ability, but he wants to throw the football. He’s got dudes downfield that he can get the ball to. They’ll take the top off of you deep if you let them.”

In terms of playcalling, the Crawford offense was heavy on the pass with 36 attempts to only 16 carries last week against Pike. Yardage-wise, almost all movement came through the air with 270 passing yards to just 34 on the ground. Tierce doesn’t believe that’s any reason to sit back and simply play the pass.

“I think the strength is in their run game,” the GMC Prep head coach said. “They’ve got a good 1-2 punch at running back.”

Offensively for the Bulldogs, they’ll be looking at their first even-man front this week in the team’s new wing T scheme. Tierce is hoping his players can make the necessary adjustments against a big Crawford defensive line to win time of possession and keep the Eagle offense on the sideline.

“We’re going to have to control the clock. Luckily the nature of our offense allows us to do that. That’s going to be super important for us to be successful this week.”

Kickoff between the Bulldogs and Eagles is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Roberta.