All has been quiet lately at Donell Woods Stadium, but that will change tonight as Liberty County High School hosts the Wayne County Yellow Jackets at 7:30 in the Panthers’ first home game since Oct. 5.
Panther coach Kirk Warner and his team had a week off and a chance to recover from Liberty’s 19-0 loss Oct. 11 at Statesboro, which was the Panthers’ first Region 3A-AAAA game of the season.
The Yellow Jackets are familiar foes who are new to the Panthers’ region. While Wayne County has a 2-0 lead in the series, the Panthers are on a four-game home winning streak and know two more wins guarantees them postseason action.
“That is how we are approaching it right now,” Warner said. “We don’t know the tie-breaking scenario just yet but I know one thing — if we win both then we are definitely in, so that is how we are approaching these next two games.”
The Yellow Jackets have a strong, up-and-coming quarterback in Malique Jackson leading a good passing attack.
“They have a quarterback right now that is more dangerous than (former Wayne County star) Greyson Lambert was because he can throw, but he can also kill you with his legs,” Warner said.
The Panthers also have a versatile quarterback in JJ Grant, who is averaging 93.1 total yards per game.  The Panthers lost top receiver Alton Sapp earlier in the season, but Jeremy Caldwell-Fabergas has stepped into the leader board with 15 receptions for 400 yards and six touchdowns. The Panther offense is averaging 288 yards per game, and Trentice Williams leads in rushing with 68 yards per game. And the Yellow Jackets will have to contend with the Panthers defense led by standout linebacker Raekwon McMillan. McMillan is averaging 15 tackles per game and has a total of 105 tackles to date.
Warner is confident that the week off gave some of his injured players a chance to heal and earn possible playing time tonight.
“We are probably about as healthy as we’ve been in a while,” he said.