The Long County High School football team travels Thursday to Garden City to face Groves in a Region 2-AA game that will be broadcast on WSAV, Hinesville cable channel 4.

Both the Blue Tide and Rebels are coming off big wins, and each team will want to showcase their talent.

Long County comes in with a 2-4 overall record and a 0-3 region mark.  The Tide’s two wins have come against Metter (28-20) and New Hampstead (41-0). 

Groves, meanwhile, has records of 4-2 and 1-2, with its wins coming over Islands (60-13), Windsor Forest (20-17), McIntosh County (33-14) and also New Hampstead (32-7). Both Long County and Groves lost to Vidalia, with the Indians beating the Blue Tide, 42-0, and the Rebels, 38-0.

According to MaxPreps.com, Long County is rated No. 379 in the state, with Groves slightly ahead at No. 356. In comparing the teams on offense, Groves averages 28 points a night to the Blue Tide’s 15. On defense, the teams are pretty even, with Long County allowing 27 points per contest and the Rebels giving up 20.

Long County won only two games last year, and Groves only managed one win. But in fairness to the Rebels, they were playing in Region 3-AAAAA at that time, meaning that the size of schools they were playing was substantially larger. This year, they were realigned, a move that already has resulted in three more wins than last year 

What is a certainty for both teams is that they each believe that they can notch another win on their belt Thursday. If the Blue Tide is going to pick up their first region win of the season, they will need to play a complete game like they did last week against New Hampstead. In that contest, the offense scored on six of eight possessions, and the defense shut down the Phoenix.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.