Friday, the undefeated Bradwell Institute Tigers will face area rival Long County. The Tigers go into the game with a 4-0 record coming off a big 24-13 win over Tattnall County.
The Blue Tide, on the other hand, sit at 0-3 coming off a disappointing loss to Windsor Forrest 23-20.
Bradwell goes into Friday’s game as the clear favorite notching their three wins against Liberty County (1-2), Southeast Bulloch (0-3), and Warren County (0-4).
One of the key reasons the Tigers are still perfect is due to their ball-control offense, which is being led by Kevin Harris who leads the team in rushing with nearly 850 yards and nine touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball, Bradwell has been shutting teams down with the stellar play of Andrew Rafferty and Jaliel Nieves who lead their team with 21 and 18 tackles.
Long County goes into Friday’s game struggling, but improving each week.
In their opener they lost to Islands High School (1-2) 21-14, but that game was winnable. In their second game they were manhandled by Jeff Davis (2-1), but showed much improvement in the second half against the Yellow Jackets.
Last week, when they faced Windsor Forest (3-0), the Blue Tide led for much of the game and appeared to have the game won, but the Knights kicked a field goal as time expired to pull out a three-point victory.
If Long County is going to have any chance at pulling off the upset, senior running back E.J. Crawford will need to have a solid game, and defender Dazon Mills will have to be all over the field on the defense.
Though the Tigers go into the game undefeated and the Blue Tide go in winless, when looking at both team’s opponents it would appear that Long County has had the tougher schedule so far.
Bradwell’s opponents are posting a less than impressive 2-11 record, while Long County’s opponents are posting a 6-3 mark.
When the two teams played last year in Ludowici, both schools had their chances to win, but the game ended as a 22-22 tie. Friday’s game is in Hinesville with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.