CHULA — Erik Soliday is not going to question this gift state tournament home game.
The Tiftarea Academy head football coach admitted that he thought he had a road trip on his hands for the first round of the state tournament and the odds were looking like that trip would be to Wilmington Island off the coast of Savannah to play St. Andrew’s.
But to Tiftarea’s relief, that road trip will have to wait.
When final regular season rankings were released Sunday, Tiftarea jumped from ninth to eighth while Southland Academy jumped from eighth to sixth as Terrell Academy and St. Andrew’s fell. Thus, the Savannah-based Lions will be the ones on the long bus ride.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Panther Pit. Tiftarea has announced a “blue out” in the stands.
The Panthers (2-7-1) made the leap with an upset 34-14 win over Terrell, taking out weeks of frustrations of close calls. Excluding Friday and their other win (over Deerfield-Windsor), Tiftarea has lost by a touchdown or less in five of eight games. Three of those contests were decided by two points or less.
“It feels good,” Soliday said. “As close as we were in many of those games, we couldn’t quite find a way to make that break. To finally get to where you get a few of those breaks to go your way, it’s a much better feeling, I guarantee you that.”
They’re a resilient group, he said. “They could have laid down after all those close losses, but we just kept fighting and fighting and fighting.”
It paid off with this home game, an opportunity to start over. Records are out the window now and it’s a new season.
Soliday described St. Andrew’s as a Wing-T offense with “a really sporty quarterback” in Zayden Edwards. He’s thrown for a sliver over 1,000 yards, but the scariest figures are the team’s rushing numbers.
Stats show the Lions gaining an average of 8.1 yards per carry. There are three main backs, Amari Cook, Richard Williams and Edwards. Through nine games, Williams had the most touchdowns (10) while Cook was barely ahead in yardage. “One’s a running back/receiver,” Soliday said, referring to Williams, who leads the team in receiving yards and touchdowns.
“They’ve played everybody pretty well,” he said. “They’re definitely going to present some challenges for us.”
St. Andrew’s enters at 5-5. Though they hung with Valwood in an early-season contest, the Lions dropped four of their last five, including a 49-13 decision to Frederica Academy in the regular season finale.
If the school name is unfamiliar, St. Andrew’s played in a South Carolina private school league from 1996-2018. Right before that, Tiftarea played and won a lone game against the Lions in 1995.
Tiftarea gets its bonus home game for state. They were not the only District 3-AAA team to benefit in the final regular season rankings.
The late surge by Southland was enough for the Raiders to get a first round bye. Terrell will host Lakeview Academy, which moved ahead of Deerfield-Windsor. The Knights, who finished 1-9, did not make state for only the second time since 1992 as a GIAA/GISA school. Valwood and Brookwood also earned first round byes; the Valiants are the No. 2-ranked team. Friday’s Tiftarea-St. Andrew’s victor will face No. 1 John Milledge Academy, winners of their last 60 games, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.