GHSA Football Playoffs Round One Game of the Week: Glynn Academy At Langston Hughes

1. In a rematch from the second round of the playoffs last year, Langston Hughes will host Glynn Academy. When the two teams met in the second round of the 2020 GHSA 6A playoffs, the Panthers dominated in route to a 35-0 win. Although, the Red Terrors returned many players from last year’s team, for Glynn Academy head coach Rocky Hidalgo and his players, they have opted not to focus on last year’s match up. “We haven’t really talked about it. We watched film and showed where we made mistakes,” Hidalgo said in an interview with Daminon Lewis of Prep Sports Nation.

Hidalgo would go on to say that the biggest takeaways for them from last year’s match up was missed opportunities defensively. “We have to tackle better. That was the biggest thing. We had a lot of opportunities to get off the field defensively and we didn’t tackle very well, (offensively) we have to finish drives. We talked about those things,” Hidalgo said adding that they focused more on themselves and what they need to do to be successful on Saturday.

“We have to execute. That’s the biggest thing. It’s no secret that Langston Hughes is one of the four or five most talented teams in 6A in the entire state, so from just a talent standpoint, they have a lot more kids out there than we do. So I have tasked our kids that we have to go out there and play harder than them, that’s the first thing. The other thing we have to do is, we have to execute better. Our execution has to be really good. We can’t have any bad plays, no off plays,” Hidalgo said would be key points of focus for them on Saturday in order to pick up the victory.

2. The most intriguing one seed, four seed match up may be No. 1 Riverwood hosting No. 4 Douglas County. The Raiders won their second region championship in three years and closed out the regular season on a five game win streak. On the other side with Douglas County, despite a 7-3 overall and 4-3 region record, the Tigers are a very dangerous as a four seed. Douglas County plays in arguably one of the toughest regions in the state and unfortunately faced Rome and Carrollton back to back to close out the regular season with two straight losses and failing to claim the region title. That taste in their mouth will undoubtedly have them geared up to take it out on their next opponent, but the Raiders have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with.

3. Pebblebrook will look to bounce back from their first loss of the season last week when they host Parkview tonight. Despite the loss last week, it has been a great season for the Falcons as this has been their first season with eight or more wins since the 2006 season.

4. Cedar Grove will try to get back to the mountain top as their road to a state title begins tonight when they host White County. The Saints won back to back titles in 2018 and 2019 and looked to be on the road to win a third consecutive but hit some snags late in the season before eventually being derailed in the third round of the playoffs.

5. After closing out the regular season with four straight wins, Southwest Dekalb will look to keep the momentum going into the playoffs when they host a tough Blessed Trinity, who closed out the regular season with back to back 20 plus points’ wins over Hiram and Cass.

6. Buford's hunt for three state titles continues when they open up hosting Kell. The Wolves have a state title in every classification they have been in and with the move to 7A next season, a title win this year would mean a championship the two years they have been in 6A.