CAMILLA, Ga. (WTXL) - This is the final week of the regular season for high school football teams in both South Georgia and North Florida, and there are still a couple of Region titles up for grabs in Georgia.
In A football, Pelham and Mitchell County and both unbeaten in Region 1 play. They play on Friday night, and the winner walks away Region Champions.
"We know going into this game, they're going to bring their A-Game," said Pelham head coach Dondrial Pinkins. "That's why right now, we're just focusing on Pelham, focusing on the things we need to take care of on our end."
On paper, these two are very similar. Both lost their opening games of the season, and they haven't lost since.
"A lot of these kids grew up playing Pop Warner and Little League together," said Mitchell County head coach Deshon Brock. "Anytime there's two schools in close proximity, there's going to by some animosity, and obviously, it's a rivalry game and it's important to everybody around."
Both squads are also led by sophomore quarterbacks. Mitchell's James Thomas has thrown for over a thousand yards while rushing for nearly 900 more, while Pelham's Kendrick Patterson has thrown for nearly 1600 yards and 26 touchdowns.
Both coaches agree this one will come down to who does the little things. There's a lot of hype around this game, as this one is also for bragging rights.
"The hype in this one will take care of itself. Our biggest focus is just us," said Pinkins. "I know going into this game, the atmosphere is going to be where it needs to be. Everybody will be hyped for this game. That's just something that happens naturally.
Pelham's won the last four, and these schools are less than 12 miles apart, so pride is on the line.
"We can only control what's going to happen on Friday," added Brock. "If we play with our best effort and we play disciplined football and assignment based football, everything will be okay and hopefully it'll come out in our favor. That's the only thing we can control. Everything that happened before this year - we're not worried about that."
Friday's game kicks off at 7:30 at Mitchell County.
