By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
3-AA Showdown: Screven welcomes Swainsboro
Placeholder Image
    A big step towards a region championship. An inch closer to hosting a first-round playoff game. A fourth straight win. All big points of emphasis during the week leading up to tonight’s monster of a game for Screven County against Swainsboro, right?
    “Oh, gee no,” said Screven coach Pat Collins said. “We can’t control all those scenarios — the if then, then that — we have no control over. So what we control are the things that we have some impact on and that’s going to be our mental focus and how hard we play and how we take care of the details of our individual assingments. That’s what we’re trying to focus on because all that other stuff will certainly take care of itself.”
    The Gamecocks (6-2, 4-1) are in a four-way tie for first place in Region 3-AA. All four team play each other tonight, with Jefferson County at Laney.
    Screven has reeled off three straight to put itslef in a position for a region title or at least a home game in the first week of the playoffs on Nov. 16. The turning point may have been a 35-6 loss to Jefferson County on Sept. 28.
    “We had the Jefferson County set back then we had an open week to really address a lot of problems and I think we’ve improved,” said Collins. “We were just able to go back and he fundamental mistakes we made in that game. This game’s not as hard as people make it out to be. We didn’t block well and we didn’t tackle well. We’ve been able to improve on that win three straight.”
    Swainsboro comes in having won four in a row of their own and as always will bring a staunch defense to the field. The Tiger offense has morphed into a Georgia-Southern style spread attack, which the Gamecocks have faced week-after-week during the course of the season.
    The game, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Kelly Memorial Stadium, is one of the biggest in the southern part of the state.
    “We’d love to have everybody in this area — we invite everybody in the area to come over to our field,” said Collins. “We’re two teams that are very contrasting in the way we play ball this year. It’ll probably be a fun game to come watch.”

    Chad Bishop can be reached at (912) 489-9408.