The hottest prep football ticket in the area on Friday might be for two of the smallest schools around.

Both Portal and Claxton entered the 2026 season with hopes for improvement and – now in the home stretch of the regular season – have more than exceeded their goals. Both sit at 5-1 overall, but the drama ramps up beginning this week as Friday’s clash marks the start of the Region 3-A schedule and a sprint to the finish for state playoff eligibility and seeding.

“We’re certainly proud of what we’ve accomplished so far,” Portal coach Jason McEachin said. “I think that, both as a team and a coaching staff, we really committed to what had to be done going way back to the offseason. Everyone has bought in, we’ve had some big wins, and we continue to grow.

“I think you see the same in Claxton. [Head coach Phillip] Richards is in his second year there and has done an incredible job. They have developed an identity and have improved across the board.”

Portal rolls into the matchup fully rested after a bye week following a Sept. 25 thriller over a Blackville-Hilda (S.C.) team that is ranked at the top of its classification. The 39-38 slugfest marked the third time this season the Panthers have erased a second half deficit and outlasted their competition.

“That last win comes from the experience we’ve been stacking up since early in the season,” McEachin said. “We were never down by more than one score, but we were down pretty much the entire game. This team has been through it. There wasn’t any panic. Everyone was ready to keep fighting for as long as it would take to pull out a win. It took until the final 40 seconds, but we got it done.”

McEaching said his squad spent its bye week getting some much needed rest and also looking internally to make some fixes. While the record shows how well the team has performed overall, there is never a shortage of tweaks and small fixes that could make a difference farther down the line.

Now comes the next test. Region 3 play begins against a surging Claxton team with a matching 5-1 record whose only loss came against a higher-classified Screven County squad.

Like Portal, the Tigers rely on the ground game to do the majority of their offensive damage. The difference is in style as the Panthers rely on their option game while Claxton utilizes a Gun-T formation and an effective running threat at quarterback to employ misdirection and cause confusion.

But the real bread and butter for Claxton is its defense. Aside from the Screven loss, the Tigers have held all opponents to 20 points or less, four of them to 14 or less. Friday could provide a slower pace and less scoring that the Blackville track meet, but could easily be just as tense and tight down the stretch.

"Claxton isn't too fancy or aggressive on defense," McEachin said. "They're a bend-don't-break sort of team. But they play disciplined, force teams to sustain drives and capitalize on mistakes which you can see from their scores."

A fast start to the season won't be a consolation for this week's loser. With only five teams in Region 3, the winner will have an inside track to a playoff spot and possible region title while the loser will need to regain their stride and rack up more wins in the final weeks.