Our first week of Georgia high school Pick 6 games is in the books, and it’s now time to move on to Week 2. The theme of our Week 2 games is the battle of the QBs. This season may feature the best overall class of signal callers that the Georgia high school football landscape has seen in quite a few years, and the selection of games we have are not only great matchups, but they include some of the best quarterbacks going at it, too. Of course, there is some pretty good talent surrounding them – and trying to stop them!
Crisp County at Westlake
New head football coach Lawrence Smith leads his Crisp County Cougars into this Week 2 Georgia Pick 6 matchup against another first-year head coach, Westlake’s Rico Zachary. The Cougars feature ATH Ahmad Brown, who plays QB but can also line up at just about any other position on the field for Crisp County.
The Lions counter with the talented RJ Johnson at QB. He has thrown for more yardage so far than any other active QB, with over 7,000 passing yards. Westlake made the jump this offseason from 6A to 7A, and last week was welcomed to the state’s top classification with a tough loss to 7A powerhouse North Cobb, 21-17. Crisp, meanwhile, opened the season with a hard-fought game of its own, defeating their neighbor to the north, Dooly County, 17-6. Can Smith, Brown and the Cougars do it again and get off to a 2-0 start?
Phil’s Pick: Westlake 31, Crisp County 24
Mill Creek at Norcoss
Coach Keith Maloof ranks right up there among the most experienced coaches in the state. He counts on that experience when game planning against the best in the business, which this week will include the young man who is perhaps the best safety in the country, five-star recruit Caleb Downs.
Maloof and his Blue Devils are coming off a tough loss against Brookwood last week in the Corky Kell Classic, losing 28-24 to head coach Phillip Jones’ Brookwood team. Norcross doesn’t have any time to feel sorry for itself, as the Blue Devils have yet another tough customer awaiting them this week in the Josh Lovelady’s Hawks, who also played in the Corky Kell Classic and came away with an exciting 44-41 win over a tough Walton team.
Downs showed that he can get it done on the offensive side as well as on defense, putting his team out front on a rushing TD to start the game. Downs also had a late interception to help seal the win for Mill Creek. Norcross is led by QB AJ Watkins, whose favorite targets are UGA commit Lawson Luckie at tight end and WR Zion Taylor. It will be interesting to see if they try to go right at Downs or stay away from the top-tier safety. Norcross does not want to start the season off with two straight losses. Can they avoid such a fate?
Phil’s Pick: Mill Creek 41, Norcross 21
Northside (Warner Robins) at Peach County
Trojans head coach Chad Campbell kicked off his 30th season (16th as head coach) at Peach County last week in a 50-20 win over Baldwin. His counterpart is Chad Alligood, who led his Eagles against Jones County last week in their season opener, and unfortunately for Northside fans, lost 27-21.
These two teams have several players who will be playing big-time college football very soon. The Eagles feature safety Ricardo Jones, a four-star recruit who is an interception machine, snatching eight picks last season, while Peach County has super sophomore WR Isiah Mitchell, senior RB Chris McMillian, and senior LB/TE Skielar Mann, all of whom are receiving attention from multiple Power 5 schools. Can Northside WR pull off a huge win on the road to avoid starting 0-2? It’s gonna be a tough one.
Phil’s Pick: Peach County 30, Northside 27
Perry at Houston County
This Week 2 Georgia Pick 6 matchup will feature two of the finest young QBs in the state with the Bears AJ Hill and Perry’s Armar Gordon, but it also will have two young coaches who are looking to make their mark with their teams. Kevin Smith has pulled off one of the finest coaching jobs in the state since taking over the Panthers, leading them to their best season in school history last year with 11 wins and a second straight region title. Their region championship in 2020 was the first ever in school history.
Houston County is led by new coach Jeremy Edwards, who was the offensive coordinator for the Warner Robins Demons and primary play caller for an offense that helped the team win back-to-back state championship in 2020 and 2021. He will now try to get the Bears to that same level with Hill leading the offense. In their season-opening 41-7 win over Sumter County last week, Houston County showed why its offensive will be an exciting unit to watch in 2022.
This is the season opener for the Panthers, and Smith and company want to show they are still a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile HoCo and Hill are ready to break out and find that success that has eluded Bears football recently.
Phil’s Pick: Houston County 28, Perry 27
Thomas County Central at Thomasville
ITG Next Georgia Game of the Week
As rivalries go, this one is right up there among the fiercest. QB Sam Brown leads the Yellow Jackets, while the Bulldogs offense will continue to use a two-QB system with Parker Beckham and Cam Hill. This is another of our Week 2 Georgia Pick 6 contests that will include first-year head coaches at their respective schools, with former Colquitt County coach Justin Rogers now the head man at TCC and former Bulldogs assistant Joe DeLay the new head coach at Thomasville, succeeding his former boss, Zach Grage, who is now at Lowndes.
These teams appear to be headed in opposite directions right now, with Thomasville rebuilding and Central appearing to have just gone through a lengthy rebuild themselves over the last five seasons. The Yellow Jackets have looked quite impressive, dating back to their spring scrimmage against Perry and their pre-season warm up against Cook, followed up with their season opener last week, an impressive victory over Cairo. The Bulldogs are still looking for a win in the Delay era after they dropped their season opener against Brooks County last week 42-7. Their Week 2 opponent isn’t going to be much easier.
Phil’s Pick: Thomas County Central 35, Thomasville 14
Walton at Brookwood
This matchup of two of Metro Atlanta’s finest is also a battle of two of the top quarterbacks in the state: Broncos senior Dylan Lonerghan, who has committed to Alabama, and Walton signal caller Jeremy Hecklinski. Both teams made their 2022 debut last week in the Corky Kell Classic, with Brookwood managing to get a favorable call to help them defeat Norcross, while Walton fell to Mill Creek in a 44-41 shootout.
In addition to this Week 2 Georgia Pick 6 game featuring two great QBs, watch for three-star LB Ashton Woods on the Walton defense, while Brookwood’s defense has super sophomore DB Lionel Burns, as well as senior DB Noah Holton. Lonergans likes to find WR Bryce Dopson and Holton, who also comes over to the offensive side to play receiver.
The goal for each team is pretty simple: Walton wants to avenge its tough 3-point loss to Mill Creek last week and avoid falling to 0-2, while Brookwood and Lonerghan want to win this one and move to 2-0. Only one team however, will realize its goal. Who will it be?
Phil’s Pick: Brookwood 30, Walton 19
