THOMASVILLE — Almost 40 years have passed since Richmond Academy was in the second round of the state playoffs.

Tonight, the Musketeers will be in uncharted territory when they travel to Thomas County Stadium to play Thomas County Central in the Class AAAA playoffs.

“We’re excited just to have the chance to come down there and play,” Richmond Academy coach Chris Hughes said.

This is Richmond’s first time past the first round since 1970. Last year the Musketeers advanced to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.

“We want to take in the moment, but we expect to come down there and play well,” Hughes said. “We expect to come down there and compete. We know they’re good, but we feel like we’ve played well this year.

“We’ve been competitive against some good teams this year and we feel like we can come down there and be competitive. We’re just not going to show up.”

Hughes is 14-18 in three seasons as Richmond Academy’s coach, with eight wins coming this year.

It’s been quite the rise in the win column for the Musketeers. Hughes inherited a squad that won just four games in the three previous seasons before his arrival in 2007. After a winless initial season in ’07, Richmond rebounded with six wins the following season. Hughes credits his team’s character to its recent success.

“The assistants and I got together and we had 120 people on our roster, and we had a bunch of kids that didn’t want to do the right things in the summer in the weight room,” Hughes said, “and didn’t want to do what it takes to win. We cut our roster from about 120 to about 65. We took good kids who wanted to win and wanted to be competitive.

“We thought if we were going to lose anyway, we were going to do it with good kids. Once we started turning this thing around, our roster started climbing back up, numbers wise.”

Part of Richmond’s roster includes a pair of playmakers the Musketeers will be counting on tonight at Central. Quarterback Mar-Quon Medlock, who accounted for 290 total yards a week ago against Glynn Academy, has passed for more than 1,000 yards and rushed for 700. Running back Jerrel Anderson is the team’s leading rusher with 1,100 yards.

“We have big-play capability. We’ve kind of relied on that all year,” Hughes said. “We have a quarterback and running back that are as good as any you’ll find. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve really been blocking well up front. Our offense has made a complete turnaround the last three weeks of the season, and we’re racking up yards and points.

“To do it against a team like (Central), it’s going to be tough. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us. We know how good they are defensively.”

Richmond Academy has averaged 27 points the past three weeks. It faces a Central defense, however, that’s allowing just eight points per game. Only twice this year has Central’s defense allowed more than one touchdown in a game.

On the flipside, the Musketeers'’ defense is wary of the Yellow Jackets’ split-back veer offense. It’s an offense unfamiliar to Richmond as the visitors from Augusta do not regularly play a veer team.

“It’s tough because you don’t practice against it,” Hughes said. “I am actually running the veer, playing scout team quarterback because none of our other quarterbacks can read it.

“We can’t replicate the speed or the ability to read it like they can. It’s going to be tough for us defensively.

“They're the best team we've seen all year, by far,” Hughes added. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get the ball out of (Central quarterback Eric Dodson’s) hands. He’s dangerous. Defensively, we haven’t played a team that flies around and hits the way they do. They’re good. We’re playing one of the best teams in the state, traditionally. We know they’re going to be good. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”