THOMASVILLE – A berth in the Class 6-A quarterfinal round means a long road trip for the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets.

In one of the longest road trips of the upcoming playoff weekend, Central will travel to Rome on Friday to play the Wolves. It will require at least five hours of travel and the continued support from their fans if the Yellow Jackets are to advance to the state semifinals for the first time since 2007, according to head coach Justin Rogers.

“We’ve got a long trip, five hours. That’s a long way to Rome,” Rogers said. “We’ll need Jacket Nation there. We’ve got a special thing going with this crowd. People that come to our games, they know it’s a tough place to play. We need to take that up to Barron Stadium. When you’re in the final eight of a high classification in Georgia, it’s good football. We’ll need everybody there.”

It will mark the first road playoff game for the Yellow Jackets in Rogers’ two years as head coach, though Central is not shy about carrying its winning ways on the road. Central finished 6-0 on the road last year, which included wins at Lee County and Northside-Warner Robins. The Yellow Jackets are 5-0 this year away from the Jackets Nest with wins at Cairo, Bainbridge and Houston County.

One adjustment for Central this week is it has had to alter its practice schedule due to it being Thanksgiving week.

“Thanksgiving Day, with us having to travel, we’ll practice early in the morning with the whole team and then we’ll have about 40 of them to leave Thanksgiving afternoon to go up and stay in a hotel,” Rogers said. “It’s just really the only way you can do it to have a competitive advantage.”

Rome should provide Central its toughest test of the season. The champions of Region 6 are 11-1 following a resounding 42-14 win over Langston Huges in the second round last week.