THOMASVILLE – After stomping Rome in their round two rematch, Thomas County Central will travel to Fairburn, GA this Friday to take on Langston Hughes in round three of the state playoffs.

“It’s going to be a good test,” said Yellow Jackets head coach Justin Rogers. “I mean, they’re a really good football team.”

Langston Hughes has certainly proven Rogers’s statement true. They sit at 11-1 this season with their only loss coming by way of 6A Douglas County, 21-14. The Panthers are currently ranked fourth in 5A by Georgia High School Football Daily, just behind Central at three. They are also riding a nine-game win streak, have scored no less than 31 points, and beat a top-five Roswell team last week in round two. The Panthers have three shut-out victories this season and six wins in which they gave up ten points or less.

Their greatest asset may be their speed. Langston Hughes boasts a bevy of quick feet, including Maurice Gleaton, who has been coined “the fastest man in the state of Georgia”. As a sophomore, the Panthers receiver ran a 10.16 in the 100 M dash at the 6A sectionals and also boasts times of 20.52 in the 200 M and 48.04 in the 400 M.

“One of the faster teams I’ve seen in a long long time with the amount of speed they’ve got,” Rogers said. “You play a lot of teams that have one or two fast guys, they have six or seven. You’ve got a lot of speed there and they’ve got good size. They’ll put up a problem for us, but we’ve got good players too.”

For Central and Rogers, the focus is tackling. It’s a lot harder to get up to speed with a pair of Yellow Jackets on your tail. The goal is to take away any space from the Langston Hughes ball carriers. 

“It’s kind of like last week. We have to tackle in space well. You just can’t let the speed go get home runs,” Rogers said. “If we can make them try to put eight and ten play drives together I think we’re going to be fine. If we let them get the two-play touchdowns and hit big chunk plays and score from a distance then I think we’ll have problems.”

A theme for the Yellow Jackets last post-season and this one has been the fans. There are very few high school football teams whose fans can take over an away game. Jacket Nation did it last year in Marist, turning a four-hour road trip into a bonafide home game. This year the GHSA banned the horns that Jacket Nation made so legendary and hated. However, that hasn’t stopped the fans from showing up and showing out. Last week they turned Rome blue and gold and they’ll be looking to do the same in Fairburn on Friday night.

“Our fans have been consistent for the last three years, so there’s no reason to think they won’t be consistent now,” said Rogers. “Our fans, the support, the passion that they have for this football team and this school is unmatched.” 

Central will kickoff against Langston Hughes this Friday night with the game slated for 7 p.m.