THOMASVILLE – The Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets will be looking to break away from .500 as they travel to Northside for their third region game of the year. 

Central will face an Eagles team that is down this year, going 2-5 overall and coming off of three bad losses. In the last three weeks Northside has given up no less than 41 points, they’ve lost their last three games a combined 154-29, and are coming off a 41-point loss to Houston County.

This will begin a two-game road trip for the Yellow Jackets, their first back-to-back away games of the season. Central has played just two away games this season, though their contest at Thomasville barely counts. In reality, the Jackets have only played one true away game, a contest that they lost to Lee County. The 2024 schedule certainly favors Central as they have built a reputation for a very real home-field advantage. It will be interesting to see how they fare in back-to-back away games, one being against a tough opponent in Houston County.

“Just being able to carry on the same approach,” said head coach Justin Rogers on what he wants to see out of his team during this long road trip. “Even though you’re on a bus ride up there and everything that you’re still able to maintain a level of focus and not get distracted by things and make sure that you come out and play early on at pace and not have to ease into it. Can you go on the road and come out the gate starting red hot?”

Refocusing on this Friday night, it is an excellent opportunity for the Jackets to secure a big-time region win and boost their point differential as they look to fight for a region title. Central currently sits in second in the region tied with Coffee with a 1-1 region record. Ahead of them are Houston County and Lee County, who both sit at 2-0. Houston County and Coffee will face off this week in a pivotal game that could make Central’s road to a region championship a lot easier or a lot harder.

Should Coffee win Lee County would move up to a lone number-one spot and leave Central, Coffee, and Houston County tied for second. Should Houston County win, they will remain tied for the lead with Lee and Central would move into a bona fide number two spot with the Bears and Trojans left on the schedule.

“You’ve got three teams in the top five, all four of them in the top 10, then you’ve got three of the top offenses in the region, and two top defenses in the region,” Rogers said about the toughness of this region. “It’s good ball, that’s why you can’t lose your focus. You have to come out and play every week because things get messed up quick.”

Thomas County Central will look to take care of their business on Friday night as they travel to face Northside with the game slated for 7:30 p.m.