There were some outstanding individual performances during the 2025 regular season for northeast Georgia area players.
Lumpkin County’s Nolan Matthews finished 2nd in the state and 2nd in Class 3A in rushing with 1,922 yards and 26 TDs.
North Hall’s Alex Schlieman finished the regular season as the state’s and Class 3A passing leader. The junior is 183-for-243 for 2,823 yards and has tossed 24 TDs so far as the Trojans get ready to take on Mt. Zion-Jonesboro tonight at The Brickyard.
But in the age of dual-treat quarterbacks, Schlieman is more of a pocket-style passer. He has rushed for 72 yards on 34 carries but designed runs are not a huge part of his playbook.
Two other quarterbacks in the NEGa area, however, broke the 1,000-yard barrier for both passing and rushing this season. East Hall’s Jamarcus Harrison threw for 1,993 yards and rushed for another 1,042 yards with 36 combined TDs. That would lead the area in total yards from scrimmage (3,035 yards). East Jackson’s Drew Richardson has thrown for 1,282 yards on 101-of-209 passing with 14 TD and 11 INTs. He’s also run for 1,104 yards on 170 carries with 9 TDs.
Richardson will lead his Eagles against Columbia in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs tonight in Panthersville.
Matthews, Schlieman, and Richardson all will get to add to those numbers this week in the first round of the playoffs. Harrison and the Vikings fell one game short of the postseason for a second consecutive season.
But there have been some other massive seasons turned in by area players, even if they didn’t hit the 1,000-1,000 club.
Flowery Branch’s Brett Sturm has thrown for 2,046 yards and rushed for 512 yards with 22 combined TDs. He will lead the Falcons into the Class 4A playoffs against Ware County.
Rabun County’s Ty Truelove had 1,500 yards passing and 541 rushing with 21 combined TDs. He and the Wildcats will take on Dodge County tonight in Tiger.
Lakeview’s Kyari Burch threw for 1,520 yards and ran for another 712 yards and had 17 combined TDs. The Lions season ended two weeks ago in the GIAA playoffs.
POWER REGIONS
The traditional playoff structure of the GHSA, at least over the last 30 years or so, has had the top 4 teams from each region advance to the postseason. But with the implementation of the Postseason Rankings (PSR) system for seeding the playoff brackets from Class 3A and lower in 2024, it has shown just where the power brokers lie around the state.
In Class A Division 1, Region 2 had 7 teams, Regions 1, 4, and 6 had 6 teams each and Region 8 had 5 teams advance.
In Class 2A, Region 7 had 6 teams (and Union County narrowly missed out by .008 for a 7th team), Region 5 had 5 teams, and all 6 of Region 8, which had two private schools advance in the Private playoffs) made the postseason. That’s 17 from just three regions.
In Class 3A, Regions 2, 3, 4, and 5 all had 5 teams advance.
GROUND AND POUND
You will not find Region 8-5A anywhere near the top of any power rankings in Class 5A. The region had the 2nd-lowest non-region winning percentage in the classification (.286) and the 3rd-lowest spanning all eight of the GHSA classifications. Only Region 4-5A (.208) was worse. Region 6-A D2 had a .269 win percentage.
But the region’s lack of non-region success wasn’t for a lack of bruising rushing attacks, that’s for sure. Three of the state’s top 20 rushers overall reside in 8-5A. Winder-Barrow’s M.J. Dowdy was 4th overall and led Class 5A with 1,842 yards during the regular season. Jackson County’s Daylan Maxwell finished the regular season 19th overall with 1,472 yards and Donnie Warren of Habersham Central was 20th overall with 1,453 yards.
That’s over 4,700 yards of rushing by 3 players in one region. Not too shabby.
Jackson County (vs. Glynn Academy) and Habersham Central (vs. Statesboro) will be at home tonight and are sure to try and ride the backs’ of Maxwell and Warren into the second round. Winder-Barrow is on the road against Brunswick.
MOVIN’ ON UP
In 2024, only 5 area teams advanced to the 2nd round of the playoffs or farther. That was down from 7 that got to the 2nd round in 2023 and the same number (5) from 2022 and 2021. The high watermark over the past five seasons was 8 teams making the Sweet 16 in 2020.
This season, 13 area teams will kick off tonight looking to advance. Six should be favorites to move on but there are two or three that would be considered toss-ups. Could the area hit a new Sweet 16 plateau tonight?
We’ll find out.
GHSA 1st ROUND PLAYOFFS, NOV. 14
CLASS 6A
Richmond Hill (Region 1, Seed 4) at Buford (R8, S1), 7:30 p.m.
North Forsyth (R6, S4) at Carrollton (R2, S1), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 5A
Dunwoody (R4, S3) at Gainesville (R7, S2), 7:30 p.m.
Glynn Academy (R1, S4) at Jackson County (R8, S1), 7:30 p.m.
Statesboro (R1, S3), at Habersham Central (R8, S2), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 4A
East Forsyth (R8, S4) at Benedictine (R1, S1), 7:30 p.m.
Ware County (R1, S3) at Flowery Branch (R8, S2), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 3A
Cherokee Bluff (21) at Peach County (12), 7:30 p.m.
Mt. Zion-Jonesboro (31) at North Hall (2), 7:30 p.m.
Lumpkin County (27) at Calhoun (6), 7:30 p.m.
Dougherty (32) at Jefferson (1), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 2A
East Jackson (26) at Columbia (7), 7:30 p.m. — YES
CLASS A D1
Dodge County (18) at Rabun County (15), 7:30 p.m.
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