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The 14th week of the high school football season has Division I quarterfinals action as well as semifinal matchups on the Division II level.
Several of our top teams are still alive in the championship scene and have huge matchups set to go down Friday night. For many, they’re just one win away from advancing to Chattanooga.
Here’s a little more insight on each of our top-10 games for the third week of the postseason.
WEEK 14 RANKINGS: Stewarts Creek makes first state quarterfinals appearance
WEEK 14 STATE SCHEDULE: Every Division I quarterfinals, Division II semifinals matchup
Spotlight Game: East Nashville (9-2) at White House Heritage (9-3)
Are the Patriots ready to take that next step forward? We’ll find out Friday night as they host an Eagles team that’s become familiar with making long playoff runs that typically end in Chattanooga.
Xavier Murray has been lights out this season but East’s secondary is by far the best he’ll have faced this season.
KJ Johnson’s season-ending injury could have derailed the Eagles’ season but they’ve instead taken another step forward. Following back-to-back losses to FRA and Smyrna, East has rattled off four straight wins winning those games by an average of 36.3 points.
BGA (10-2) at FRA (11-1)
A win here for BGA would give the Wildcats a chance to bring home gold for the first time since 2018. For FRA, it would be their first time competing in the state championship since 1991.
These two teams squared off back in October in a game that was much closer than the 39-14 final score. FRA scored a few times late to pull away.
BGA has vastly improved since that game especially on the defensive side of the ball. In their four wins since that loss they’ve outscored their opponents 180-28.
Boyd Buchanan (12-0) at CPA (12-0)
This game is a rematch of last year’s state championship game that CPA 35-13.
That CPA was loaded with Division I talent but it could be argued that this year’s squad, while younger, is just as talented and possibly deeper. Rawls Patterson and Hutson Chance lead a prolific offense while their defense has only given up 20 or more points twice.
Boyd really hasn’t been tested this year. Gary Rankin’s squad’s lone win by 10 points or less came in late September. As a whole they’ve won their 12 games by an average of 30 points.
Macon County (10-2) at White County (10-2)
Game one of Macon County’s revenge tour came to a head last week in Baxter. The Tigers avenged their one-point regular season to Upperman with a dominant 28-15 second round win.
It was also their first win against Upperman since 2004.
The second team to beat Macon County this year was White County as they cruised to a 34-18 win. This Warriors team has been on a roll winning seven straight. Last week they shut out previously unbeaten Loudon 28-0 allowing only one first down in the game.
McCallie (9-2) at Ensworth (11-0)
Ensworth overcame a massive hurdle last week in their win over MBA winning their first playoff game since 2019. Now they face their biggest test of the season in the defending Division II-AAA champions.
Ensworth’s defense hasn’t faced an offense quite as prolific as McCallie. The Blue Tornado average 33.4 points per game and have scored 40 or more points in three of their last four games.
The Tigers have not given up more than 14 points in any game this season. Their offense has also been consistently stout averaging 34.5 points.
Nashville Christian (10-1) at Jackson Christian (10-1)
This game is a state championship matchup being played one round two early. Jackson Christian and Nashville Christian have been the top two team in Division II-A all season.
It also features the two best players in DII-A in Jared Curtis and Jay’len Mosley.
These two teams are eerily similar with as they’re both the Eagles and both of their losses coming to DII-AA teams as well. Jackson Christian’s defense has played well this year but they haven’t played a quarterback like Curtis or an offense as efficient as Nashville Christian’s.
Pearl-Cohn (9-3) at Marshall County (12-0)
Pearl-Cohn’s had to play the role of road warriors four of the last five weeks and they make the long trip back down to Lewisburg on Friday. The first time they made that trip on Halloween, they came up just short in a 24-21 overtime loss.
They’ve since rattled off blowout wins over South Gibson and Chester County. Standout back Javion Kinnard didn’t play against Chester County but the Firebirds still put up 56 points.
Marshall County has been the embodiment of consistency in 4A this season. Led by Mr. Football front runner Tyler Thompson they rolled past Lexington and Station Camp by a combined scored of 94-18.
Riverdale (10-2) at Oakland (11-1)
Round 2 of the Battle of the ‘Boro sees a pair of teams coming off two vastly different round two wins.
Riverdale really had no issues dispatching Blackman 31-17. Oakland however trailed Mt. Juliet 21-7 at one point before rallying for the 35-28 win. Daune Morris would not be denied in the win rushing for over 200 yards and four touchdowns.
Oakland won the regular season meeting between these two 36-21. That game was close for three quarters before the Patriots outscored the Warriors 22-7 in the fourth quarter.
Springfield (7-5) at Beech (11-1)
This is one of the more intriguing quarterfinal matchups in the state as these two teams met two weeks ago. Beech held on to win that game 21-16.
Springfield’s on a bit of a revenge tour with Shackle Island being their next stop. They kicked off the postseason with an epic comeback at Munford before traveling to Henry County last week. They avenged a one-point regular season loss to Patriots with a 20-17 win of their own.
To get their revenge against the Bucs, the Yellow Jackets will need to find a way to slow down their ground game.
In Beech’s 49-19 win over Southwind, Chelton Swafford scored four times on the ground while Kaden Powell bullied his way to 150 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns of his own.
Stewarts Creek (11-1) at Ravenwood (12-0)
Stewarts Creek ended Brentwood’s season in an overtime thriller last week. Will they do the same to Ravenwood this week?
The Red Hawks have had their struggles on offense this season and that doesn’t bode well against a Raptors team only allowing 7.3 points per game. In their 45-13 win over Franklin the Raptors only allowed 31 total yards of offense.
Stewarts Creek will likely lean heavily on Caleb Floyd to get their offense going. He’s been a standout all year and scored the game-winner against Brentwood.
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