THE POST ROUTE - Week 2
Your guide to all Madison County high school football games this week
South Side (1-0) at Jackson Central-Merry (1-0)
Last year’s score: South Side 21, JCM 19
Players to watch: South Side OL Houston Freeman; JCM WR Jaylan Young
What to know: This was a close game last year that went down to the wire, and there’s no reason to expect this year’s game to be any different. Both teams are coming off a season-opening win, so they want to keep build momentum going into Week 3. JCM is confident coming off its big win, but the Cougars are aware that the competition from South Side will be noticeably tougher than last week’s competition. South Side appears to be more of a defensive mindset this year that will try to slow opposing offenses down and keep games as low scoring as possible. JCM’s offense behind Young at receiver catching passes from Terrell Williams and the running of Jonas Patterson appeared last week to be enough to give the Hawks’ defense a few fits this week.
Closing in on the Cup?: If the Cougars were to win this game, it would be their second victory in the race for the Commissioners’ Cup, leaving a game with North Side as the only obstacle remaining in their way to their first-ever JMCSS championship trophy.
University School of Jackson (1-0) at Union City (1-0)
Last year’s score: USJ 20, Union City 19
Players to watch: USJ QB Corben Howard
What to know: This was the game last year where USJ showed collectively they had some guts as they made a second-half comeback to pull out a very close win that involved stopping a late 2-point conversion try for the victory. The difference this year is Union City’s offense played more wide open last week against Murray, Kent., than they usually do, so this could turn into a scoring shootout that resembles a basketball game.
Fast action: The Bruins’ first four touchdowns last week came on the opening play of their first four drives, which meant Peabody had a good number more of first downs than USJ had even though the Bruins led 28-6 in the second quarter.
Peabody (0-1) at Jackson Christian (1-0)
Last year’s score: Jackson Christian 47, Peabody 14
Players to watch: Jackson Christian QB Austin Kelly
What to know: Peabody had a lot of trouble last week stopping USJ’s passing attack. This week, they’re taking on a team with a quarterback that broke school passing records last year and a wide receiver that won Mr. Football and showed no signs of rust in his first action back after suffering a knee injury at the end of last year. Peabody is a tough team that changed offenses in the middle of the game last week to the Wing-T. So that could have an effect on the pace of the game.
Non-region win streak: The last regular season non-region loss Jackson Christian suffered came on Sept. 10, 2021 to ECS, 21-0. Since then, the Eagles have won 10 straight in the regular season that weren’t in region play.
Trinity Christian (0-1) at Grace-Franklin (0-0)
Last year’s score: Did not play when TCA had lighting issues at its stadium.
Players to watch: TCA LB Hank Miller
What to know: The Lions want to get the taste of the game that slipped out of their hands out of their mouths, so they get to take a two-hour-plus road trip to play their next game. This will be Grace’s first game this season. Looking at how they did last year, they finished 6-6, but most of their losses were to some of the better private school teams in the Nashville area like Nashville Christian, Friendship Christian and Middle Tennessee Christian. While last week showed that TCA can compete with larger public school teams, this game should be a better gauge of how the Lions stack up in Division II-A.
Normalizing regular season trips to Middle Tennessee: Since TSSAA forced all private schools into Division II in 2019, at least one trip to Middle Tennessee every other season has become normal for the Lions. Their first two years, they were in the same region with Clarksville Academy, Columbia Academy and Nashville Christian. They had a home-and-home series in 2021-22 with Middle Tennessee Christian School and are wrapping up a home-and-home series with Grace this week.
North Side (1-0) at Liberty (0-1)
Last year’s score: North Side 54, Liberty 6
Players to watch: North Side WR Davien Caruthers; Liberty RB Kylan Cole
What to know: North Side moved the ball without any resistance a year ago, so the Crusaders want to at least slow the Indians down some. That alone would show improvement, but head coach Robert Gillard probably wants to get a win over the team he coached a year ago too. Liberty had a number of issues with players coming off the field slow after plays last week. Hopefully they’ll stay healthier this week.
Earlier start this year: Hopefully this game – and every game across the state – will begin earlier than the matchup did last year. Fans may remember that Week 2 of 2023 saw very high temperatures with very high humidity that all but shut down outdoor sports like soccer, cross country and golf in the final full week of August last year. Football games were played, but most started at 8 p.m. at the earliest.
Compiled by Brandon Shields
