A look at Madison County’s games this week
North Side (3-4, 1-1 in Region 6-4A) at South Side (2-5, 0-2)
Players to watch: North Side QB Carson Graves; South Side LB Austin Hardin
Most recent meeting: 2022 – South Side 14, North Side 12
What to know: There wasn’t many games in which North Side was competitive last year, but this matchup was one of them. That’s because sometimes this is one of those rivalry games where records don’t matter because each team wants to win bad enough that an otherwise winless team can compete with their neighbors from the other end of town for a couple hours on a Friday night. South Side is coming off a close loss on the road, and North Side is coming off a dominant win and a close loss the week before. North Side has more speed, but South Side has the ability to dictate the pace of the game with its run game and defense. They’ll try to do that to frustrate the Indians this week.
Common opponents: Both teams beat JCM and Liberty. Both teams lost to Crockett County. North Side beat Lexington. South Side lost to Lexington.
Trivia: These are the only two teams to have won the Commissioners’ Cup in its first five years of existence. That trend will continue no matter what happens in this game as the winner will take the Cup home.
Huntingdon (5-1, 3-0 in Region 6-2A) at JCM (1-5, 0-3)
Location: North Side
Player to watch: JCM DL Deterius Douglas
Most recent meeting: None
What to know: This will be a historic matchup since it’s the first time for these storied programs to meet. There might not be a team in rural West Tennessee with as much momentum as Huntingdon. After opening the season with a loss, the Mustangs have rolled off five straight wins by an average of more than 24 points, and all of those teams have winning records now. JCM began the season with a win and hasn’t been able to get another once since then. The Cougars have competed in a couple of games they weren’t expected to compete in recently, and Huntingdon’s had three big games in as many weeks, so this could be a time for the Cougars to shock the world.
Common opponents: Adamsville and Milan – Huntingdon won both games by a combined score of 90-35. JCM lost both games by a combined score of 72-22.
Trivia: According to some of the football historians in Huntingdon, this will be the first time for the Mustangs to play JCM, but they did play Jackson High when it was around before JCM opened in 1970.
Covington (5-2, 3-1 in Region 7-3A) at Liberty (0-6, 0-3)
Player to watch: Liberty QB Ethan Schweers
Most recent meeting: 2014 – Liberty 35, Covington 14
What to know: Covington has had a couple of road blocks this year, but the Chargers appear to have hit their stride as they’ve won four straight games by an average of 30 points coming into this matchup. Liberty had last week off, which gave the Crusaders a chance to rest and heal up in time for this big challenge.
Common opponents: Scotts Hill – Covington won 42-0; Liberty lost 41-14
Trivia: These teams met in the 2012 Class 4A semifinals. That game started a run of five times over eight years, at least one of these teams made it to the state semifinals. In those five semifinal berths, three of those teams made it to the state championship game. All three championship losses were to Alcoa.
TCA (4-2) at Greenfield (3-4)
Player to watch: TCA RB Noah James
Most recent meeting: None
What to know: Greenfield has become a competitive small school program in recent years, even getting their first region championship in decades in 2020. Trinity Christian Academy has begun to play noticeably more physical as the season has progressed, which has helped the Lions compete with physically bigger teams in recent weeks. That kind of physicality will probably be needed in this road trip.
Common opponents: None
Trivia: For nearly a decade, Greenfield head coach Don Pitt and TCA head coach Darren Bowling met every year as Bowling’s Union City teams were usually in the same region as Greenfield with Union City winning every time. Bowling has three coaching changes in recent years. Pitt has made two – leaving Greenfield for the offensive coordinator job at Milan last year then coming back to Greenfield this year – to match up against each other again.
Compiled by Brandon Shields
