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Published Tuesday, November 03, 2009 in Sports

Cougars-Indians renew rivalry Friday

By Tommy Camp

The Times-Herald

Newnan and East Coweta will meet for the 18th time in their history this Friday, but for the first time in four years, the game won't determine the Region 4-AAAAA champion.

Newnan wrapped up its fourth straight region title last week while East Coweta clinched third place in 4-AAAAA.

In other area games this week, Northgate plays the Region 5-AAAA "play-in" game against Mays at Lakewood Stadium while Heritage begins GISA post-season action at Bulloch Academy in Statesboro.

Newnan (9-0, 8-0 in 4-AAAAA) puts its 27-game regular season winning streak on the line against the program that holds the county record for consecutive regular season victories.

East Coweta (7-2, 6-2) won 28 in a row from 1999-01 and as if the annual game between arch-rivals didn't have enough going for it already, add the fact that Newnan can tie its cross-county rival's record with a win.

A Cougar win can also wrap up Newnan's second straight undefeated regular season.

Last year's Newnan team and the '92 team are the only two squads in the school's history to go through their regular seasons unbeaten and untied.

East Coweta leads the overall series, 10-7, but Newnan has won the last six in a row with last year's 12-0 Cougar win in Sharpsburg being the lowest scoring game ever between the two.

Newnan ended EC's 10-year run of success in the series back in 2003 and hasn't lost since.

The games in 2006, '07 and '08 gave Newnan successive region championships as the Cougars matched Griffin's record of winning three 4-AAAA (which became 4-AAAAA) titles in a row in the '80s.

Prior to the 2006-07 seasons, Newnan had never won back-to-back region titles.

The Cougars are coming off their 42-7 win over Mundy's Mill at home last week while EC beat Riverdale, 45-22.

Both games were little more than warm-ups for this Friday's main event, but EC's Tay Willis had a career game against the Raiders.

He scored five touchdowns and rushed for over 350 yards as the Indians won their fourth game in a row.

The top three spots in 4-AAAAA are nailed down with Newnan, Westlake and East Coweta one-two-three in the standings.

If Chapel Hill beats Westlake this Friday, the Panthers are in as the fourth seed. If Westlake wins it comes down to Creekside and Pebblebrook.

Creekside plays Riverdale at Southern Crescent while Pebblebrook takes on Mundy's Mill at Twelve Oaks.

Region 4-AAAAA is matched up against Region 1-AAAAA in the first round of the playoffs.

Region 1 will go down to the wire this Friday with three teams - Northside Warner Robins, Colquitt County and Lowndes all still with chances to win the championship with Warner Robins currently one game back but out of the title picture.

Newnan will face the fourth place team from 1-AAAAA at home in the first round while EC will travel to the play the third place finisher.

Those opponents won't be determined until after Friday's games.

Northgate (3-6, 2-3 in 5A-AAAA) finished third in its sub-region despite losing to Sandy Creek last week.

The Vikings were tied with Whitewater for the third spot in the region, but got the higher seed for the play-in game on the tiebreaker because Northgate won the regular season meeting, 23-14, on Oct. 16.

The Vikings got a major break when McIntosh lost to Whitewater last Friday. A Chiefs' win in that game would have eliminated Northgate from play-in action.

Mays (7-2, 5-2) finished second behind Banneker in 5B-AAAA.

The Raiders and Vikings played three common opponents this year, both beating Whitewater, both losing to Banneker and splitting with Alexander, Northgate winning 14-0 and Mays losing, 17-14.

Heritage (6-4, 3-2 in 4-AA), which closed out its regular season last week with a hard-fought 39-35 win over Harvester Christian, finished tied for second in its region, but lost the tiebreaker to Arlington which beat the Hawks back on Oct. 9.

Bulloch Academy finished second in Region 2-AA to earn the home field advantage in the post-season opener.

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