This year is my 50th season of following Georgia High School football. Today I look back to the rivalry games I have witnessed.
The very first rivalry game I attended with in the Charlton County-Clinch County series. In 1975, I attended the Region 2-B Championship game at Waycross Memorial Stadium. It was Clinch County's first playoff game in their history. I was living in Charlton County at the time and attending Bethune Middle School. My dad had played football and graduated from Clinch County. They let me sit on the Charlton County side in that game. The Indians won a hard-fought 6-0 game for the region title.
This rivalry has been called "The Swamp War" over the years. The series is currently tied 31-31-1 when the two teams meet on October 4th in Homerville.
The second rivalry series I encountered was the Villa Rica-Carrollton when I attended high school in Villa Rica from 1977-1980. These two teams are in Carroll County and pretty much a lopsided rivalry with Carrollton leading the all-time series 47-5-7. The last time Villa Rica won a game in this series was 9-7 in 1998. Carrollton won the last meeting 50-0 in 2023. The two teams do not play this season. Incidentally, the last game I played in as a player was a spring game with the B-team in 1980.
The most intense rivalry I have witnessed has been the Warner Robins-Northside game. It was like no other I had attended before. I had never seen as many people attend a high school football game as I had seen in my first experience in 1985.
Warner Robins came from behind to tie the game on a touchdown run by Lane Maddox with 47 seconds. Maddox completed a pass on fourth-and-10 earlier on the drive, and the Demons controlled overtime. Lester Efford scored the game-winner in overtime with a 17-yard touchdown with 1:01 left in the second overtime. Northside went for a gadget play for the second straight year, but a hook-and-lateral came up short, and Ben Smith recovered the fumble. In the 1989 game, Warner Robins entered the game as USA Today's top-ranked team in the nation. Northside scored early in the first quarter on a touchdown catch by Jo Shuttlesworth. With a minute left in the game, Warner Robins quarterback Eric McDowell connected with Chad Bowen from 22 yards out, but the extra point was missed.
In my last time attending the rivalry game, it was the most improbable comeback in series history, Warner Robins came back from a 20-0 deficit in the fourth quarter. On fourth-and-7, quarterback Maurice Dudley found running back Jonathan Jackson for a 47-yard touchdown pass with two minutes to play for a 21-20 win.
This series once was called the "city championship" until Houston County and Veterans opened. It also used to determine the region champion and a few times both teams were undefeated going into the game.
Warner Robins leads the all-time series 41-25. Warner Robins has won the last seven games in the series including a 39-35 thriller in last year's game. Northside's last win was 55-3 in 2016. The two teams renew their rivalry tonight.
Rivalry games have been some of my most memorable moments in following Georgia High School football.
