Deerfield-Windsor football one win away from state championship game

ALBANY — “The turkey will taste better after football practice,” said Deerfield-Windsor head coach Jake McCrae.

His team is practicing Thanksgiving morning, their last opportunity before Friday night’s game in Thomasville against region rival Brookwood. The winner of the game will advance to the state championship game at Mercer University in Macon next Thursday night.

“Every high school football coach wants to be practicing on Thanksgiving because that means you have done something right,” said McCrae. “Some of the parents may not understand that because we haven’t been in the playoffs the last couple of years, but this is our last practice this week.”

Deerfield-Windsor (9-2) will play Brookwood (8-3) Friday night for the second time this season. Brookwood beat the Knights 39-29 in early October.

McCrae said his team led 15-0 in their first game against Brookwood but key mistakes and missed tackles allowed the Warriors to come from behind and win.

One of the biggest challenges the Deerfield-Windsor team will face is stopping Brookwood quarterback Rodge Waldrop. Waldrop is a 6-foot-5 junior who has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards and 30 touchdowns this season. Against the Knights in October, he completed 22 of 31 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns.

“They have a really good quarterback, some really good skill players, and some hard-nosed linemen,” said McCrae. “But then, so do we. There were some people who didn’t think we would win last week, but we did.”

The Knights started slowly against Frederica last week and trailed 14-0 before coming back and winning 18-14 without senior, record-setting quarterback Thomas Ray. Ray was injured during the Southland game and will not play anymore this season.

So last week the Knights had to change their offense drastically without Ray behind center. Freshman Lane Sceals has taken over, but running backs Ethan Johnson and Reid Martin have taken snaps in the Wildcat role and senior wide receiver Boles Middleton caught a pass and then threw a touchdown pass that ended up being the game-winner.

“Last week was a real team effort,” said McCrae. “Ethan Johnson, Reid Martin, and our offensive line really played well. And Lane Sceals was just a cool character out there, did a phenomenal job last week. We were asking these guys to do things they don’t normally do and they did a great job.”

If the Knights can find that magic again Friday night in Thomasville, the state championship game would likely be against John Milledge (11-0) who has won 36 straight games, having not lost since 2018. John Milledge will play Valwood (7-4) Friday night in the semifinals.