Kickoff A look at Glynn Academy’s first-round game in the Class AAAAAA state playoffs: Opponent: Northside (Warner Robins) When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: McConnell-Talbert Stadium, Warner Robins Radio: 102.5 FM Records: GA - 6-4 overall, 4-2 Region 2-AAAAA, No. 3 seed; NSWR - 6-4, 3-2 Region 1-AAAAAA, No. 2 seed Series History: Northside and Glynn have met three times in the playoffs with the Eagles winning all three games. At Stake: Winner advances to face winner of the Marist-Morrow opening-round game in next week’s second round. Outside the Lines Friday’s game between Glynn Academy and Northside will take place in McConnnell-Talbert Stadium in Warner Robins which is the home field for both the Eagles and their rival Warner Robins. It was built in 1968 and is actually across from Warner Robins High School on South Davis Drive. Known by the locals as The Mac, the stadium received $2.92 million in major renovations back in 2013 including a new visitors’ side press box, lighting upgrades as well as restroom and storm water upgrades. In 2014, the natural-grass field was in such poor condition following the regular season that two playoff games had to be moved to other area facilities. One of those games was the quarterfinals matchup between Glynn Academy and Northside that was played on Peach County’s field in nearby Fort Valley. The Houston County Board of Education voted to remove the grass field and install an artificial surface to alleviate this problem in the future. FieldTurf was put down during the summer of 2015 and work was finished in time for the start of the next football season. In an interesting twist, the west end zone was colored in blue for Northside while the east end zone was colored red for the Warner Robins Demons. A coin toss was actually held to decide which end zone each team would get. Warner Robins head coach Brian Way won the toss over Northside coach Kevin Kinsler and selected the east end zone so that the Demons would keep their traditional pregame warmup area. The Eagles now warm up using the other side of the field which includes the west end zone. Houston County also played its home games at McConnell-Talbert through the 2015 season until construction on Freedom Field was finished and it then became the home field for the Bears starting in the 2016 season. Game Preview The Red Terrors will go into Friday’s playoff opener riding a four-game winning streak which includes victories in their final four Region 2-AAAAAA games. The Terrors opened region play with back-to-back losses to rival Brunswick and Effingham, which finished first and second, respectively, in the league standings and will be hosting first-round games Friday as a result. Glynn then proceeded to topple South Effingham, Grovetown, Evans and Lakeside-Evans to close out the region slate while claiming the No. 3 seed from the region for the playoffs. The team’s 25-22 come-from-behind win in its next-to-last region game at home against Evans locked up a playoff berth for the Terrors who finished the season last week with a 42-20 victory at Lakeside-Evans. Meantime, Evans went on to knock off South Effingham last Friday night in the season finale for both teams which decided the region’s fourth-seed for the playoffs. All four Region 2-AAAAAA teams are matched against Region 1-AAAAAA teams in the opening round. This is the Terrors’ 15th straight playoff appearance and ninth in as many seasons under head coach Rocky Hidalgo. In Hidalgo’s first season with the program in 2014, Glynn actually made a surprising run to the state quarterfinals before losing to Northside which went on the win the Class AAAAA state championship that season. This game was actually played in Fort Valley as noted above. The Terrors also met Northside in the 2016 quarterfinals with the Eagles also winning that game 42-20 at Glynn County Stadium to end Glynn’s state title hopes. The Terrors played for the state crown the previous season. Northside ended up falling to Tucker the next week in the semifinals, and Tucker would wind up losing to Valdosta in the state title game. The only other time Glynn and Northside have played was back in the 2011 playoffs when the Eagles rolled over GA at home in the first round. The Eagles advanced to the semifinals before losing 17-16 to Tucker which went on to defeat Lovejoy for the state crown. The Eagles, the No. 2 seed from Region 1, lost last week to Thomas County Central by a 24-14 score in a game that decided the region championship. With that loss, Northside finished region play with a 3-2 record, the same region ledger held by No. 3 seed Lee County and No. 4 seed Houston County. The Eagles won the tiebreaker, but split with those teams during the regular season, toppling Lee 23-20 in a game with a crazy finish and falling to Houston 21-17. The Eagles have missed the playoffs only once since their 6-4 season in 1983. They did not make the playoffs in 2019 when they finished 3-7 overall and did not win a region game. That was the last season for head coach Kevin Kinsler who took over for longtime coach Conrad Nix following the 2009 season. Northside has three state championships. The Eagles claimed those in 2006 and 2007 when they went 15-0 both years and they also won the 2014 title as mentioned earlier. This year’s team is built around a stingy defense which is allowing only 15 points a game entering the playoffs. On offense, junior quarterback Damien Dee has thrown for 687 yards and five touchdowns. He also has rushed for 563 yards on 105 carries to average just over 56 yards a game on the ground. Dee has six rushing touchdowns. One other ballcarrier has gained more than 500 yards this season for the Eagles. Senior Michael McClendon has carried for 582 yards on 118 attempts. He averages 4.9 yards per rush and is averaging 58.2 yards a game. Glynn has made sophomore running back Greg Peacock the centerpiece of its offense in recent weeks. Last week, Peacock ran for 266 yards and three touchdowns in the team’s victory at Lakeside-Evans. His rushing total for the game is believed to possibly be a modern-day single-game record for a GA ballcarrier. The Terrors lost in the first round last year at Hughes which went on to play Buford for the state title. Hughes is the state’s top-ranked team and is favored to win the state title this year. That opening-round loss a year ago was the only one in the first round for Glynn under Hidalgo who has a 7-1 record in first-round playoff games with the Terrors which includes wins over traditional powers like Valdosta and Tucker.