High school football playoff preview: North Murray starts at home for first time since Elite 8 run, hosts South Atlanta Saturday
Nov. 10—For three consecutive seasons, North Murray has exited the state football playoffs after a first round loss.
In trying to break that streak, this Mountaineer team will have something the last three didn't: Home field advantage.
North Murray (7-3) hosts South Atlanta (5-5) Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.
The last time North Murray hosted a playoff game was 2019, when the Mountaineers won a region title and went to the Class 3A Elite 8.
North Murray had a five-game winning streak ended in a loss to Rockmart to close the regular season last week. North Murray entered with hopes of a region championship, but the game quickly went south against Rockmart, with a 21-0 first-quarter deficit leading to a 59-7 loss.
That type of loss was an outlier for a North Murray team, whose only other losses were a squeaker to 4A Northwest Whitfield and a 35-14 loss to 5A Dalton that was more competitive than the final score showed.
North Murray will look for a turnaround on both sides of the ball against South Atlanta.
South Atlanta won three straight region titles from 2020 to 2022 and has made the state quarterfinals in each of the last two years, but this year's squad dipped from 11 wins to five and to the third seed in Region 6-2A.
South Atlanta started the season 1-4 before rallying for four wins in their last five. The Hornets went 4-2 in the region, with lopsided losses to region champion North Cobb Christian and Therrell.
North Murray's defense should have an opportunity to bounce back after the Rockmart game. South Atlanta has been held to single digits four times and has scored 12 in two other games. The Hornets' season high is 28 points.
North Murray, which has games of 63, 56 and 48 points this season, may face a stiff challenge with the South Atlanta defense, though, as the Hornets haven't given up all that many points, even in losses. South Atlanta is allowing 20.6 points per game, but has only allowed more than 30 once.
North Murray did show it could win a low-scoring game, a rarity for a team that's usually putting up a lot of points, with a 21-14 win over Model in the penultimate game of the regular season.
Quarterback Skyler Williams and wide receiver Judson Petty combined to lead a late comeback that secured this home playoff game.
It's the first meeting in football between the two programs, though the schools met up in the Class 2A basketball Sweet 16 last season.
Williams and Petty, both standout basketball players for the Neers, had their 23-4 season ended at South Atlanta in February.
A North Murray win tonight would mean either a trip to Roswell to play Fellowship Christian or a home game against Redan. Fellowship defeated North Murray 49-28 in last year's playoffs.
