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Struggling Tift to face No. 2-ranked Packers

wayne grandy, the moultrie observer, ga.
·4 min read

Aug. 30—MOULTRIE — Recent years have not been banner ones for Tift County football and on Friday the 0-2 Blue Devils will play host to the No. 2-ranked team in Class 7A, 2-0 Colquitt County.

While the Packers were knocking off defending South Carolina state champion Dutch Fork 48-17 and then taking down Stockbridge 47-27, the Blue Devils lost their opener 38-13 at Coffee and, last week at Brodie Field, were pounded by Dutchtown 52-16.

Since going 11-2 under head coach Ashley Anders in 2017, the Blue Devils have had just two winning records, including a 6-5 mark in 2021, head coach Noel Dean's first season in Tifton.

But the Blue Devils went just 1-9 last year and lost all five of their Region 1-6A games.

Tift dropped down from the state's highest classification to Class 6A in 2022, but its two seasons at that level will likely end after this school year.

Tift is expected to rejoin Region 1 in the highest classification starting next year.

The high school football teams representing Moultrie and Tifton first squared off on Nov. 7, 1914, with the club from Colquitt County taking a 31-0 victory.

Friday's meeting with be the 97th in the series between the teams that became known as the Packers and the Blue Devils.

Tifton High held a 17-15-2 advantage over its close South Georgia rival.

When the Blue Devils began representing Tift County in 1962, the Packers started to wrest control of the series.

Moultrie High was 11-3 against Tift County; Colquitt County is 31-17.

And the Packers' dominance in the series has been especially apparent since 2009.

During that span, Colquitt has won 13 of the 14 meetings.

The Blue Devils only win came in 2017 when Fernando Ramirez kicked an 18-yard field goal with three seconds left for a 38-35 come-from-behind victory on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Few of the Packers 13 wins in the last 14 seasons have been close. Colquitt has scored 40 or more points nine times. The Packers put up 63 in 2010 and 62 in 2014.

Colquitt won 41-13 last year in Moultrie.

The last time the Blue Devils beat Colquitt County in Tifton was in 2008.

The Blue Devils can't be heartened to know that many of the Packers that were instrumental in last year's victory are back again this season.

Packers quarterback Neko Fann, who has thrown eight touchdown passes in the first two games of this season, threw for three scores and ran for two others against Tift last year.

Two of the scoring passes went to Landen Thomas and Jaden Fowler, both of whom will be on Fann's radar again on Friday.

And Ny Carr, who caught six of Fann's passes in last fall's Tift-Colquitt game, returns as a preseason All-State selection and a Georgia commit and has 18 receptions in the Packers' first two games this year.

Colquitt County kicker Brett Fitzgerald, who converted a 44-yard field goal attempt last year against the Blue Devils, also is back in the fold for the Packers.

Fann and junior running backs Day'Shawn Brown and Ramsey Dennis have 56 carries among them in the first two games this year. They are averaging 8.7 yards on those attempts.

Fann himself juked and sped his way to 95 yards on the ground on just five carries against Stockbridge last Friday.

And although the Packers have surrendered 44 points in the first two games, only two of those scores came in the first half, and Stockbridge's North Carolina State-bound running back Jayden Scott got both of them.

Dutch Fork did not get its first score until there was 4:40 left in the third quarter.

Tift County will try to puncture the Packers defense with a familiar weapon: running back Damien Moate, who scored on a fourth-quarter run in Colquitt's win last year.

Moate had 90 yards on the ground in the loss to Coffee two weeks ago.

Quarterback Christopher Martin has completed 25-of-54 passes for 351 yards in Tift's first two games.

Titus Beauford had six pass receptions, including two for touchdowns, against Dutchtown. Taylon Morrow had a touchdown catch against Coffee.

Tift trailed just 24-16 to Dutchtown at the half last Friday, but was outscored 28-0 in the final two quarters.

Also on Friday in Region 1-7A, Camden County (1-1) will travel to play Glynn Academy (2-0); Lowndes (2-0) will be home to meet West Broward High of Pembrokes Pines (Fla.) 0-1; Richmond Hill (1-1) will play host to Jenkins (1-1); and Valdosta (1-1) will be home to play Benneker High's Trojans, who are 2-0.