High School Football Predictions

I was leaving church Wednesday night when I heard the beautiful words: “Thank God for football season.”

“Amen,” I thought, as I felt a comfortably cool breeze hit me under the striking golden hues of sunset.

“That’s right,” I was still thinking. The summer heat has broken and become Chamber-of-Commerce quality. College and pro games have started, there’s a game on TV almost every night and our favorite sons are playing high-school ball every weekend in our neighborhood stadiums.

I took a deep breath to take it all in. How great it is!

“Football season is beautiful,” I said in agreement with my fellow church member.

She rolled her eyes.

The mother then rattled off what it’s like to have a young boy playing in a youth league in Gwinnett County. There’s practice three, sometimes four, nights a week. Games are every Saturday.  And, she said, if she’s lucky, football could be six days a week.

Oh wait a minute, I get it. She was being sarcastic.

“Yeah, football is great,” she said with another roll of the eyes.

Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.

This week’s picks

Every week, I pick high-school football games that are played in Patch coverage areas from Stone Mountain to Cumming. I was 19-6 last week, bringing my overall record to 57-15.

Are you ready for another round of picks?

Archer at Brookwood: Oops. We were completely surprised by Brookwood’s 20-6 loss to Dacula last week. Who wasn’t? Dacula is clearly better than its 0-2 start and the Broncos (1-2, 0-1 in 8-AAAAA) are clearly not the same team that won the state title last year. But there’s still a lot of football to be played, and the Broncos will be in the mix in the end. By the way, Brookwood lost to Dacula last year before winning 12 in a row to win it all. It all started with Archer. Brookwood 34, Archer 12.

Shiloh at Parkview: Parkview fans who might have marked this game down as a win before the season started might have to re-think their expectation after Shiloh’s unexpected win at South Gwinnett last week. The Generals (1-2) beat the Comets 28-19 after trailing by two touchdowns in the second half. Parkview is 0-2 (losses to state-ranked teams Stephenson and Norcross) but probably better than the record.  And if the Panthers, who were idle last week, hope to earn a playoff spot in 8-AAAAA, they can’t loss a game like this. They won’t. Parkview 24, Shiloh 12.

South Gwinnett at Central Gwinnett (8 p.m Saturday; Georgia Dome): South Gwinnett (0-3) looks to regroup against unbeaten Central Gwinnett under the bright lights of the Georgia Dome. The Comets have been hard to figure out. They were respectable during portions of their losses to powerhouses Lowndes and M.L. King, then couldn’t hang on last week against Shiloh. Central Gwinnett has averaged 48 points per game against three lower-tier teams, so this should be the Black Knights toughest opponent of the year. Strange things can happen in the Dome, but the pick has to go to Central. Central 33, South Gwinnett 28.

Scott Bernarde is the Associate Regional Editor for 12 Patch sites in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Forsyth counties.