Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving everyone!

How are we feeling? Thankful? A little stuffed? Thankfully stuffed? Me too. It’s okay. Live a little.

I hope you’re ready for tonight because we’ve got one great matchup coming your way. So grab those leftovers and sit tight as the Archer Tigers travel to take on the Mill Creek Hawks in the QUARTERFINALS. OMG I can’t even deal. How did the season fly by so fast? Anyone who can answer that- find me on twitter @JackieBrittain.

We spoke with both head coaches on Thanksgiving Eve, and here are my biggest takeaways from our chat:

Convo’s with coach:

A. Mill Creek’s Shannon Jarvis…

The Hawks finished last season with a 7-4 record. After a 51-41 loss to North Gwinnett, they were able to keep the winning streak alive until the first round of the playoffs when they lost to Grayson. Coach Jarvis said they did a lot of soul searching after last season and the loss to North Gwinnett was the turning point for this team. His team is undefeated this year. And as for the North Gwinnett re-match? The Hawks shut them out 28-0… And that was just one of FIVE shutouts for them this season.  

So what did they learn about themselves?

Coach Jarvis says that the strength of this team isn’t the offense or the defense. They don’t have one star player that they rely on. It takes a full effort from all 11 men on the field. It’s the bond of the team and their ability to pull it together in a close game. I know what you’re thinking… “What close game?” Yeah, they haven’t had many this season, actually. But that just furthers his point about what they learned about last season, and I believe that’s helped them avoid that this year. 

Their closest game so far this year came against Peachtree Ridge in the last game of the regular season in which the Hawks came away with it 20-17. Seventeen points is the most their defense has allowed in a game all year. In addition to their 5 shutouts, they’ve had 8 defensive touchdowns and 3 special teams touchdowns.

Coach is an animated and passionate guy and he was talking to us with so much energy. But I noticed it the most when he was talking about his defensive ends in particular-Tyler Vernon and Peyton Moore. They are “relentless” as he put it. 

“They get after quarterbacks and are tough to deal with at practice,” he added. So, they clearly help the defense but they also help the offense get better, too. A large part of their success is from those guys being able to get pressure on the quarterback so well. Vernon has committed to Army, while Moore has an offer from Navy and Kennesaw State. 

“I’m gonna miss ‘em, I’ll tell you that right now,” Jarvis said.

Okay now as for Archer…

​B. Archer’s Andy Dyer

Well they come into this matchup with a loud resume. They made it to the finals last year, but lost in the Championship game to Colquitt County (28-24).

They’re coming off of what Coach Dyer described as an “emotional” and narrow win over McEachern last week (24-21) to keep their postseason hopes alive. 

Here’s the interesting thing though…

This is the first meeting for these two teams, but the history of their coaching staff goes back a long way. Coach Dyer used to work with Coach Jarvis at Mill Creek and was childhood friends and roommates in college with Mill Creek’s offensive coordinator- Josh Lovelady. Now, they are neighbors. He jokingly said “…if they win, maybe I’ll have to cut his grass this summer or something.”

Coach Dyer and Coach Jarvis are good friends and spend a lot of time talking to each other during the season. But not this week, as you can imagine…

Don’t look now, but things could get ugly if Mill Creek can’t find a way to stop junior RB Jamyest Williams. This kid is a stud. He has 1,260 rushing yards so far on the season. But here’s a cool stat for you… He has 40 offers.

For the Hawks, Coach Jarvis says that their toughest challenge tonight is going to be going up against Archer’sdefense and being able to stay balanced on offense. They can’t get too high or too low. Staying balanced has worked well for them this season. But these teams know each other really well, even though this is their first meeting. 

Coach Jarvis said it best when he said: “We’re not gonna be able to throw it all over the park and expect to beat them. If we turn the ball over like we did in the region championship, we’ll get run out the stadium.”

So there you have it folks. We’ll see you on the TV or the iPad or iPhone or iWhatever tonight at 7:00 PM sharp! Only on GPB!

*Stats from Georgia High School Football Daily