Kickoff A look at Brunswick High’s first-round game in the Class AAAAAA state playoffs: Opponent: Houston County When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Glynn County Stadium Video Stream/Radio: www.ContinentalSports.com, 107.7 FM Records: BHS - 10-0, 6-0 Region 2-AAAAAA, No. 1 seed; HC - 8-2, 3-2 Region 1-AAAAAA, No. 4 seed Series Record: BHS won the only meeting between the teams in the second round of the 1999 playoffs. At Stake: Winner faces the winner of the opening-round game between North Atlanta and Lovejoy next week in the second round. Takeaways As noted above, the 1999 Brunswick team defeated Houston County in round two of the Class AAAA playoffs, winning 34-7 at GC Stadium before going on to play Lowndes for the state championship three weeks later. That year, the Pirates set a school-record for points scored in a season by totaling 612 points over their 15 games. They averaged 40.8 points a game. That season total ranks near the low end on the long list of top marks in state history which runs from a minimum of 600 points scored to the current top mark of 758 scored by Rome in 2017. This year’s BHS team has scored 363 points through the regular season and is averaging 36.3 points a game after 10 games. For the current Pirates to surpass the record by the 1999 team, they would need to score 250 points in the playoffs. Say the Pirates were to make the state championship, they would get five extra games. They would need to average 50 points a game to reach the 250-mark. That would give them 613 points for the season, enough to establish a new school-record by a single point. Game Preview Friday’s matchup between the Pirates and Bears is a contest between teams ranked in the state’s Top-10 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The AJC has the Pirates ranked No. 8 in its Class AAAAAA poll while the newspaper has the Bears ranked 10th. Brunswick won Region 2-AAAAAA for the second straight season with its 30-27 victory last Friday at home over Effingham. The Pirates also defeated the Rebels 21-18 last year in the season finale played at Effingham to claim the region title. Thus, the Pirates were awarded the No. 1 seed from the region for the state playoffs a second straight year while the Rebels settled for the No. 2 seed again and will be at home in the opening round against No. 9-ranked Lee County which finished third in Region 1-AAAAAA. Lee, Houston County and Northside (Warner Robins) all finished with a 3-2 league record, but Northside got the No. 2 seed, Lee the third and Houston the fourth under region tiebreaker rules. As for Houston, the Bears beat Northside (21-17) but lost to Lee (50-21). Lee lost to Northside (23-20) in a game with a crazy ending. By beating the Rebels last Friday, the Pirates completed their second straight undefeated regular season and ran their regular-season winning streak to 22 games which of course has been put on hold for now. The Pirates will be looking to reach the second round of the state playoffs for the fourth consecutive season with a victory Friday night. They did not make it out of the second round in any of the previous tries. Brunswick was an underdog on the road in 2019 and 2020, but last fall the Pirates were mild upset-victims as they fell to Dacula in round two at home. Brunswick has drawn a tough opening-round assignment, however, as the high-scoring Bears will come between the bricks to take on the two-time defending region champion. Houston is second in Class AAAAAA in scoring offense as it averages 45.10 points a game. Only Hughes ranks higher for points scored in a game with 53.3 average which also leads all state classifications. The Bears scored a season-high 70 points last week as they routed region foe Veterans. The previous week, they bombed Tift County 66-7 in region play. Those two opponents, however, finished a combined 6-9 overall for the season and 1-9 in the region with the only win being the Veterans victory over Tift. Against the other playoff teams from Region 1, Houston scored 21 points in the lop-sided loss to Lee as noted above, scored 21 in a close triumph over Northside (Warner Robins) as noted and lost 42-21 to region winner Thomas County Central. The Houston offense is steered by talented quarterback Antwann Hill Jr., a sophomore who is a four-star prospect by 247 Sports with offers from Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M and Pittsburgh among others. The 6-foot-4, 195-pounder has already thrown for 2,769 yards and 31 touchdowns with only two interceptions. He averages just under 270 yards a game with just over 20 completions per game. Four different Houston receivers have at least 26 catches for the season, but Hill’s favorite targets are junior wideouts Kale Woodburn and Ricky Johnson. For the season, Johnson leads all receivers for the Bears with 45 receptions for 744 yards and 10 touchdowns. He averages almost 83 yards a game. Woodburn follows closely with 44 catches for 700 yards to average 70 yards a game. He also has caught 20 touchdown throws. The Bears have a strong ground game, too. Their primary ballcarrier is junior Ryan Taleb, a 185-pounder who has rushed for 1,147 yards and 16 TDs. Last week against Veterans, he ran for 199 yards and four scores on 27 carries. The Pirates have a defense capable of slowing down the Bears. The BHS stop-em unit is allowing only 13.3 points a game. Only three opponents scored more than 20 points against the Pirates, and those were Glynn Academy which lost to BHS 55-21, Grovetown which fell 56-39 and Effingham which took the Pirates to the final gun before losing by the 30-27 score last Friday night. Obviously, the Pirates can put up some points, too. They are averaging 36.3 points per game and scored 42 points or more in five straight games in the middle of the season. The Pirates have big-play ability, especially in its receiving corps which is led by Terry Mitchell and Jayden Drayton. Mitchell turned a catch into a 53-yard score last week for the Pirates and also returned a punt 73 yards for a score as Brunswick opened up a 20-7 lead on the Rebels before halftime. For the game, Mitchell finished with 10 catches for 170 yards. On the season, the junior wideout has 42 catches for 912 yards and 11 scores. Drayton has 16 receptions for 293 yards and three TDs. Brunswick also has a deep backfield featuring sophomore running backs Jamarious Towns and William Heck. Towns has carried for 679 yards and five touchdowns in eight games while Heck has rushed for 528 yards and five scores as well. The Pirates also give the ball to Drayton regularly. He has 375 ground yards and seven rushing scores. Ivan Johnson, a starter in the defensive backfield, also sees spot-duty at running back. A physical runner, he has gained 457 yards on 50 carries and has scored four times. Through the air, first-year starting quarterback J.R. Elkins, a junior, has thrown for 1,393 yards and 18 touchdowns with seven interceptions.