By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Kickoff A look at Brunswick High’s next game: Opponent: Effingham When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Bob Griffith Stadium, Springfield Radio/Video Stream: 107.7 FM Records: BHS 6-2 overall, 4-1 Region 2-AAAAAA; EHS 6-3, 5-0 Last week: BHS won 35-7 over Evans at home: Effingham won 36-31 over Lakeside-Evans at home. Last year/All-time: BHS won 30-27 at home; BHS leads 16-11 in all-time series. Game Preview: This will be the final regular-season game for both teams which are assured of going on to the Class AAAAAA state playoffs next week. And for the third year in a row, this one between the Pirates and Rebels will decide the Region 2-AAAAAA championship. The previous two years, Brunswick came away with a victory over the Rebels to claim the region title and the top seed for the state playoffs. Both times, the Pirates also completed perfect regular seasons. Last year, the Pirates won 30-27 at Glynn County Stadium. Two years ago, Brunswick won 21-18 in Springfield. This year, though, the Pirates come into the game with a region loss as they fell 22-15 in overtime to rival Glynn Academy in the City Championship Game and the first region game back on Sept. 22. The Rebels, meantime, are a perfect 5-0 in the region including a 49-3 victory over the Red Terrors in Springfield just seven days after Glynn defeated the Pirates. Effingham can claim its first region championship since 1995 with a victory over the Pirates on Friday. Actually, the Rebels could lose Friday’s game and still claim the region title through the tiebreaker that will be used in the event of a three-way tie for first between Brunswick, Effingham and Glynn should the Terrors also win their final game against Lakeside-Evans which would leave the teams in a deadlock with a region loss apiece. The tiebreaker is explained in detail below, but simply the Rebels can win that tiebreaker if they can score at least seven points in Friday’s game. Brunswick has to win Friday’s game by 19 points to even have a chance to win the region title and claim the top seed for the playoffs through the tiebreaker. And thing is, the Pirates also have to win by that margin while allowing the Rebels six or fewer points. That is explained below. Effingham can finish no worse than second in the region standings even if they were to lose to the Pirates, so the Rebels are assured of hosting a first-round game in the state playoffs. Glynn also would have to lose at home to Lakeside-Evans for this to happen, and thus the tiebreaker wouldn’t be needed. Brunswick and Effingham would only be tied for first in this case, and the Pirates would win the region title and get the No. 1 seed because of their head-to-head win over the Rebels on Friday. And, the Rebels would be awarded the No. 2 seed because of their earlier victory over Glynn. The Rebels went 1-3 in their first four games which were all non-region games. They fell 34-7 to Richmond Hill and 10-6 to Burke County before clipping Statesboro 24-19 and then falling to Southeast Bulloch 20-13. But in their five region games, the Rebels have scored at least 35 points. They rolled over rival South Effingham 42-7 before routing Glynn. Then, they pulled out a 35-32 win over Grovetown which ended up 0-6 in the region before pounding Evans 42-10 and sneaking past Lakeside-Evans by only 36-31 last Friday. Senior quarterback Nate Hayes has thrown for 1,020 yards and nine touchdowns. Senior Aj Butts is the Rebels’ top rusher with 581 yards and nine scores. The Rebels average almost 158 rushing yards a game. Brunswick has played sophomore Grant Moore at quarterback most of the way the last two games. He started two weeks ago against South Effingham and took over after the opening snap last week against Evans. BHS ran for 314 yards last week against Evans and totaled 461 yards on offense. Senior Terry Mitchell is averaging almost 109 receiving yards a game and has nine touchdowns. Linebackers J’shawn Towns and Mike Daniels average over eight tackles each while senior linebacker and Kentucky commit Devin Smith has nine sacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Region 2-AAAAAA Standings Team Region Record Overall Record Effingham 5-0 6-3 Glynn Academy 4-1 7-2 Brunswick 4-1 6-2 South Effingham 2-3 6-3 Evans 2-3 3-6 Lakeside-Evans 1-4 3-6 Grovetown 0-6 2-6 This Week’s Schedule Brunswick at Effingham Lakeside-Evans at Glynn Academy Evans at South Effingham Grovetown, idle The Region 2-AAAAAA playoff picture going into this week: - Effingham, Brunswick and Glynn Academy have all clinched playoff berths and will be the top three seeds. - Effingham can finish as the top or No. 2 seed based on the result of its game against Brunswick. - Brunswick can finish as the top seed or the No. 3 seed based on the result of its game against Effingham and the result of the Glynn Academy-Lakeside-Evans game. - Glynn Academy can finish as the No. 2 seed or No. 3 seed depending on the result of its game against Lakeside-Evans and the result of the Effingham-Brunswick game, but cannot finish as the region champion. - The winner of the South Effingham-Evans game will be the No. 4 seed. The potential first-place tie and how the Region 2-AAAAAA tiebreaker procedures will be executed to break the tie and seed the teams for the state playoffs. - There could be a three-way tie for first if Brunswick defeats Effingham and Glynn defeats Lakeside-Evans. Effingham, Brunswick and Glynn would all be tied for first with one region loss each. If this were to take place, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results. In this case, all three teams would have beaten each other when they played. Glynn defeated Brunswick. Effingham defeated Glynn, and Brunswick would have defeated Effingham to forge the tie. Thus, the head-to-head tiebreaker does not break the tie. Therefore, the region would go to the next possible tiebreaker which is points allowed by each team in the games they played against one another. Also, the points allowed are capped at a maximum of 25 points. (And keep in mind, this procedure is used only to break the three-way tie. Once the top seed is determined, the head-to-head result between the other two teams decides the remaining seeds._ So, Glynn defeated BHS 22-15, and Glynn lost to Effingham 49-3. Thus, Glynn has allowed 40 points. (Remember, the Effingham total was capped at 25). For Effingham, we know the Rebels gave up the 3 points to Glynn. The maximum they will end up allowing is 28 even if they give up the max of 25 to Brunswick. Therefore, we know that Glynn can’t get the top seed through this tiebreaker because the Terrors are sure to have allowed more points than Effingham. For Brunswick, we know the Pirates gave up the 22 points to Glynn, which puts them at a 19-point deficit to Effingham as it relates to the tiebreaker going into Friday. Thus, Brunswick must win and defeat the Rebels by at least 19 points to win the region championship and claim the No. 1 seed for the state playoffs. And remember, the points allowed total is capped at 25, so the Pirates have to win by the 19 and do so while the Rebels will only be charged for allowing a maximum of 25 points. A 25-6 victory would work in favor of Brunswick, and of course so would one of the following: 24-3, 24-0, 23-3. But unfortunately for the Pirates, a 30-10 score wouldn’t work, nor would a 47-27 final. Bottom line is Effingham might not win the game, but the Rebels could win the tiebreaker as long as they score seven points. The final scorer could be Brunswick 49, Effingham 7, but with the points allowed capped at 25 for the tiebreaker, that would be an 18-point win. The Rebels would win the tiebreaker by a point. Remember, they are ahead by 19 points going into Friday based on the totals the teams gave up to Glynn. Friday’s possible outcomes and seeding results for the state playoffs If Effingham wins outright, while Glynn also wins, the seeding would be: 1.Effingham (6-0 region record) 2.Glynn (5-1) 3. Brunswick (4-2) 4.South Effingham-Evans winner (3-3) If Brunswick wins but loses tiebreaker, while Glynn also wins, the seeding would be: 1.Effingham (5-1, wins tiebreaker for top seed) 2.Glynn (5-1, awarded second seed by defeating BHS head-to-head) 3.Brunswick (5-1) 4.South Effingham-Evans winner (3-3) If Brunswick wins and wins tiebreaker, while Glynn also wins, the seeding would be: 1.Brunswick (5-1, wins tiebreaker for top seed) 2.Effingham (5-1, awarded second seed by defeating GA head-to-head) 3.Glynn (5-1) 4.South Effingham-Evans winner (3-3) If Brunswick loses and Glynn also loses, the seeding would be: 1.Effingham (6-0) 2.Glynn (4-2, awarded second seed by defeating BHS) 3.Brunswick (4-2) 4.South Effingham-Evans winner (3-3) -