By: Joseph Stuckey

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

This past Thursday night, the Bulloch Academy Gators defeated the Savannah Country Day Hornets 42-0 at home in The Swamp.

The Gators came into the game as the #2 seed in the GIAA 4-A playoffs; the Hornets were the #7 seed. This was Savannah Country Day’s first season in GIAA after coming over from GHSA.

The big story in this game was the Gator defense, which came into this game allowing only 11 points per game. In the 5 games leading up to this one, they have allowed only 14 points since 9/18.

To start the playoffs, the Gators were the #2 seed, which means they hosted on Thursday and will host the final four game as well. Their opponent will be the winner of the #3 vs #6 game between Brookstone and Strong Rock.

With a win in the semifinal game, they will head less than 5 miles across town to Paulson Stadium, home of the GSU Eagles for the State Championship.

The Gators have played a tough regular-season schedule where only 3 of their 10 opponents did not make the GIAA playoffs.

Four of their ten opponents were top-4 seeds and hosted at least an Elite Eight game. Three of their opponents were top-2 seeds and will host all the way to the state championship if they continue to advance.

The Gators played 3 reigning state champs this season (John Milledge Academy, Brentwood, and Robert Toombs Christian Academy), and there is a possibility they will have played 2 of this year’s state champs when it’s all said and done.

In AAA, JMA and Westfield are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. In AA, Brentwood is the #2 seed. The Gators’ only loss this season was to JMA 35-23 back in early September.

JMA will be the #1 team in all of GIAA at the end of the year, and the Gators are hoping to be #2 in terms of MaxPreps power rankings.

Most of the starters for the Gators were impact players back on the 2024 State Championship team.

This group has also won 3 of 4 region titles during their time in high school. With the win over Savannah Country Day, this group moved to 42-5 overall for their high school career.

The Gators are 3-0 at Paulson Stadium (AKA “The Swamp South”) during the 2023-2025 span and will hopefully look to make that 4-0 in a couple of weeks.