By: Christian Goeckel

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When the final eight teams in AAAAA football take the field next week, the day after Thanksgiving, the Glynn Academy Red Terrors will be among them.

The Terrors knocked off Heritage 34-26 in a game that shouldn’t have been that close.

Glynn came into this one knowing that Heritage liked to sling the ball around and the Patriots didn’t disappoint.

Quarterback Caleb Pruitt entered the playoffs with over 3,500 yards through the air for the season and did his best to carve up Glynn in this one.

Par for the course, Pruitt completed about 50% of his passes, but a couple of breakdowns on defense cost Glynn on some big plays.

After pinning the Patriots on the 1, Glynn was burned on a 99-yard touchdown when Pruitt connected with senior wideout Jordan Young on a post. Young broke the tackle of Marvin Dallas and romped down the field for the score.

Later in the game, Pruitt was able to connect with a wide open Devron Harper who hauled the touchdown in Odell Beckham Jr. style (Fitting being that both Harper and Beckham Jr wear number 13).

Besides those two huge plays, the defense only gave up one true scoring drive. The Terrors secondary did a great job of sticking with their men in man coverage and the coaching staff made a great adjustment in the second half going to Cover 2.

The defense was able to get home a few times, including a strip sack. It was a very solid performance by the unit that this team feeds on for its’ energy.

The other touchdown for Heritage came after a fumbled snap was recovered by the Patriots in the endzone.

Speaking of bad snaps, this has become a consistent theme for the Red Terrors. Two bad snaps got past Jernigan, one for a touchdown and the other Jernigan was able to corral, but it knocked Glynn back 15 yards.

Glynn flirted with disaster a few times in this one, including a muffed punt that Caine Crews was able to recover and a Glynn Player inexplicably picking up an onside kick surrounded by ten Patriots after it had only traveled a single yard. There was definitely some head scratching going on down on the sideline.

Offensively, Glynn completely overpowered Heritage in this one. The Patriots simply had no answer for the triple option.

Whenever they did try to leverage defenders on the outside, Jernigan and Crews gashed them up the gut. Both Grant brothers were able to consistently find the corner as it seems like Glynn’s three headed monster at running back is finally back to 100%.

A lot of mistakes, but more good plays proved enough for Glynn to get a win in this one.  That won’t be the case as Glynn advances in these playoffs. This is the Terrors fourth straight trip to the elite 8 and they get this one a home.

Glynn will host Harrison (Kennesaw) High School next Friday night at Glynn County Stadium. If that school sounds familiar to some of you Dawgs fans, that’s the school of UGA commit and number 1 prospect in the country Justin Fields.

Fields has been out the past few weeks after a nasty break to the index finger on his throwing hand, but the rumbles have started to hint at a return this coming Friday.

Whichever way it falls and whoever plays, this Glynn team holds their fate in their hands. If Glynn can put together an offensive performance like they have the past three weeks and eliminate the mistakes, they’ll be a very tough team to beat.

Expect an absolute war in Glynn County Stadium a week from now. Can’t wait.