One team is trying to defend last year's championship and continue its reign as the best team in the classification. The other is trying to etch its name in the state high school football history books with its first state title.
Welcome to the Class AAA finals, which will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday at Georgia State Stadium, when Cedar Grove, the program on top, will play Crisp County, a program that wants to get to the top.
Defending champion Cedar Grove defeated Greater Atlanta Christian 28-18 in the semis and has a chance for to win its third state championship since 2016. But for Crisp County, which beat Jenkins 14-6 Friday, the trip to the state championship game means more than just football.
"It does and doesn't have to do with football, really," Crisp County coach Brad Harber said. "Hell, some of our country boys probably have never been to Atlanta. We are just going to have to do a good job making them understand that the field size is the same up there as it is at home."
Harber took over after Shelton Felton chose to leave Crisp County in 2016. In Felton's two seasons, he was 16-8 with a semifinal loss to Cedar Grove (55-0) in 2016 as his best effort. Harber surpassed that this season and has a 27-9 record with three region titles. He is the 17th coach in Crisp County history, dating to 1957, and the first to carve a path to a state title game. Crisp's predecessor school, Cordele High, won the Class B championship in 1951. Y'all remember that, right?
In the semifinals, Crisp County's smothering defense held Jenkins, which was averaging 40.38 points per game entering the semifinals, to six points. Trailing 14-6 after an A.J. Lofton touchdown, Jenkins mounted a drive with two minutes left in the game, but Sirad Bryant's game-sealing interception in the end zone spoiled the comeback. Jenkins took a 6-0 lead on a touchdown run from Damozzio Harris with one minute left before the break, but the extra-point attempt failed. Crisp regained the lead in the final minute of the third quarter on a diving touchdown from Lofton, who leaped from the 5-yard line as three Jenkins defenders gave chase. Lofton scored again on another 5-yard touchdown run with two minutes left in the game to put the game out of reach. Connor Richmond was 2-for-2 on extra points for Crisp.
"We may just win this thing," Harber said of the championship game, referencing Jenkins' talent. "I've been watching Cedar Grove all morning, and they are loaded, but Jenkins was loaded, too. That team was great."
But Cedar Grove will be the toughest task Crisp has faced since, well, Cedar Grove in 2016. The Saints spent last week dismantling a Peach County program that, according to many, could have been awarded the trophy in Week 1. Cedar Grove then held off a GAC program that played the Saints harder than the top-ranked Trojans did in the quarterfinals. Senior linebacker Isaiah Ratcliff intercepted a pass at the goal-line to thwart the Spartans' comeback after GAC trailed 14-3 at the break. The Spartans closed 21-18 with six minutes left before the Ratcliff interception.
"The X-and-O part of it, we know they are going to play hard and play tough," Harber said of the title matchup. "We just got to keep getting one percent better every day and be able to handle the moment of the state championship."
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