It’s Week 1 of our high school football coverage. Tonight, the Habersham Central Raiders take on the Madison County Red Raiders at Danielsville. In Week 0, the HCHS Raiders lost to Dawson County in the final minute of the game, 28-32. That matchup was the first ever between the two teams and was spotlighted as our BLITZ Game of the Week.
This week, our game of the week is Lumpkin County vs White County in a Week 1 rivalry matchup. This one was an easy pick for us as Game of the Week because it’s two of our local programs playing, but also it’s a neighboring county rivalry that runs to the 1960s (48 head-to-head matchups).
LUMPKIN
What a fantastic first week for the Lumpkin County Indians. In Shane Williamson’s third season, this is his group that he’s had a chance to pour into for quite some time. The Indians excelled in the run game, led by Luke Smith’s three touchdown runs. The blowout 42-0 win over East Jackson was the largest margin of win since 2011. There are some great signs that this team is arriving.
WHITE
White County had a pre-season scrimmage a couple of weeks ago against Stephens County, and purposely played it pretty vanilla. They tuned up on getting plays in, personnel changes, etc without giving away their tricks. This week, you can plan on seeing them pull a lot out of the bag in this intense rivalry game. A multi-running back group includes Michael Mintz, Jay Lepkoske, Jared Jullian, Kurtis Havlen and J Ben Haynes when he feels like it or is forced to. Haynes is a sophomore QB with a high ceiling and has receivers like Cody Versluis, Mintz and Cooper Turner. This is a legit playoff team.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Be looking for highlights post-game late tonight as well as a story recapping WEEK 1. BLITZ will also share highlights with Fox 5’s HIGH 5 Sports, so the highlights will play on Channel 5 at 11 PM.
OUR PREDICTION
While we admire both programs, White County is battled tested after last year and has so much size and power that it’d be hard to pick against them. On the flip side, Lumpkin too has such a great running game. Our prediction is that we’ll see about six different running backs combined and White County earns a hard-fought win despite a solid night for the Indians offense.
DETAILS OF THE MATCHUP
TIME: 7:30 pm kickoff
PLACE: The Burial Grounds / Lumpkin County High School / Dahlonega, GA
LAST MEETING: 2017; Warriors 66, Indians 14
ALL-TIME RECORD: White County 36, Lumpkin County 11, 1 Tie
RECORDS: Lumpkin Co Indians (1-0; 0-0 in 7-AAA); White Co Indians (0-0; 0-0 in 7-AAAA)
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
48 matchups, neighboring counties. These kids know each other, probably go to church together, some are family, etc. This rivalry runs deep since 1964. The game was played every single year from ’64 through 2001. After a five-year hiatus, the rivalry was renewed in 2006 and played each year through 2013. In that span (recent history), White County won seven of the eight games, falling only in 2011. In 2016, Lumpkin won again before the Warriors got revenge last season with a 66-14 blowout win. The weirdest matchup was in 2016 when the game was called to lightning after just two minutes of play and was never made up.
Here are some of the White/Lumpkin games we’ve been to in the last 10 years:
OCT 1, 2010 – White Co 21, Lumpkin Co 14
SEP 7, 2012 – White Co 34, Lumpkin Co 7
AUG 26, 2016 – White Co 0, Lumpkin Co 0 (CANCELED / LIGHTNING)
TEAM LEADERS (2018 STATS as available / Projected Leaders)
LUMPKIN COUNTY
PASSING
Tucker Kirk: 1 TD
RUSHING
Luke Smith: 2 TD
Drew Allison: 1 TD
Kyle Amburgey: 1 TD
Kevin Harkins: 1 TD
RECEIVING
Jonas Ramirez: #1 Receiver
Luke Smith: 1 TD
DEFENSE
N/A
WHITE COUNTY
PASSING
J Ben Haynes
RUSHING
Michael Mintz
Jared Jullian
Jay Lepkoske
Kurtis Havlen
RECEIVING
Cody Versluis
Michael Mintz
Cooper Turner
TACKLES
Michael Mintz
Jay Lepkoske
