Football: Tigers face tough road test at Toombs

Commerce might have the toughest draw in the second round of any Northeast Georgia team on Friday. 

The No. 11 Tigers will travel to No. 6 Toombs County, hoping to advance to the Elite 8 of the Class A Division 1 playoffs with a win. 

“We’re excited about our football team and believe in our football team,” Commerce coach Mark Hollars said. “We’re going to go down there and play a football game and go out there and do what we do well. It should be a heck of a high school football game.” 

Indeed, it will. 

The matchup features two really good, contrasting offenses, but the matchup to watch is the Tigers' defense, which has given up 22.8 points per game this season, against the Bulldogs’ offense, which has averaged almost 46 ppg. 

“Toombs is an outstanding football team,” Hollars said. “They are very balanced on offense and have some explosive guys at receiver.” 

Tennessee-commit wideout Sr. Lagonza Hayward, also a pretty good safety, is one of the speedsters Hollars is talking about. But he’s just part of a trio of fast guys that’ll flank the field on Friday. Mike Polke and Gavin Fletcher are two other guys who form the trifecta at receiver for the Bulldogs. And QB TJ Stanley has managed the offense efficiently, completing almost 68 percent of his passes for 1,741 yards and 20 touchdowns.

But the rushing attack has been the bread and butter, averaging 240 yards per game and led by Dabvn Wadley (103-829 yards rushing, 10 TDs), who averages eight yards per carry. However, he’s just one of five guys who have rushed over 200 yards this season for the Bulldogs. 

“We’ve been able to study a lot of film,” he said. “They are literally 50-50 run-pass. They have a lot of weapons on offense, very balanced between running and passing, and just a really tough team to defend defensively.

Offensively, for the Tigers, it’s all about executing their triple-option smash-mouth offense, averaging 300 yards on the ground and featuring the triple-headed monster of Jaiden Daniels, Jacari Huff, and Tysean Wiggins.

The Tigers won their final five games with the triple-option hitting on all cylinders, averaging 44.2 ppg and more than 300 rushing yards in that span. 

“We have been able to create a three-headed monster,” Hollars said. “We've got two of those three over 1,000 [yards rushing], and Jaiden is just about 1,000. Having those three makes us harder to defend. All three of them can run it well, and I say this all the time: they'd be the first to tell you our offensive line and our H back do one heck of a job opening up holes. We're nothing without those guys.”

Hollars said the difference between winning and losing in Class A is razor-thin and expects a dogfight on Friday. 

“Toombs is a great team, but, you know, we're a good football team, too,” he said. “This is why you work hard all year round to be in a game like this. So, this is what you want, which is why you play the game.”

Jeff Hart contributed to this story.