WEEK 10 PREVIEWS: All Jackson County teams close the regular season with pre-Halloween Thursday games
Story By Jason Bowen
High school football will give way to trick-or-treating this week, as all six Jackson County teams will play Thursday night ahead of Halloween on Friday.
Five of Jackson County’s six teams are playoff bound, a new single-season record for the county since the AHSAA’s official playoff system began in 1966. The previous single-season high for Jackson County playoff qualifiers of four was done 11 times, most recently the previous two seasons.
The final week of the regular season includes one Jackson County rivalry showdown, a region game, one Homecoming game, a traditional Jackson-DeKalb matchup, a matchup between two Class 2A playoff-bound teams and one contest involving a defending state champion.
Here is a look at Week 10’s games. All series records are courtesy of the Alabama High School Football Historical Society (ahsfhs.org):
SECTION at WOODVILLE
Another chapter of a Jackson County rivalry will be played Thursday at Woodville’s Frazier Field (7 p.m.) when the Panthers host Section.
It’s the 12th all-time meeting between the teams. Section leads the series 7-4, but Woodville has won three of the last four of the last seven meetings, including a 36-32 win for its first road win in the series a year ago when it rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit.
It was a really good game last season, a rivalry game, so we know it’s going to be a tough game,” said Woodville head coach Joel Poole.
Woodville (7-2) is coming off a 52-30 Homecoming win over Gaylesville that set a new single-season program record for wins. Woodville, which finished as the Class 1A Region 8 runner-up, will host the 20-year-old program’s first playoff game No. 7 when it plays Region 7 third-place finisher Meek in the opening round of the 1A playoffs.
Poole said the Panthers will get a playoff-type challenge from Section, which just missed qualifying for the Class 2A playoffs with a fifth-place finish in 2A Region 7.
“Section is in a very tough region that’s got three of the Top-10 teams in 2A in their region, so they’re much better than their record indicates,” Poole said. “Our guys know it’s a major challenge. They’re so multiple on offense it gives you grief figuring out what they’re in and they play aggressive on defense.”
Lions head coach Riley Edwards said Section (2-7) should “play with a sense of urgency” for their final 48 minutes of the 2025 season.
“We’ve been trying to change the mindset to play hard, compete, do our assignments and then look at the scoreboard at the end,” he said. “I want to see our kids come out of the locker room and compete and play hard for 48 minutes. Woodville’s got a good team, got a good offensive line and skill players we’ve got to contain. We’ve got to come out there and play with the right effort and attitude (Thursday night). (A win) would help the morale and hopefully help us get more kids to come out for football.”
MARS HILL BIBLE at SCOTTSBORO
Scottsboro closes the regular season with a home clash with the defending Class 3A state champion.
The Wildcats host Class 3A No. 1-ranked Mars Hill Bible Thursday at 7 p.m. at Trammell Stadium.
It’s the third meeting between the teams with each team posting one-point wins on the other’s home field the past two seasons. Mars Hill defeated Scottsboro 36-35 at Trammell Stadium in Week 9 of the 2023 season in a game that was added to the Wildcats schedule after Crossville dropped its varsity football program. Scottsboro repaid the favor last year, scoring a late touchdown and two-point conversion to defeat Mars Hill 22-21 for a win that gave the Wildcats’ a win it needed to clinch the Class 5A Region 8 championship via AHSAA tiebreakers.
Scottsboro (6-3) is coming off a bye following its 28-7 Class 5A Region 8 championship-clinching victory at Arab in Week 8.
Scottsboro head coach Tyler Vann said the Wildcats made the most of the bye week.
“I thought the kids handled it well. We did a good job of getting the work in we needed to and getting rest,” he said. “We always got a head start on Mars Hill and now we’re settled back into game week.”
Mars Hill (9-0), the Class 3A Region 7 champion, is a run-heavy team led by seniors Hudson Higgins (1,146 yards, 18 touchdowns on 65 carries) and Jaxon Penn (900 yards, 17 touchdowns on 53 carries), and senior quarterback Lawson Frederick has made the most of this few passing attempts (27-of-41) for 576 yards and seven touchdowns. The Panthers are averaging 52.9 points per game and allowing just 11.3. Since the season’s first three games, a 51-27 win over 4A No. 6 Madison Academy, a 47-19 win over 5A Russellville and a 62-24 win over region foe Colbert County, Mars Hill has allowed just 32 points in the six games since, a stretch that includes shutout wins over Colbert Heights and Clements in its past two games.
Vann said the Mars Hill matchup with get the Wildcats in playoff mode ahead of their first-round Class 5A playoff game Nov. 7 at home vs. West Point
“Definitely a challenge for us,” Vann said of Mars Hill. “As far as just teams, with players and great coaching and schematically, they’re probably one of the best teams we could see for a while. They’re really good at what they do and are so well coached. Yeah we’ll see better athletes but (Mars Hill) has a really good group of players that just play really well together. Stopping their Wing-T, coach (Darrell) Higgins is one of the best to ever run it, will definitely be a challenge.”
While there are no region title or playoff implications at stake like in Scottsboro’s previous two meetings with the Panthers, Vann said that doesn’t lessen the drive and focus for his team.
“We want to close (the regular season) right,” he said, “and it’s ‘Senior Night’ for us, and we want to get those guys a win.”
PISGAH at SYLVANIA
The Class 2A No. 5-ranked Eagles close out the season looking for a sixth straight victory when they make the short trip across the Jackson-DeKalb County line to face Sylvania Thursday at 7 p.m.
It’s the 52nd meeting between the schools — Sylvania is Pisgah’s second most played opponent behind NSM (55) — in a series Sylvania leads 29-22. The teams have split the last two meetings, but the Rams surprised Pisgah 24-22 in the regular-season finale a year ago to prevent the Eagles from achieving an undefeated regular season.
“People don’t realize it as much as others, but this is a pretty big rivalry game,” said Pisgah head coach Adam Gilbert. “Our communities meet in several places, and it’s always been really good football between us.”
It has been a rebuilding season for Sylvania in Brad Waldrop’s first season as the head coach at his alma mater. The Rams will finish the regular season with a losing record for the first time since 2018, but they can still grab a playoff berth. Sylvania is currently locked in a three-way tie for Class 3A Region 8’s final playoff spot with Holly Pond and Whitesburg Christian, and Sylvania would win the tiebreaker if it defeats Pisgah.
“It’s a playoff game for (Sylvania), and we’re treating it like a playoff game, too,” said Gilbert, whose team clinched the Class 2A Region 7 championship in last week’s 42-20 win over No. 10 North Sand Mountain and will host Region 8 fourth-place finisher Tanner in Round 1 of the 2A Playoffs Nov. 7.
“We know we’re going to get Sylvania’s best. They run that Double-Wing, Wing-T offense and are going to come right at us. It’s going to be a big test for us. We saw some of that against North Sand Mountain last week, and we think Sylvania’s plan will be the same as North Sand’s, keep the ball away from us and shorten the game. We expect teams to run right at us in the playoffs, so I’m excited to see how we do this week. Sylvania has really improved from Week 1 to Week 10, gotten bought in to Coach Waldrop and his coaches. They’re playing well and they’re healthy, so it’s a big test.”
DAR at NORTH JACKSON
North Jackson closes the regular season with the first Thursday night Homecoming game in program history as they host Class 4A Region 8 foe DAR at 7 p.m. at R.D. Hicks Stadium.
It’s the 20th meeting between the teams in a series North Jackson leads 18-1. The Chiefs have won 11 straight games against the Patriots, including a 41-21 victory a year ago.
North Jackson (6-3, 5-2) is coming off a 27-21 walk-off win at Randolph that saw Keyton Long connect with Nick Price Jr. on a 27-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play.
“We’ve had a few close games not go our way, so it was nice to face some adversity, on the road, come back and win,” said North Jackson head coach Joe Hollis Jr. “We got down 14-0 but the players, the coaches, everybody stayed even keel, just kept fighting and found a way to win. Really proud of the team.”
The win clinched the No. 3 playoff seed from the region for the Chiefs, who will travel to play the loser of Friday’s West Morgan-Deshler 4A Region 7 matchup.
North Jackson head coach Joe Hollis Jr. said the Chiefs are focused on closing the regular season strong rather than thinking ahead to the postseason.
“This is a work week for us. It’s a short week, so we’ve got a lot to get in (in practice),” Hollis said. “I didn’t feel like we played well in this game last year, and we’ve got to change that this season. There’s a lot of distractions with it being Homecoming, so we’ve got to make sure we stay focused and come out and play to our standard.”
DAR (2-7, 0-7) enters the matchup trying to close their season with an upset win. The Patriots have non-region wins over Marshall County rivals Brindlee Mountain 21-18 and Asbury 62-6, but they’re winless in region play and have lost 31 consecutive region games dating back to a 2021 Week 8 win over New Hope.
SUSAN MOORE at NORTH SAND MOUNTAIN
The No. 10-ranked Bison looked to snap a two-game slide after their program best 7-0 start when they host Susan Moore to Lloyd Dobbins Field in Higdon Thursday (7 p.m.).
It’s a matchup of two playoff-bound Class 2A teams. NSM (7-2) finished third in Class 2A Region 7 and visits Region 8 runner-up Lexington in Round 1 of the Class 2A Playoffs while Susan Moore (3-6) is the No. 4 playoff seed from Region 6 and plays at No. 3 Tuscaloosa Academy in Round 1 of the Class 2A playoffs.
NSM head coach Jay Lipscomb said his team wants to get back on track heading into the postseason following region losses to fellow-state ranked teams Pleasant Valley and Pisgah.
“We need to respond,” Lipscomb said. “It’s been tough, but I thought we played well in a lot of aspects last week (against Pisgah). We’ve just got to clean some things up. We’ve got some guys hurt that are going to be out this week, so we’ve got some guys in different spots and we need them to step up.”
Susan Moore is coming off a 54-28 playoff-berth clinching win over Blount County rival Cleveland, a win that snapped the Bulldogs’ four-game losing streak.
NSM’s defense will have to key on Susan Moore sophomore quarterback Sam Garrison, who enters the matchup with more than 2,000 total yards and 29 touchdowns. The dual-threat signal caller has rushed for 1,107 yards and 17 touchdowns while completing 61 of 133 passes for 1,088 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Garrison ran for 286 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries and threw for another 58 yards and a score during the Bulldogs’ 48-27 win over NSM last season.
“Their offense runs through him,” Lipscomb said, “whether it’s on reads, straight downhill run or the pass. He’s legit.”
