Franklin County Times

The McAdory Yellow Jackets of McCalla have only faced the Russellville Golden Tigers once before on the gridiron.

That was back in 2009 when the Yellow Jackets met the Golden Tigers in the semifinals of the 5A state playoffs.

Russellville, who finished the 2009 season with a record of 12-3, won the game 40-7.

McAdory is no slouch in the 2012 season either. They have yet to be defeated this year, amassing a 11-0 record so far.

Russellville will be in as good of a position to change that as any team this Friday night.

The Yellow Jackets’ best win this season came against region foe Wenonah, which is 10-1 on the season. So McAdory has defeated a team that no one else has this year.

But if the Golden Tigers’ 49-6 drubbing of Etowah last week is any indication, there is no other 5A region in the state of Alabama quite like Region 8.

Region 8 crosses over with Region 7 in the first round of the playoffs. Region 7 No. 1 seed Fort Payne played Hartselle. Hartselle won 14-6. No. 2 seed Etowah played Russellville, and the results have been seen and listed. No. 3 seed Arab lost 49-14 to Cullman, and No. 4 seed Boaz lost 41-7 to undefeated Muscle Shoals.

All four of the Region 7 playoff teams are now out of the postseason thanks to the Region 8 teams.

Sure McAdory is undefeated. Sure McAdory has a bit of a storied past, including having a star multi-sport athlete by the name of Bo Jackson several years ago.

But none of those things will help when Friday night rolls around.

The Yellow Jackets’ 11 wins and solid experience will help, but no one can really predict the outcome of this game until it happens.

Region 8 is murderer’s row, and until a team plays in that region or defeats a Region 8 team, they will not know what it’s like either.

Red Bay will face a similar match-up when they travel to Woodland Friday night. The Bobcats are 9-2 on the season in 2A Region 6. Woodland has only faced Red Bay one time prior to this season, and that netted the Bobcats a 36-14 win in the third round of the 2004 playoffs.

Woodland is much like Westbrook Christian in the quality of area opponents and record. Woodland also had a surprise loss during the season to 4-6 Ranburne, much like Westbrook Christian’s surprise loss to 5-5 Ider.

The similarities do not end there. Woodland has a type of cat for a mascot and wears orange and navy. Sounds familiar, does it not.

The only factor that might shed any light on the outcome of this game is Woodland’s loss to Ranburne. Red Bay had no surprise losses this season, so long as losing to two 4As and 2A title contender Tanner were not a surprise.

There does not seem to be a way to call this one early, but if the Tigers can play as well on defense as they did last week, Woodland will likely have just as much trouble putting points on the board as Westbrook Christian did.