Warriors to host Knights in renewed rivalry, region opener

THOMASVILLE - Brookwood’s off week came at just the right time for the 2-3 Warriors. Not only did the Warriors not have to navigate scheduling around the potential path of Hurricane Ian, they also got healthy, says Brookwood coach Shane Boggs.

The timing was ideal ahead of the team’s first region game against Deerfield-Windsor.

“We’ll take the healthiest team we’ve had all year into this game,” Boggs said. “With all of the weather stuff, it was probably a good week to be off as well.”

Brookwood dropped a 56-19 loss to John Milledge Academy two weeks ago on Sept. 23. That followed a 42-20 loss to Stratford Academy two weeks prior. Despite the recent skid, the Warriors enter Friday night’s game with confidence, mostly due to improved health.

“I think the mindset is a confident mindset, purpose driven mindset. We know that we played two great teams there back to back and competed well at times, made enough mistakes to let those games get away. We can’t pen the mistakes on the injury report but getting some more guys healthy is going to help us down the road,” Boggs said. “That certainly contributes to the confidence. I just know our guys have really stayed hungry; our details, growth and we’re excited about that.”

Brookwood hopes to end its skid as it renews its rivalry with Deerfield-Windsor. The Knights returned to the Georgia Independent Athletic Association after a brief stay in the Georgia High School Association. They are 5-1 following a 45-7 loss at Stratford.

“Certainly some of these guys they have, some of the seniors were around when we did play them. They’ve got a quarterback (Thomas Ray) that played in our game as a freshman. He’s a three-year starter that they built the whole thing around on offense. He’s got some talented guys around him,” Boggs said. “We’ve seen him before. He’s a good player, so it’ll be a challenge for sure.”