The high school football season turns for the home stretch tonight.

But before I look ahead to this week’s games, a quick review of last week found me going 5-1. The only game I missed was the Choc-tawhatchee-Milton game in which the Panthers came away with the win.

Two of my scores were fairly close as well. I said Walton would beat Chipley 41-38, and the final was 43-37. I had Cottondale beating South Walton 27-6 and the final was 22-10.

But that was last week and it’s on to the Week 6 Picks.

District play opens in District 2-4A with two big games in the four-team district as Choctawhatchee (2-2) travels to Crestview (2-1) and Fort Walton Beach (3-1) hosts Navarre (4-0).

The winners tonight won’t necessarily guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs, but they’ll have the early advantage in the fight for the two post season spots.

It has been three weeks since Crestview played and Choctaw is coming off two tough loses. In rolling to an early 2-0 record the Indians scored at least 40 points against Gulf Breeze and Washington while holding the Dolphins and Wildcats without at touchdown. In the two losses to Niceville and Milton Choctaw has given up 41 and 42 points. It’s doubtful the Bulldogs can put up the offensive numbers as the Eagles and the Panthers. However, Crestview should be able to score more than Gulf Breeze or Washington.

The real key will be if the Bulldog defense can contain Jace Blanchard, LeKendrick Ingram and friends of the Indian offense.
I think the Bulldogs will keep it close at home, but in the end I’m taking Choctaw 27-17.

Navarre at Fort Walton Beach is one of the most interesting games of the season.

The Raiders have been challenged by Catholic and Mosley and answered those challenges well. They had little trouble with West Florida and Rutherford.

After losing their opener at Milton, the Vikings have come storming back to win three straight.

The Fort Walton Beach defense is playing well, and the offense has hit its stride behind sophomore quarterback Luke Barnes.

But if you want to talk quarterbacks and offense look no further than Navarre’s spread attack triggered by senior quarterback Austin Grimm. Grimm is comfortable spreading the ball around and that could keep the Vikings off balance. Sophomore Michael Pettus is quickly emerging as one of the best all purpose backs in the area for the Raiders.

This game could come down to special teams and turnovers, or perhaps the home field.

I give the Vikings a slight edge on defense. That coupled with what should be a home field advantage is why I’m taking Fort Walton Beach 28-24.

District 1-5A play kicks off tonight as well with Niceville (4-0) traveling to Pensacola to take on Escambia (1-2).

In their two losses the Gators have been outscored 87-28, and they haven’t seen a team as complete as the Eagles.
Niceville has proven it can handle anything thrown its way as senior quarterback Josh McDorman is thriving in the new spread offense.

The game will be played at Emmitt Smith Field, but unless another Smith emerges for the Gators tonight this game won’t be close.

I’m picking Niceville big 48-7.

District play continues in District 1-2B as Baker (3-1, 1-0) travels to Northview (2-2, 1-0) to take on the Chiefs and Vernon (0-4, 0-0) heads to Santa Rosa Beach to take on South Walton (1-4, 0-1).

Baker’s Cameron Domangue became the first local back to top the 1,000 yard mark two weeks ago against South Walton. An open date should have given running mates Billy Whatmaugh and Anthony Thompson a chance to get healthy.

The Gators will need all the fire power they can muster against the athletic Chiefs, but I still don’t think it will be enough.
I like Northview in this one 31-21.

Vernon at South Walton is an interesting game.
Former Niceville assistant Russ Rogers is still looking for his first win as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets and the Seahawks would seem to be a perfect victim.

South Walton hasn’t won since beating Franklin County in the first game of the season. But everyone is beating Franklin County in its first year of football so it’s hard to measure how good that win was for David Barron’s boys.

The Seahawks need a statement win to jumpstart the season, but I don’t think they have enough players to take the sting out of the Yellow Jackets and that’s why I’m going with Vernon 38-10.

The final game on tonight’s slate is Freeport (2-2, 2-0) at Liberty County (4-0, 2-0) in a District 1-A battle of the Bulldogs.

When Patrick Henry declared, “Give me liberty or give me death,” he probably wouldn’t have wanted Liberty County on the football field.

Liberty’s offense is averaging 36 points a game and is capable of scoring a bunch of points in a hurry.

Freeport was impressive last week in beating Franklin County 45-0, but reality sets in this week on the road in Bristol.

I could take the easy way out and just say I like the Bulldogs in this one. I’ll go all the way and state my pick as Liberty County 36-14.

Let the discussion begin. How do you see tonight’s games playing out?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.