Kickoff: A look at Brunswick High’s second-round game in the Class AAAAA state playoffs: Opponent: Gainesville When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Glynn County Stadium Records: BHS 9-2, 7-1 Region 1-AAAAA, No. 1 seed; GHS 9-2, 5-1 Region 7-AAAAA, No. 2 seed Last Week: BHS won 78-30 at home over Winder-Barrow; GHS won 48-3 at home over Dunwoody. At Stake: Winner advances to state quarterfinals to face Hughes-Lee County winner. Game Preview Brunswick High and Gainesville, which have never played, are set to collide in an attractive second-round matchup on Friday night. The game at Glynn County Stadium will feature two of the state’s highest-scoring teams. Brunswick averages 47.7 points per game while Gainesville averages 42.6 points. Both teams come in with the same overall record, sporting nine wins in 11 games. The Red Elephants played the tougher schedule in the regular-season, however. They played the 15th- hardest schedule in Class AAAAA and Brunswick played 56th-hardest schedule in the class. Gainesville’s non-region schedule included Carrollton, a nationally-ranked team which is ranked third in Class AAAAAA. The Trojans, one of the top contenders for Georgia’s largest-classification state crown, defeated the Red Elephants 43-21 back in September. Gainesville’s only other loss was to Roswell in its final regular-season game. Roswell, ranked third in Class AAAAA, won 37-35 to claim the Region 7 title and top seed for the playoffs. The Red Elephants’ region schedule also included Milton, which won state championships in 2023 and 2024. Gainesville defeated the Eagles, who are ranked sixth, 28-16. Last week in the playoff opener, Brunswick set a new single-game scoring record with its 78 points, topping the 70 points scored by both the 1998 and 1999 BHS teams in regular-season games. BHS senior quarterback Grant Moore also came into the game needing three touchdown passes to set a new single-season record and he threw five on the night, giving him 29 for the season. Moore was 12-of-14 on the night for 344 yards and has now thrown for 2,620 yards on the season. He is 99 yards away from setting a new school single-season passing yardage record as well. He already owns the career-marks for passing yards and touchdown passes. Brunswick’s lead running backs, both juniors, also rushed for more than 100 yards in last Friday’s game. Nigel Gardner ran for 112 yards and two scores on 10 carries, while Josiah Gibbons rushed for 102 yards and three scores on six carries. The Pirates average 242 passing yards per game and 309 rushing yards to total 551 yards a game. Gainesville, ranked fourth in the state at the end of the regular season, is easily the best opponent the Pirates have faced this season. The team’s offense features major-college prospects including junior quarterback Kharim Hughley and junior running back Nigel Newkirk. Hughley, a Clemson commit, has thrown for 2,119 yards and 27 touchdowns with five interceptions. Last week against Dunwoody, he threw for 169 yards and four touchdowns. Newkirk, who is 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, is considering offers from Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, Miami and Florida. He has rushed for 1,321 yards and 17 TDs this season. He ran for 92 yards last week as the Red Elephants opened up a 41-3 lead before halftime. The Gainesville offensive line includes a trio of 300-pounders with major-college offers. Those are 6-6, 340-pound junior tackle Tyler Ford (Georgia, Kentucky, Florida State), 6-3 junior tackle Bryson Hurt (Ole Miss, Georgia Tech) and 6-7, 303 junior Carter Mathis (Georgia, Kennesaw State and Georgia State). The offensive front also includes 290-pound senior Krew Moledor who is committed to Louisville. The Gainesville defense features a pair of Alabama commits. One of those is senior linebacker Xavier Griffin, a five-star who is rated as high as the No. 1 linebacker in the country. The other Crimson Tide commit is senior edge Jamarion Matthews, a 6-3, 240-pounder who is a four-star prospect. Other prospects for the Red Elephants on defense are senior lineman Kadin Fossung who is committed to Tulsa and junior three-star safety Jeremiah Proctor who has 16 offers including one from Georgia Tech. BHS is looking to advance to the quarterfinal round for the first time since 1999 when it played for the Class AAAA state championship. The Pirates would host the quarterfinal with a win. The universal coin toss by the Georgia High School Association to determine who would get home field in the event that like seeds meet in the next round went the way of the teams in the lower bracket earlier in the week. Thus, Brunswick, a No. 1 seed, would host Hughes, another No. 1 seed, next week if the Panthers were to defeat Lee County on Friday. Lee County is a No. 3 seed, so the Pirates would be at home against them as well. Gainesville, a No. 2 seed, would be at home as the higher seed against Lee, but would have to travel to Hughes for the quarterfinals. The Red Elephants are in their fourth season under head coach Josh Niblett. He took the team to the Class AAAAAA state title game in his first season in 2022. Gainesville went 14-1, losing to Hughes in the championship game. Gainesville was 12-1 in 2023, reaching the quarterfinals, and went 7-4 last season, losing in the first round of the playoffs. Niblett came to Georgia from Hoover (Ala.), where he led the Buccaneers to six state titles in 14 seasons. Niblett replaced Rush Propst as head coach of the Bucs. ---- Compiled by Kevin Price for GCS Athletics