By Chris Walsh
October 19, 2007 12:02 am
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VALDOSTA — The Valwood Valiants (5-1) are back on the field this week. They head up to Monticello to face off against Piedmont Academy (4-2) tonight at 7:30 p.m.
“It’s going to be a mighty tough ballgame for us,” said Valwood head coach Mike Patrick on Thursday. “We’ve got our work cut out for us coming off the bye week.”
Valwood and Piedmont have a lot of recent history, not only between the teams, but the coaches.
Bo Johnson is in his first year coaching at Piedmont, but the Westwood alum was the coach at Edmund Burke last season. Valwood split their series with Edmund Burke last year, losing 42-41 during the regular season but winning 31-24 in the state semifinals.
Now Johnson has Piedmont in the front seat for another region title.
“It should be a very exciting game. They play good, sound, hard-nosed, fundamental football,” said Patrick. “We have to be strong in all aspects of the game.”
After a full week off last week, the Valiants returned to practice on Monday and began preparing for the tough stretch of their schedule. Valwood’s next four opponents have a combined record of 19-6.
“We’ve practiced all week long, and got after it hard,” Patrick said.
“All in all, we’re geared up for the second part of the season. This is the last game before region play.”
Piedmont, which is hosting Valwood for their Homecoming, is coming off a big 52-14 win over Mt. Vernon Presbyterian last Friday.
A common opponent for the two teams is defending state champion Trinity Christian, which beat Valwood 35-0 and Piedmont 31-15.
The big match-up of the game will be the strong Piedmont wing-T offense versus the strong Valiant defense, which has allowed only 10.3 points per game this year.
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