And then there were two. The Cook Hornets and the Clinch County Panthers are the only two high school teams in The Valdosta Daily Times’ coverage area still playing football.

Not many people would have thought that at the beginning of the season. Clinch County lost its first two games to Charlton County (no surprise) and Irwin County (big surprise). Cook barely scraped into the playoffs with a 5-5 record, and then beat a region champion and a region runner-up in the first two rounds.

Not too shabby, fellas.

Before I pick the only two games this week, I want to address the Lowndes Vikings’ shocking loss to Camden County. And yes, it is a shocking loss. Even Camden coach Jeff Herron admitted so.

The Vikings lost on the road in the playoffs for the second year in a row. But unlike last year’s loss at Grayson, I left Kingsland thinking that Camden was the better team.

Lowndes never showed up against Grayson. The Vikings were 12-0 coming into that game, and Grayson was a nobody. When I left that game, I knew the better team didn’t win. I can’t say that about last Friday’s game. The Vikings didn’t overlook Camden. They played hard, and they played pretty good football. Camden just played better. The Wildcats played lights-out on defense, and capitalized on two fumbles and an offsides penalty. That was the difference.

But there is a bigger issue at Lowndes. There are rumblings around town that the Vikings aren’t a good road team. This is the truth. Lowndes has now dropped its last three road games against top-10 teams (Grayson in 2008 and Northside and Camden in 2009).

The Vikings have become spoiled with home games at Martin Stadium. Take a look at this telling stat: Of the 13 non-region regular season games the 2009 senior class experienced in its four seasons, only three of the games were played on the road. Two of those games were at Class AAAA Ware County, and the other one was at Harrison.

Clearly, this team was not road tested.

Meanwhile, Peachtree Ridge, a perennial power in Class AAAAA, traveled to Lowndes the last two years! When I talked to Peachtree Ridge head coach Bill Ballard earlier this season, he told me that playing in Martin Stadium was a great way to get his team ready for the playoffs. He actually attributed that to his team’s postseason success in 2008.

Playing Ware County about an hour away from Martin Stadium is no way to prepare for Northside or Camden on the road.

Something has to change. Unless Lowndes wins the region every year, and gets lucky and wins multiple coin flips, they’re going to be on the road again.

Games at Martin Stadium are fun, but it’s necessary that the Vikings step out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves.