VALDOSTA — Tonight, two Class AAAAA heavyweights stand toe-to-toe in the Dome.

The Lowndes Vikings (12-1), ranked No. 4 in the state, meet No. 7 Camden County (12-1) at 9 p.m. today in the final GHSA state semifinal of the day at the Georgia Dome.

It will be a battle of arguably Class AAAAA’s two best teams in recent times. In the past four years, both Lowndes and Camden have 47 wins, more than anyone else in the classification.

The winner of this game will face the winner of North Gwinnett and Walton (played at 6 p.m. today) next week for the state championship.

“We’re ready,” Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson said. “We’ve got a good gameplan. Hopefully we can make a game of it. Our kids are fired up, and ready for this. It’s going to be a war.

“I’d say they’re the best football team we’ve seen all year.”

In a sense, the Lowndes-Camden game will end an era for Georgia high school football. This is the last year the semifinals will be played in the Dome (next year, the semis will be at one of the high schools, while the finals will be played in the Dome), and these two teams will play in the final Dome semifinal.

Lowndes and Camden will be playing in the Dome, yet ironically, their campuses couldn’t be much further away. They are the two AAAAA schools closest to the Florida line, and the furthest away from the Dome.

Camden won the state championship in 2003, while Lowndes won it all in both 2004 and 2005. Both teams have a lot of respect for the other side.

“They’ve got a good football team. They always do,” McPherson said.

“I think it’s a good rivalry,” Camden County head coach Jeff Herron told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s a friendly rivalry, in some respects. We’ve had a close relationship in the past. It’s a rivalry based on respect.”

This is the fifth time the Vikings have faced the Wildcats since 2002. In 2002, McPherson’s first year at Lowndes, Camden won 20-12 at Martin Stadium. In 2003, the Wildcats won 7-0 during the regular season (Camden’s Lashun Booth recovered a fumble in the end zone for the game’s only score) and 21-14 in the second round of the playoffs, with Camden’s Kevin Patterson scoring on a 1-yard run with 9.3 seconds left to win the game.

In 2004, Lowndes got its revenge, routing Camden 30-0 in the Georgia Dome. That loss was coach Jeff Herron’s worst in eight seasons in Kingsland, and a defeat that remains painful to Camden fans.

“We’re 1-3 against them,” McPherson said. “Looks like we’ve got some catching up to do.”

There is no secret what either team is going to do. Lowndes and Camden are two of the best in the state at running the wing-T offense.