GAINESVILLE - Don't tell Chestatee football coach Matt Fligg they backed into the playoffs. He doesn't want to hear it. And, he doesn't care anyway.
All he and his War Eagles know is that for the first time in their four-year history, they will be playing some playoff football.
"Some will say that (we backed in)," said Fligg, whose team has lost two straight since a five-game win streak. "But we won the games in the middle of the season that we had to win. One game could have cost us but we did what we needed to do when we needed to do it.
"If we had lost to Gainesville and Flowery Branch at the beginning of the season and then won five straight no one would be saying anything."
Chestatee (5-4, 5-3 in Region 7-AAA) officially clinched a spot in next week's start of the Class AAA playoffs when Pickens beat Fannin County.
They will finish fourth in the region no matter what happens Friday night, but Fligg said it is important that they finish on a positive note this week when Fannin County comes to Chestatee Stadium Friday at 7:30 p.m. The game can be heard on MAJIC 1029-FM beginning with The Pregame Show at 7 p.m.
Fligg said the last two losses to Gainesville and Flowery Branch were tough considering they felt they had a chance to win one or both games coming into the contests.
"Those were disappointing but both games were different. The Flowery Branch game was 10-7 at halftime. We lost Miles Hicks the second series of the game with a sprained left shoulder," Fligg said. "We moved the ball up and down the field but couldn't score, we turned it over.
"Against Gainesville we let things get away from us in probably the worst quarter we've played all year. I still think we can compete with both of them, if we play up to our ability."
Hicks's status for the Fannin game is questionable at this point. Chad Sage did a nice job filling in for Hicks against Flowery Branch.
Fannin is one of the teams that has had tremendous success against the War eagles of the past. Fannin has beaten Chestatee in each of their three meetings by a combined 121-38, including a 34-14 win last year.
"After the game (Flowery Branch), I told the kids, 'we're going to do everything we can to win this game.' I mean we want to win. We're not going to hide from anyone just because they've beaten pretty bad every time. This is a different team," he said.
"And, being 6-4 would be nice, too. We've got a great group of seniors, our first full group of seniors. We want to send them off on their last home game on a good note."
REGION 7-AAA STANDINGS WEEK 10
TEAM..............Region...................Overall
*Gainesville..........8-0-0...............8-1-0
*Flowery Branch...7-1-0...............8-1-0
*Pickens.............6-3-0...............7-3-0
*Chestatee.........5-3-0...............5-4-0
White County......4-4-0...............5-4-0
North Hall...........4-4-0...............5-4-0
Fannin County.....3-5-0...............4-5-0
West Hall...........3-5-0...............3-6-0
Johnson.............1-8-0...............1-9-0
Gilmer County.....0-8-0...............1-8-0
FRIDAY'S GAMES, 10-28
Flowery Branch at Gilmer, 7:30 p.m.
Fannin County at Chestatee, 7:30 p.m.
Gainesville at West Hall, 7:30 p.m.
North Hall at White County, 7:30 p.m.
(Johnson and Pickens are off)
LAST WEEK'S SCORES
Gainesville 27, Gilmer 7
Flowery Branch 41, Chestatee 13
Pickens 21, Fannin County 14
North Hall 36, West Hall 12
White County 42, Johnson 15
* - Teams qualified for state playoffs
(By Ben Valentine and Jeff Hart)
Thursday
May 15th, 2025
4:42AM
