The Northside Eagles are getting prepared to host their county and region rival HoCo at the MAC later tonight. Northside comes into this matchup 3-3 overall, 1-0 in region play after surviving Tift Co’s upset bid on the road last Friday by winning in overtime 35-34 after the Blue Devils failed to convert the GW 2-pt try.
The Blue, White, and Orange have had a tough couple of weeks but they are poised to dial on and focus on their competition in the Houston Co Bears who come to the Eagles’ house for a duel. Northside will look to shake off the struggles and pull off a massive rivalry and region win over the Black, Silver, and White but it is going to take a near-perfect game and a ton of points.
The Bears are coming into this matchup 5-1 overall, 0-1 in region play and ranked #6 in AAAAAA after an extremely disappointing region home loss to Lee Co 44-35. The Black, Silver, and White look to get back on track and return to their winning ways against the team that has given them the most trouble over the years.
Northside leads the all-time series 21-4 including winning the first 17 matchups but the series is tied at 4-4 in the last eight battles. Last season’s contest took place on a Thursday with HoCo overcoming an 11-pt deficit to win 21-17 at Freedom Field. If the Bears execute their game plan… they will win substantially.
Here is the results of the previous 25 match-ups between HoCo and Northside:
10/30/98 Northside 35 HoCo 17
10/29/99 Northside 34 HoCo 14
10/06/00 Northside 21 HoCo 7
10/05/01 Northside 35 HoCo 0
10/25/02 Northside 16 HoCo 14
10/24/03 Northside 17 HoCo 14
09/24/04 Northside 27 HoCo 7
09/23/05 Northside 27 HoCo 0
09/01/06 Northside 26 HoCo 14
08/31/07 Northside 30 HoCo 0
09/26/08 Northside 31 HoCo 0
09/25/09 Northside 42 HoCo 7
10/22/10 Northside 42 HoCo 0
10/21/11 Northside 21 HoCo 0
10/05/12 Northside 41 HoCo 3
10/04/13 Northside 45 HoCo 10
11/07/14 Northside 34 HoCo 33
11/06/15 HoCo 34 Northside 13
10/28/16 HoCo 45 Northside 35
10/27/17 Northside 17 HoCo 14
11/02/18 Northside 41 HoCo 6
11/08/19 HoCo 21 Northside 16
11/13/20 Northside 26 HoCo 23
10/29/21 Northside 38 HoCo 21
10/06/22 HoCo 21 Northside 17
The game between these two in 2014 was one of if not HoCo’s toughest loss in school history. The Black, Silver, and White’s first play from scrimmage was an 80 yd TD pass from Jake Fromm to Darion ‘D1′ Anderson. The Bears led 33-20 in the fourth quarter when the PAT was blocked and the Eagles ended the game on a 14-0 run to down HoCo 34-33 and claim their most recent region title and would later go on to win state.
The Bears would finally beat Northside the following year on an 81 degree November night for the first time ever in their 18th try winning 34-13. In 2016, Bears QB Jake Fromm absolutely torched the Eagles’ defense by throwing for 534 yds en route to a 45-35 victory.
The bottom line for tonight’s match up is that HoCo is a massive favorite over Northside but the old saying goes when two rivals are playing each other…. just chuck the records out the window.
