HOMERVILLE – The release of the 2020 football schedule for the Clinch County Panthers should have fans in Homerville, Georgia excited for a challenging upcoming season.

The slate features six opponents who advanced to the state playoffs last year, including two (Irwin County and Brooks County) who played in their respective state championship games. Irwin County won the Class A public championship, while Brooks County lost in the Class AA championship game to Dublin. Both are in Clinch’s Region 2-A this year and present challenging back-to-back games for the Panthers on Oct. 23 and Oct. 30.

Clinch County will open the season in the Erk Russell Classic at Georgia Southern University against perennial power Lincoln County. Other schedule highlights include another tough set of back-to-back games on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 when Clinch hosts Pelham, who finished 11-2 in 2019 and then travels to Pierce County, who finished 11-1.

“Especially down here where we’re at, not everybody wants to play you. It’s hard finding games,” Clinch football coach Don Tison Jr. said. “I’m very pleased with the way it worked out. I’m really excited about the Erk Russell Classic game. I wanted to play Lincoln in that game because of our history that we’ve got with Lincoln from the 80s and 90s and even the early 2000s. We’ve got a great playoff rivalry tradition with them. I’m excited about that game. The Pelham game should be an exciting game. They’re a team that makes the playoffs, very good program.

“Now with the power rankings system being gone, the non-region games, the whole outlook changes where before you had to schedule non-region games and it was very involved in whether you made the playoffs or not. Whereas now, you’re really just trying to draw a crowd, have a good competitive game and prepare yourself for region.”

The Panthers’ quest to capture the region title will likely come down to week 10 and 11 of the season when they play Brooks County and Irwin County in back-to-back weeks. The three teams make Region 2 one of, if not the best, region in the state.

“If your goal is to make deep runs into the playoffs, you’re going to play these teams one way or the other. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be interesting, there’s not going to be any off weeks,” Tison said. “Every game’s going to be a challenge.”

2020 Schedule

Aug. 22 Lincoln County (Erk Russell Classic, at Georgia Southern)

Aug. 28 Randolph-Clay

Sept. 4 OPEN

Sept. 11 Pelham

Sept. 18 at Pierce County

Sept. 25 Charlton County

Oct. 2 OPEN

Oct. 9 Turner County

Oct. 16 at Atkinson County

Oct. 23 at Brooks County

Oct. 30 Irwin County

Nov. 6 at Lanier County