Brooks County quarterback Malcolm Parrish (12) hands off to running back Destin Simmons (18) during a game earlier this season in Quitman.

Staring at Brooks County today are a long drive and a big challenge from one of AA’s best football teams.

Brooks County (9-2) will hit the road today, and drive north to face the second-ranked Calhoun Yellow Jackets (11-0) in the second round of the Class AA state playoffs. The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m.

It is 299 miles from Brooks County High School to Calhoun High School, which means that the Trojans will have one of the longest trips of any playoff team in the state today. They will leave their school at 9:30 a.m. and head north, stopping in Macon for lunch before continuing on to Calhoun, which sits about 40 miles from the Tennessee border off of Interstate 75.

But Brooks head coach Maurice Freeman is not worried about the travel.

“We’ll be OK,” he said. “I don’t look at (the long trip) as a challenge; I look at it as an adventure. … We’ll be just fine.

“We’re in the playoffs. We’re one of the sweet 16. You’ve got to enjoy that. Our goal is to continue to play. We don’t want this to be the last week we play. We’re prepared mentally, physically we’re prepared. Now it’s time for the bus trip.”

It won’t be easy to beat Calhoun. The Yellow Jackets have been ranked No. 2 in AA for most of the season, behind perennial power Buford. They have a potent spread offense that averages 44 points per game. They have been held under 35 points only once all year. Their defense only allows around eight points a game. They are impressive.

“Calhoun is 11-0. They throw the ball all over the place. They’ve got a real slashing running back also,” Freeman said. “They’re a much improved team on defense; they fly all over to the football. They’ve got a big old linebacker (Alex Kirby); he gets downhill real fast. They’re aggressive. They’ve got a kicker that kicks the ball out of the end zone. He’s attempted some field goals (that were more than 50 yards). A well-rounded football team. A very talented coach (Hal Lamb). They’ve just got a great program.”

But as Freeman pointed out, at this point in the playoffs, every team is good. And Brooks has always welcomed a challenge.

“I think we match up well with them,” the Trojans’ coach said. “We’ve got to play a very good game, but we match up well with them. The way I see it, I just don’t know if there’s a AA team aside from Buford that is as good as Valdosta, and we hung in there for quite a while with (Valdosta). I’m going to like my chances, regardless of who I’m playing. I’m confident in my guys.”

Brooks has seen the spread offense before — seven of the Trojans’ previous 11 opponents this year ran the spread.

“We’ve seen the spread offense before. We’ve seen it quite a few times,” Freeman said. “Folks have gone to the spread now. We’ve seen it seven times this year. As the year continues, we’ve started playing it better and better.”

Calhoun’s kicker, Adam Griffith, is very good. Scout.com ranks Griffith the No. 1 kicker in the nation. He has verbally committed to Alabama.

Last week, Brooks beat Tattnall County 28-10 at Veterans Stadium.

“We played an OK first quarter, and then three real good quarters,” Freeman said. “We settled down (after the first quarter) and then got after it. I liked what I saw. The guys were aggressive, fast, hard nosed. (Our offense) pounded the ball, threw some good passes, played some sound defense. I enjoyed the way we played.”

What will it take for Brooks to win tonight?

“We’ve got to keep the score low,” Freeman said. “Offensively, we’ve got to grind (with our running) game, we’ve got to pound, we’ve got to convert on third down. Defensively, we’ve got to get them off the field on their third downs, we cannot give up the big play and we’ve got to tackle well.”

Three years ago, Brooks and Calhoun met in a memorable semifinal game in Quitman. The teams traded scores all night, before Calhoun finally won 38-35. The game had a controversial ending; on the final play of the game, Brooks fullback Arlestor McKinnon was tackled close enough to the goal line that it was hard to tell whether or not he had scored (one of the side judges marked him short), then the officials did not get the ball spotted in time for the Trojans to run another play, despite the fact that there were about 13 or 14 seconds left on the clock when McKinnon was tackled.

“Great high school game,” Freeman recalled on Thursday. “Let’s hope tomorrow’s another great one. Just this time, we’d like to come out on top.”

The winner of tonight’s game will face the Dublin-Westminster winner in the quarterfinals next week.