Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With Hurricane Helene rapidly heading towards landfall in the panhandle of Florida, high school football teams in Georgia are being proactive. The Callaway Cavaliers were originally scheduled to play their region opener on the road on Friday; that game has been moved up to Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Pike County.

The game was initially moved to Thursday night before the teams made an announcement on Tuesday morning that the game would be moved up one more day to Wednesday.

It will be short notice for both teams as Pike County played last Friday on the road to Mt. Zion, wanting a 28-18 victory, while Callaway will have an extra days rest, having beaten Redan 34-6 last Thursday.

Both teams come into the game feeling confident with Callaway (3-2) on a three-game winning streak and the Pirates have won back-to-back games to move to 4-1 on the season.

The Pirates are led by their star senior quarterback Bryce Sammons, who has carried the offense through the opening five weeks. He has thrown for 573 yards and ran for another 358 yards with 11 combined touchdowns. Sammons has 39 more carries and 258 more rushing yards than the second leading rusher on the team.

The Cavaliers offense will have to key in on two seniors on defense, CJ Parks and Hunter Hammond. The former leads the team in tackles and tackles for a loss and the latter has two key interceptions this season.

The Cavaliers come into the game with plenty of playmakers on both sides of the ball, especially with the return of some key players last week. Senior running back Tyren Buggs made his season debut last Thursday against Redan, turning 10 carries into 109 yards and two touchdowns. 

Callaway also welcomed the return of BreShun Hall last week. The senior, who has multiple Division I offers including from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, carried the ball six times for 21 yards and a touchdown. The talented senior can also be used as a blocker on offense and a linebacker on defense.

Orchestrating it all on offense is junior quarterback Blake Harrington, who has thrown for 597 yards and ran for 329 yards with nine total touchdowns. 

On defense, junior linebacker Xae Anderson, who recently received an offer from Middle Tennessee State, and senior safety Kavius Leonard, who has an offer from the Naval Academy among others, keep that side of the ball locked down.

Callaway owns the head-to-head record against Pike County at 5-1 with the last meeting between the two teams coming in 2009, a 55-10 win for the Cavaliers. Callaway head coach Pete Wiggins is 5-0 against the Pirates as head coach of Callaway.