Blountstown, coming off shutout of Liberty, now sets its sights on Madison in Region Finals

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Blountstown is one of the fortunate area high school football teams still working this week, working through the Thanksgiving holiday. Coach Beau Johnson and his guys looking forward to a third meeting with Madison in the last five seasons, this one in the region final Friday. Blountstown earning that berth in the third round of the 1A playoffs thanks to a pretty convincing region semifinal win over Liberty Friday nights. The Tigers winning that one 42-0. So the defense in particular putting up a great effort.

“Very proud of the kids, a great job.” coach Johnson told me Monday. “Especially the defensive staff, and the kids did a great job. I think Liberty was averaging “30-something points a game. And I think we ended up holding them to like 64 yards. The defensive coaches, the defensive players did a great job, fantastic preparation. The offense, it’s happened a couple of times this year the first quarter we’ve had to feel our way to see how they’re playing us, but the second quarter we tend to figure it out.”

That they did. This the 7th time in the last ten seasons Blountstown had made it to the Region Finals, with two state championship game appearances in that span. Madison comes west Friday with a 9-3 mark and off a 45-6 win over Port St. Joe. Coach Johnson says Madison is what it usually is, a very fast, physical team. And it is part of a group of 8 teams left in this class capable of winning it all, he says!

“You know right now to me, Class A in the State of Florida, all 8 teams are powerhouses and have tons of talent. It’s probably the toughest 8 team bracket in the whole state, from top to bottom, to me. It’s very tough. I think any of the 8 can win the state championship. So it’s gonna come down to people making plays and being where they’re supposed to be and doing the right thing.”

Coach Johnson says it’s always a goal to be working together as a team through the Thanksgiving holiday, so this is a fun and exciting week for him, his staff and the players. He adds he is particularly excited for his group of senior players.

“This senior class is 34-9. And that’s including a cat-5 hurricane survival and COVID. They have seen and been a part of a lot. They’ve won two SSAC championships. They’ve played for a state title in ‘19. You know this senior class has won 80 percent of their games and a lot of hardware. And have really matured into an awesome group of leaders for our football team. And we intend on trying to keep it going and getting some more hardware. "

That game Friday at Bowles set for 7:30, and expect another huge crowd for that one.

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