H.S. FOOTBALL: Region play starts this week

This week is an important week in local high school football.

It’s the first week for most teams in rural West Tennessee to play a region game, and thus the first game in which they begin to answer the question whether or not each team will make it to the playoffs.

No team will propel itself into the playoffs this week, nor will any team be eliminated from playoff contention based on the results from the third week of an 11-week regular season.

But everybody wants to get off to a good start. A few region games have already been played by area teams, and Bolivar’s win over Fayette-Ware in Week 1 and Dresden’s win over Gleason last week already give the Tigers and Lions an early leg up in the race until they each have their bye week.

There will be plenty more teams try to join them this week.

•Union City at Peabody: There’s not much that’s not been said about this game at this point. Top two teams in the state who each have a golden state championship trophy from last year. They each have the word “golden” in their nicknames.

Considering how much each team likes to run the ball, this game should be called the Gold Rush. The question is which team will come away with more to gain from the rush.

•Halls at Jackson Christian: The Eagles have faltered in the first two weeks playing high-profile competition. They actually competed well for two or three quarters in each game but either fell behind early or let the game get away from them in each game. Now they play a team that’s more their size. Halls comes in unbeaten with one impressive victory under its belt.

•McKenzie at Gibson County: The Pioneers have already shown more fight early in the season than local fans are used to seeing out of them early in the year. They were four minutes away from being 2-0 before they faltered in the closing minutes last week, but they’re more competitive than they have been.

McKenzie’s first two weeks have been very different from each other, so this game could give an indication of which Rebel squad fans can expect to see the rest of the way: the team that lost big at Dyer County or the team that won big last week.

•Humboldt at South Fulton: The Vikings are coming off a bad loss after picking up a big win the week before. This will be their first game against another Class 1A school. The Vikings and Red Devils typically play each other close, so this one could be a good one to watch.

•Covington at Bolivar: The Tigers come in 2-0. The Chargers are 1-1, but their win last week was a big one in region play in which their running back had a career night with four touchdowns and more than 350 rushing yards. Covington has been down the past year or two after making it to Cookeville, but this game could be one that suggests the Chargers are on their way back. Bolivar can’t afford to wait around before taking over this game like it’s done the first two.

•Obion County at Haywood: The Rebels have had a tough time in their first two games, but tonight could be a special night for people on both sides of the stadium with former Haywood coach Ernie Jackson helping his alma mater from Troy as the offensive coordinator.

•Dyer County at Crockett County: The Cavaliers haven’t lost a regular season game since Week 10 of 2013. This game could be a tougher one than maybe some expected in the regular season. The Choctaws and Cavaliers had similar results against the same opponent in the jamboree and Week 1.

•Westview at Dyersburg: The Chargers are 0-2 but competed well with two quality teams in both games for at least a half and nearly won last week. Dyersburg is a program that’s had Westview’s number more times than not, particularly in recent years. If the Chargers can keep its top players on the game and healthy, they could surprise a few people.

•Greenfield at Lake County: This game came down to the final play last year in the first week of the season, and Greenfield is playing better ball so far this year while Lake County struggled in its opening loss. This is one of the few games in which the Yellowjackets could have a depth advantage.

Brandon Shields is the high school sports columnist for The Jackson Sun. Contact him at 425-9751 or at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon and on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.