The Trion Bulldogs are in rare air.  For the first time since 2015, the Bulldogs are in the quarterfinals of the GHSA state playoffs, better known as the “Elite 8”.  Trion made it as far as the quarterfinals in both 2015 and 2012, but as the playoffs were structured at that time, Trion only had to reach the second round in the playoffs to get into the Elite 8.  This year, Trion has advanced to the third round of the playoffs and the last time Trion reached the third round of the playoffs was way back in 2003, better know as the “Dome Team”.

The Bulldogs will face a team that have some recent history with in the playoffs in the Irwin County Indians.  Tonight will be the 4th meeting between the two teams with all four of those meetings taking place in the playoffs.  Trion won the first contest in the series back in 2012 but Irwin County has won two straight lopsided contests against the Bulldogs in 2013 and 2015.  Their last meeting in 2015 was a quarterfinal matchup just like tonight that the Indians won 21-0.

There will be something unique about tonight’s game between the two teams.  In each of the three previous meetings, Trion has had to make the four and a half hour trip to Ocilla, GA to play the Indians.  Tonight will be the first time the Indians will have to travel to Sam R. McCain Stadium.  Both Trion and Irwin County are the #3 teams from their respective regions and have had to pull upsets against higher seeded teams in each of the their two playoff victories this postseason.  After Trion defeated Telfair County last Friday night, the Bulldogs were pulling hard for Irwin to upset Region 1 Champion Early County because an Irwin win would mean a home playoff game for the Bulldogs.  Irwin County did just that by defeating Early County 28-20.

Irwin County is a proud program that has had a lot of success over the past decade.  Irwin County has been a region champion in 8 of the last 11 seasons and won back to back state championship in 2019 and 2020.  Tonight, Irwin County comes into the game ranked # 3 in the state while Trion is ranked # 7.  Irwin County is 11-1 on the season with their only loss coming at the hands of Clinch County 34-28.  Clinch County is currently ranked # 2 in the state and will be playing Bowdon tonight.  Brooks County, Clinch County and Irwin County all ended up in a three way tie in Region 2-A and Irwin County ended up with the # 3 seed despite defeating the region champion Brooks County 17-14.

The winner of tonight’s game will advance to the Final Four and play the winner of Bowdon vs Clinch County in the semi-finals.

Due to GHSA rules and the fact that Trion High School is an NFHS member school, WZQZ will not be able to video stream tonight’s game from Sam R. McCain Stadium.  However we will be audio streaming the game live on the WZQZ Facebook page and on the radio on 99.1 FM and AM 1180.  Join WZQZ’s Paul Cavin, Jeremy Burke, cameraman Jim Warnock and engineer Sam Kohler for live coverage tonight beginning at 6:45 pm with kickoff to follow at 7:00 pm.