GMC welcomes Riverside in '22 Military Bowl

Gil Pound, The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.
·3 min read

Sep. 14—Unless the two teams play to a tie like they did in 1930, something has got to give in this week's Military Bowl between Georgia Military College Prep and Riverside Military Academy.

Both programs enter winless in 2022 while riding losing streaks that unfortunately date back to last season. The Riverside Military Eagles are 0-3 and have not won a football game in over a year, making them losers of nine straight. Meanwhile the Bulldogs are 0-4 and searching for their first victory since the last game of the 2021 regular season.

Riverside holds the 17-11-3 upper hand in this series that dates all the way back to 1911, according to records from the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. The Eagles have won three out of the last four head-to-head, but GMC came out on top of last year's meeting 26-6 up in Gainesville.

The current Riverside team has struggled so far in '22, losing to Lumpkin County (61-7), Stratford (42-20), and Providence Christian (52-0) to open the year. That does not mean they are not dangerous. GMC Prep head coach Lee Coleman said his guys have to watch out for Eagle senior quarterback Jeremiah Shaw, who did not play versus the Bulldogs a season ago.

"He can throw it and he can run it," said Coleman. "He's a pretty good athlete."

Shaw will be facing a revamped defense that happily welcomed back junior linebackers Jessie Washington and Bryce Smith last week. The duo helped GMC allow only one offensive touchdown to the No. 5 team in Class A's Division II, Washington-Wilkes. Their return has also let some guys return to their more natural positions, and the impact was immediate.

"It's night and day," Coleman pointed out. "We looked different. It looked like the defense we had last year."

Holding opponents to low scores is helpful, but it means nothing if the offense doesn't put up points. The Bulldogs have yet to score more than 16 in a game this season, which is a mark they failed to surpass only twice in '21. The team's fourth-year head coach says there's plenty of blame to go around.

"Collectively as a unit, we're not playing good football. There's too many missed opportunities and game-changing plays we're not making that we made a year ago."

Still, through all the adversity, GMC Prep still has its most important games ahead. Riverside is the Bulldogs' final non-region opponent. Contests Sept. 30 and onward count just a little bit more as they will determine who wins Division II's Region 5-A and seeding for the state playoffs. This week is as good a time as any to figure things out before an off week followed by the region opener at Johnson County.

The Bulldogs will try to do just that in Friday's 7:30 p.m. kickoff versus Riverside Military on Davenport Field.