Sports

Football Prediction: Tigers by a Whisker

Annual Tucker-Marist game should come down to the wire — again.

I’ll never forget the exchange of conversations I had with a Gwinnett County football coach several years ago when I worked for a pictures-and-words outfit out of Atlanta (I think they’re in Dunwoody now).

“Scott,” the coach said of the weekly high school football prediction column I wrote. “Don’t pick us this week. You jinxed us last time.”

Sure enough, that happened, although I wouldn’t call it a jinx. I picked his team to win the week before against an inferior team, and the coach’s team played spectacularly awful and lost. His team’s inability to hold onto the ball had more to do with it than what I wrote.

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OK, I said to the coach. Why not? It was an important game and I could be the bad guy and pick against his team. Result? His team won. He called to say thanks.

I then picked his team to win the next several games.

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Later in the season, before another important game that could determine the region championship, I picked against his team again — this time, I meant it.

I talked to him the day the column ran.

“Scott, you picked against us? C’mon,” he joked, adding that his team was on a roll and could’ve used the extra boost of confidence for the big game. The conversation was light-hearted, but I could tell he would have preferred a pick for his team.

“Hey, just tell them to prove me wrong,” I joked back.

Result? A resounding victory.

So, here we go again for another week of football predictions.  Last week, I was 21-3 in picking games for 12 Patch sites in four counties.

Will I jinx your team, or bring it good luck? You pick.

Marist at Tucker (Adams Stadium): The region championship comes through this game virtually every year. According to Georgia High School Football Daily, the two teams have played in the same region the past 15 years, and in 14 of those it’s been either the Tigers or the War Eagles who have won the region title. Last year, the Tigers beat Marist 31-24 in overtime and went on to finish 10-0 in the regular season and advance to the Class AAAA semifinals. Marist finished 8-2, and lost to eventual champion Chattahoochee in the second round. Both are state-ranked this year. Tucker is the No. 1 in most rankings; Marist is ranked as high as seventh. We’ve said it before — until someone knocks off No. 1, go with No. 1. Tucker 23, Marist 17.

Scott Bernarde is the Associate Regional Editor for 12 Patch sites in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Forsyth counties.


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