The Portal Panthers will be facing the Turner County Titans for the first round of the GHSA State playoffs Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Portal. The Panthers are coming into this game as a top seed after winning their first ever region championship in school’s history.
The Panthers are led by coach Jason McEachin. McEachin has been the head coach since 2021 and in this short amount of time has turned the program into something his team can be proud of.
“When he came, he pretty much opened up everything for everybody,” Amir Jackson #15, PHS senior and University of Florida commit said. “He knew the players strengths and weaknesses and came in and turned this program around.”
To the players, this is just another game. They’ve practiced hard all week and are going into this game with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.
“We’re good enough to make a run and we want to strike fear into our opponents with how we play,” Coach McEachin said. ”We want them to fear how we play defense, how aggressive and explosive we are on offense and just know that this is not going to be a cakewalk.”
Some of the main focuses for Friday's game against the Titans:
Offensively:
- Run the ball. They want to strike first and establish a run game as well as an air game.
Defensively:
- Limit the Titans big plays. According to the team’s analysis of the Titans, a heavy majority of their offense comes from their passing game.
Special Teams:
- No turnovers. They don’t want to give up big plays and turn the ball over on significant moments in the game.
This has been a Cinderella season for the Panthers, but it’s nowhere near midnight.
“We are very prepared for this situation,” Coach McEachin said. “We’ve got a good senior leadership group, we’ve had a good week of practice and we have a good plan to limit what they do.”
Having no fear and taking it one game at a time, the Portal Panthers only have one thing to say,
“Just because this is Portal’s first, doesn’t mean this was by accident. Who’s Next?”
Game Tickets
Portal is hosting Turner County (7:30 pm Kickoff) Tickets ($8) are only available on GoFan. https://gofan.co/event/1217281?schoolId=GA11896…
The home ticket booth will sell GoFan tickets with the use of a credit/debit card if spectators prefer that.
Because this is a GHSA playoff game, no regular season passes such as Booster Club, BOE Employee, Gold Card, & Student Passes will be accepted.
Go Panthers!
