We Speak High School Football
Eagles Soaring at the Right Time: North Clayton Drops 51 on Riverdale in Playoff Push
When North Clayton needed its biggest performance of the season, the Eagles delivered a blowout.
North Clayton routed rival Riverdale 51-8 on Oct. 9, a 43-point win that ranks among the most lopsided results anywhere in Clayton County this fall. It came one week after the Eagles handled McDonough 35-14 on Oct. 2, giving North Clayton back-to-back wins by a combined 86-22 as the playoff race tightened.
The Eagles stand at 4-3 overall and 3-2 in region play, right in the thick of the postseason picture. Season-long, North Clayton has scored 158 points, and the offense has found another gear at exactly the right moment — 51 points against a rival is not an accident, it is a team peaking in October.
The road ahead is clear and full of opportunity. North Clayton hosts Fayette County on Friday, Oct. 23 at Southern Crescent Stadium in Riverdale, with the Tigers arriving at 1-7. Win the games in front of them, and the Eagles will be playing postseason football — the kind of finish this senior group has been building toward all season.
Clayton County football is at its best when its rivalries mean something in late October. Thanks to the Eagles’ surge, they do. North Clayton is soaring at the right time, and nobody left on the schedule will enjoy seeing them.
We Speak High School Football
Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights
The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.
Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.
That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.
That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.
The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.
Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.
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