MOULTRIE — Eric Godfree was not the head coach at North Gwinnett when the Bulldogs last traveled to play on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.
That came in a state quarterfinal in 2022 and the Packers did nearly everything right en route to a 52-17 victory that vaulted them to a semifinal meeting with Carrollton the next week.
And while Godfree was still at Parkview that year, a number of current Bulldogs who were on the field when they were eliminated by the Packers will suit up when North Gwinnett visits the Hawg Pen on Friday.
One of those North Gwinnett players returning to Moultrie will be quarterback Ryan Hall.
He was 12-for-19 for 155 yards and no touchdowns as a sophom*ore for the Bulldogs in that game. But he has continued to sling the football with great success since then.
Now a senior Georgia Power 100 quarterback (who has commited to play baseball at Georgia Tech), Hall was 8-for-15 for 127 yards and three touchdown passes in North Gwinnett’s 39-17 season-opening victory over McEachern in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Kickoff Classic at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
One of his scoring throws was a 62-yarder to Erik Ronning, also a veteran of the 2022 Bulldogs. Hall’s other two touchdown throws went to Nick Bookman.
North Gwinnett also rushed for 232 yards on 41 attempts against McEachern with Hall contributing 70 on 12 carries.
Hall completed 65 percent of his passes last season for 2,178 yards and 25 touchdowns in leading the Bulldogs to an 8-4 record in Godfree’s first year in Suwanee.
Godfree had spent the nine previous seasons at Parkview where he went 70-37 with two region championships.
Before going to Parkview, he was at Loganville for 10 years, going 53-50.
North Gwinnett, which outscored McEachern 22-3 in the second half in its opener, was unranked before the season, but the win over McEachern sent the Bulldogs into the Georgia High School Daily’s Class 6A top 10 at No. 7.
Friday’s 7:30 p.m. meeting in the Hawg Pen will give the Bulldogs a chance to rinse out the taste of the lopsided loss to the Packers in 2022.
The Packers were 12-0 when they headed into the game and were loaded offensively.
Neko Fann was 15-for-20 for 352 yards and a school record tying six touchdown passes.
Ny Carr had five catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns.
Landen Thomas also had two touchdown catches in the game. Zay Williams and Landon Griffin had the others.
And Charlie Pace carried the football 14 times from scrimmage, gaining 147 and scoring a touchdown.
Brett Fitzgerald converted after all seven touchdowns and added a 22-yard third-quarter field goal.
The 2022 state quarterfinal win was Colquitt County’s third straight over North Gwinnett since the Bulldogs beat the Packers 19-17 on an untimed down field goal on the last play of the 2017 state championship game.
Colquitt got its first revenge for that gut-wrenching state championship game loss in the 2018 quarterfinals by shutting out the Bulldogs 45-0 in Moultrie.
The two teams next met in the 2019 Corky Kell Classic in what was the first game for Justin Rogers as the Packers head coach.
Colquitt won at Mercedes Benz Stadium 17-6.
North Gwinnett has won just two of the seven meetings between two of the top football programs in Georgia’s highest classification.
The first meeting came in the second round of the 2011 state playoffs and was played in Suwanee.
Colquitt scored 17 unanswered second-half points to end North Gwinnett’s 10-game winning streak.
The Packers opened the 2012 season against North Gwinnett in the Corky Kell Classic and lost 16-14.
The Bulldogs got a 33-yard field goal by Michael D’Angola to get the win.
In 2015, just eight months after winning the state championship over Archer in the Georgia Dome, the Packers returned to the same venue and opened the season with a 45-14 win over the Bulldogs. Kiel Pollard scored three touchdowns for the Packers.
Colquitt County will go into Friday’s game with this year’s North Gwinnett team sporting a 2-0 record after a 45-28 win over West High of Utah in the opener and 52-14 victory over Monroe last Friday.
But as Colquitt plays its third straight home game to start the season, the staff is concerned about the number of penalties the team has been flagged for in those first two games: 11 for 117 yards in the opener and 19 for 155 yards against the Tornadoes.
“We have got to be more disciplined in what we do,” Packers coach Sean Calhoun said.
“We will continue to stress how big these penalties are. In a game that’s close ... it could decide that game.”
