Playoff Preview: Southwind at Ravenwood

<p>This week is semifinals week for all of the public school classifications and that means a plethora of top-end intriguing matchups with a trip to Chattanooga for the state championship on the line, including when Southwind travels to Ravenwood on Friday night.</p>   <p>These two explosive offenses have been high scoring and dynamic ability of both's playmakers could make this game a fun high-flying shootout that goes down to which team has the ball last in a thrilling matchup.</p>   <p>Both of these teams come into this game with a perfect 13-0 record that included wins over a team from the state of Mississippi as well as recent top programs in their area, putting together a schedule that would prepare each team for games like this.</p>   <p>Southwind has flown by the best teams in Memphis at an alarming rate, with their one close game for the entire length of the game, resulting in a 48-42 victory over Briarcrest.</p>   <p>Ravenwood started off very slow this season, but found way to edge out victories over teams with a lot of talent. After somehow defeating CPA, the game scripts flipped into pure domination for the Raptors.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/s_shoemaker52/status/1984051429238305209?s=20 </div></figure>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">SHARED OPPONENTS</h2>   <p>Ravenwood and Southwind have three shared opponents this season as each has playing teams from the other's region in the postseason here recently, those teams being Brentwood, Houston and Whitehaven.</p>   <p><strong>Southwind:</strong> defeated Brentwood 48-14, defeated Houston 49-0, defeated Whitehaven 42-21</p>   <p><strong>Ravenwood: </strong>defeated Brentwood 41-6, defeated Houston 38-7, defeated Whitehaven 20-12</p>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">SOUTHWIND PLAYMAKERS</h2>   <p>Southwind has a dynamic offense led by Austin Peay quarterback commit [player_tooltip player_id='480742' first='Kelvin' last='Perkins'], who is a true dual-threat that can make plays with both his arm and legs, being highly impressive at both. He has thrown for over 2,700 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for nearly 1,200 yards and 25 more scores.</p>   <p>He has a plethora of weapons at his disposal with the top target being exciting senior receiver prospect [player_tooltip player_id='637139' first='Tray' last='Moore'] who has hauled in some insane catches when on the field this season. He will need to have a big game if Southwind wants to win this game.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/johnvarlas/status/1971405698446549224?s=20 </div></figure>   <p>While they are an explosive team, they are also a big and powerful squad as well, dominating the trenches up front against everyone they play with Division One talent all over the line of scrimmage.</p>   <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1159814' first='Antonio' last='Keefer'] and [player_tooltip player_id='378854' first='Chris' last='Campbell'] are one of the best offensive line units in the state and the defensive line is a ferocious unit that racks up tackles for loss and completely blows up by plays, led by [player_tooltip player_id='854363' first='Charles' last='Sullins'].</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/coachlester91/status/1989707819692532111?s=20 </div></figure>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">RAVENWOOD PLAYMAKERS</h2>   <p>Ravenwood is a well-coached team that has just found different ways to handle business this season, including at the quarterback position with two exciting options in their own way.</p>   <p>Boston College commit [player_tooltip player_id='402540' first='Femi' last='Babalola'] has seemingly taken the next step forward as a dual-threat option in his own right and the team around him has followed suit. Fellow senior [player_tooltip player_id='402559' first='Maverick' last='Chance'] has been used in a utility role and has immense value as a Taysom Hill type playmaker.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/joe_spears7/status/1964494186352431285?s=20 </div></figure>   <p>The offensive line will need to rely on their experience and coaching to slow down the Southwind front, but the Raptors have an explosive front seven of their own with edge rushers [player_tooltip player_id='824735' first='Danny' last='Brown'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1595504' first='Sam' last='Rohan'] with big-time middle linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='1373099' first='Matthew' last='Anderson'] taking care of everything behind them at the middle linebacker position.</p>   <p>The secondary has some long, explosive athletes that can make plays as well and their defense will be relied on heavily in this game.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/CSmithScout/status/1971732170734805458?s=20 </div></figure>

This week is semifinals week for all of the public school classifications and that means a plethora of top-end intriguing matchups with a trip to Chattanooga for the state championship on the line, including when Southwind travels to Ravenwood on Friday night.