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By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Class AA state playoffs began with 32 teams hopeful of getting to Atlanta for the championship game.

Following Friday’s semifinal games, that number is down to two, and it’ll be Callaway and Fitzgerald meeting for the state title on Dec. 29 at noon at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta.

This is the second consecutive season Callaway and Fitzgerald have met in the state playoffs.

They met in the second round last season, and Callaway overpowered Fitzgerald 50-31 to reach the quarterfinals.

Now they’re set for the rematch, and the stakes are considerably higher this time around.

Callaway (11-1), the top seed from Region 5-AA, beat Rabun County 41-17 on Friday night to advance to the championship game for the first time after losing in its previous four semifinal appearances.

Fitzgerald (14-0), the number one seed from Region 1-AA, blanked Jefferson County 24-0 in its semifinal game to earn a title shot.

The Cavaliers previously advanced to the state semifinals in 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2019, and they came up short in each of those games.

Callaway wasn’t going to let that happen again, and it delivered a dominant effort against Rabun County.

“It’s amazing,” said senior linebacker LaQuize Gilbert. “We finally broke through. We wanted it more than ever. We’ve been thinking about it for the past two years. This year, we weren’t going to let that happen again.”

CALLAWAY VS. 

FITZGERALD

WHAT: Class AA state-championship game

WHEN: Dec. 29, noon

WHERE: Center Parc Stadium (formerly Turner Field), Atlanta

RECORDS: Callaway (11-1); Fitzgerald (14-0)