Panthers face familiar foe in semifinal matchup

CHULA — The Tiftarea Academy Panthers will face a familiar foe this Friday night in the GIAA AAA football state semifinal. Since the 2018 season, the Panthers have faced the John Milledge Academy Trojans eight times. Friday’s game in Milledgeville will be the fourth Panthers-Trojans matchup in the semifinal. The Panthers have had success against the Trojans most recently in the 2024 season, beating them twice. The Trojans handled the Panthers 38-0 earlier this year. John Milledge enters the contest with a record of 11-0. The Panthers are 6-5. These teams are built different. The Panthers feature local home-grown talent built from the ground up. Twenty-one players out of 28 have been in Coach Erik Soliday’s program since middle school. The Trojans’ roster relies more on transfers. According to rosters posted on Maxpreps.com, the Trojan’s 2026 roster of 53 players features six new upperclassmen for this year alone.

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