Here’s what awaits football teams in The News Courier’s coverage area this week.

For prep results, please visit www.enewscourier.com or The News Courier Facebook.

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Team: Ardmore (8-2, 4-2 in Class 5A, Region 7)

Opponent: Ramsay (6-3, 5-1 in Class 5A, Region 5)

All-Time Series: First meeting

The Skinny: The Tigers clinched just their fifth postseason berth since 2004 by turning in an eight-win campaign — their most victories since finishing 8-3 in 2006 — under coach Jonathan Snider.

Ardmore ended the regular season with five straight wins and its lone losses came against region champion Fairview and perennial contender Russellville.

Ramsay, meanwhile, has found its footing following a 1-3 start in which the Rams lost to Class 6A No. 2 Parker, Class 6A No. 5 Clay-Chalkville and Class 5A No. 7 Corner.

Coach Ronnie Jackson’s squad is 5-0 since Week 5 and has outscored its opponents 190-8 during that torrid stretch.

Ramsay has also played in the last two state championship games — downing Charles Henderson 41-20 in 2022 and falling to Gulf Shores 21-14 last season.

Coach Speak: “This is going to be a tall test for us against Ramsay if we don’t prepare the right way and go in with the right mindset. There’s a lot of folks that would like to be in the position that we are in, so I’ve asked our kids to soak it all in but to not be satisfied with just making it here.” — Jonathan Snider

“Ramsay is a really good football team. They’ve got speed everywhere on the field, but we feel like there’s things we can take advantage of. We can’t get caught up in the negative plays, though. We’ve just got to keep playing and make the plays that count.” — Jonathan Snider

“This has been a really, really fun year. After the 1-9 season we had, watching these kids be able to come back and be a completely different team has been inspiring as a coach. They have really taken ownership in their play on the field and how they carry themselves off the field, which I think is a testament to the leadership on our football team. I just hope we can keep this momentum going and use it to our advantage.” — Jonathan Snider

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Team: Athens (8-2, 4-2 in Class 6A, Region 7)

Opponent: Homewood (8-2, 5-1 in Class 6A, Region 5)

All-Time Series: The Golden Eagles return to the playoffs for the sixth time in nine seasons under coach Cody Gross.

Athens has been fairly dominant outside of losses to Class 6A No. 10 Hartselle and Class 6A No. 9 Muscle Shoals — and enters the postseason averaging 38.5 points per game.

Homewood, meanwhile, is back in the playoffs for the 13th consecutive year — 11 of those berths coming under coach Ben Berguson.

The Class 6A No. 7 Patriots have relied on a suffocating defense this season (11.2 points allowed per game) and have also been competitive in close losses to Class 6A No. 2 Parker (27-17) and Class 6A No. 6 Mountain Brook (27-22).

Homewood handed first-round exits to Athens in 2020 (34-31) and 2018 (24-14).

Coach Speak: “I just want to see us go and play the best we can play, because we’ve not done that yet this year. We’ve played pretty good this year, but we’ve yet to put it all together. We’ve got a really good opponent coming up and I think we need to go and play our best ball to give ourselves a chance to play another week.” — Cody Gross

“Homewood is one of the most respected programs in the state. They’ve done a good job for so long, and they are a very well-coached and disciplined team. We’ve played them twice before and it’s been two really good football games we’ve come up on the short end of. I expect this one will be just as good. We’ve just got to make sure we go out and play a clean game.” — Cody Gross

“This team has been a lot of fun. Those guys are a joy to be around and they love being around each other. There’s a lot of great things I can say about this bunch, so hopefully, we can stay on this ride for about five more weeks.” — Cody Gross