Three of the toughest football venues for opponents to win a game in Northeast Alabama this season have been Spring Garden’s Panther Stadium, Piedmont’s Field of Champions, and Cherokee County’s Bobby Joe Johnson Field at Warrior Stadium.

Those three teams are a collective 16-1 this season defending their home turf. The lone loss was Piedmont’s 25-20 setback to Class 5A, No. 3 Alexandria at the end of the regular season.

Not too shabby, huh?

Both Spring Garden and Piedmont successfully defended their home fields in the first round of the state playoffs last week, while Cherokee County had to go way down south to Andalusia to defeat Straughn.

All three are at home this Friday.

While I’m certain not near the collective .941 winning percentage those teams have had at home this season, I feel I’ve done a pretty solid job of defending my so-called turf, and that’s picking. Yours truly went 5-1 in last week’s first round, bringing my overall record to 57-10 this season for an 85-percent accuracy pick rate.

Will playing in front of their home crowds be the difference for Spring Garden, Piedmont and Cherokee County this week? Read on to see ‘What In the World Is Shannon Fagan Thinking?’

Aliceville (8-3) at No. 5 Spring Garden (11-0)

The potential of a possible rematch next week with Mars Hill Bible awaits the Panthers, but I don’t think they’ll fall into the trap of looking ahead.

That’s because I’m sure Panther head coach Jason Howard has stressed that Aliceville is a solid football team.

Junior quarterback Ty Williams has thrown for 1,840 yards this season with 24 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He’s also run for 384 yards and five scores on 62 carries. Senior Jermaine Brewer is the Yellowjackets’ top rusher with 1,219 yards and eight touchdowns. Sophomore Tyquan Simon is the top pass catcher with 28 receptions for 659 yards and eight touchdowns. Senior linebacker Cornelius Burns leads the defense with 97 tackles and a pair of fumble recoveries.

The Yellowjackets are 5-1 on the road this season. Their lone loss was at Addison (19-18), and their other two losses have been to Class 4A Gordo (40-31) and to Midfield (24-14).

I’ve been impressed with how well Chapel Pope has come along at quarterback for the Panthers. He has one of the state’s top wideouts in senior Cooper Austin, but now Larry Rogers is starting to emerge as an offensive threat. In last week’s win over Hatton, Rogers caught five passes for 59 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown. He also returned a kickoff 75 yards for another Panther touchdown.

I look for the trio of Pope, Austin and Rogers to come up big again and lead the Panthers to the win.

The pick: Spring Garden.

No. 7 Lauderdale County (10-1) at No. 4 Piedmont (9-2)

Out of the area’s three second-round playoff matchups, this is the only one where the two teams have met before. The Bulldogs claimed a 42-20 victory over the Tigers in the second round in 2019. That year, Piedmont went on to win the Class 3A state title.

Lauderdale County’s lone loss of the season was at Class 4A Brooks, 25-16, in the Tigers’ regular-season finale. They’re a run-heavy team, relying on senior quarterback Eric Fuqua, junior running back Jaylon Byrd and sophomore rusher Braxton Rose. They’re also stingy on defense, allowing just 9.2 points per game.

Out of the three matchups we have this week, I expect this one to be the closest. I look for quarterback Jack Hayes to have another solid night and Austin Estes to make an explosive play or two to provide the difference in this one.

The pick: Piedmont.

No. 3 Vigor (10-1) at Cherokee County (7-3)

Kudos to Cherokee County for going all the way down to Straughn last week and coming away with a hard-fought 34-26 victory. Their reward is they don’t have to make the five-hour, 336-mile trek to Prichard. That’s on Vigor’s shoulders this week.

Glancing at the Vigor roster, the thing that strikes me about the Wolves is their size. They have 20 kids listed who are 6-foot or taller. One of those players is 6-foot-3 senior quarterback Anthony Mix, the son of former Auburn tight end/wide receiver Anthony Mix.

The younger Mix has completed 69-of-138 pass attempts for 1,287 yards with 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions this season.

The Wolves’ run game is pretty solid too behind sophomore Jacori Barnes (760 yards on 116 carries with 12 touchdowns) and senior Jermaine Coleman (613 yards on 105 carries with 10 scores).

Even with home-field advantage, I’m afraid the Wolves might have a little too much firepower for the Warriors to handle.

The pick: Vigor.