The Ultimate Walton-Grayson Preview

They've got a lot in common, besides the fact that the winner will be a first-time state champion. 

Walton and Grayson, who square off at 8 p.m. tonight at the Georgia Dome to settle the Georgia High School Association Class AAAAA crown, are both 14-0. They both like to run the ball and stop the other team from doing anything. 

"It’s going to be like a dad-gum sledgehammer fight," said Kell coach Derek Cook, whose Longhorns gave Grayson as good a game as it's had all season in a 7-0 loss at the start of the year.

If you're looking to get tickets today, you at the Dome, at a cost of $20 per person. 

If you'd rather stay home and watch, Georgia Public TV is showing the game (and all of the finals) live.

Both Walton and Grayson have flirted with getting this far before, but have fallen short. 

For Grayson, the Gwinnett County upstart and a school that opened only in 2000, there's a lot to live up to. The Rams would become the eighth Gwinnett school to claim a state championship.

For Walton, the burden is different, but just as substantial. The Raiders would become the first Cobb County team to win a state title since Marietta in 1967.

To put that in deeper historical perspective, that was the first season of integrated scholastic sports in Georgia. Some of those Blue Devils, in fact, played for the last all-black state champion, Marietta's Lemon Street High School, in 1966.

The last East Cobb school to get this far was Wheeler in 1973, which fell to Thomasville and future Atlanta Falcon William Andrews. Corky Kell's widow, Carole, thinks that Wildcat team might have been the legendary coach's best.

A few more items about Walton and Grayson in the latest battle of Cobb vs. Gwinnett supremacy: 

-- This Walton staff has spent a lot of time together and it shows.

-- Who are the Grayson Rams? . And , from our sister site, Loganville Patch. 

-- Well-known sports dads will have rooting interests on both sides: You know about Walton's twins Zach and Daron Blaylock, but there are others of note for the Raiders and Rams. 

-- Zach Blaylock missed most of win over Lassiter with a dislocated elbow. His status is unclear, but his absence on both sides of the ball was noticeable. 

-- While Tyren Jones gets lots of attention in Walton's backfield, Grayson running back Devin Gillespie takes pride in being an unsung workhorse in the Rams' Wing-T offense. 

You read that right. A Wing-T. This is why this game also might pose the toughest challenge yet for the Raiders' top-notch defense. 

-- A win by Walton also would break another truly impressive streak: Since 1996, the champion of the state's largest classification has been from Gwinnett or South Georgia. 

The thinking in East Cobb is that it's about time for that to come to an end.