COVINGTON, Ga. — The last two weeks have been filled with a whirlwind of emotions for Newton.

On Oct. 30, the Rams handed nationally-ranked Brookwood its first loss of the season at Sharp Stadium. They fell flat in their follow-up performance last Friday, however, as they stepped out of conference and were subsequently smacked with a 31-0 loss at Mill Creek.

Newton’s offense has struggled at times throughout the season, but the Mill Creek defeat marked the first time the program was shut out since 2017.

There’s no time to lick wounds; there hardly ever is in Class AAAAAAA football.

The Rams (3-4, 1-1) are now tasked with what will undoubtedly be their toughest test of the year this Friday when they travel to Grayson for a Region 4 contest.

The scorching hot Grayson Rams moved to 8-0 on the year with a 58-17 throttling of Brookwood last week. As a result, they stayed put at No. 4 in the nation in the latest USA TODAY Sports Super 25 high school football rankings on Nov. 10.

Newton split its games against Parkview and Brookwood, meaning that splitting its final two region games against Grayson and South Gwinnett should all but lock them into a playoff spot. But head coach Camiel Grant Jr. is continuing to push his team for goals beyond simply slipping into the postseason. He understands that depending on how the next two weeks play out, their mission of winning a region title is still attainable.

The first step in doing so will be finding a way to slow down a Grayson squad that is averaging 40.8 points per game this season. Newton also has to find a way to spark an offense that appeared to sleepwalk its way through the Mill Creek loss. That will be no small task as Grayson’s defense has given up just 92 points across 8 contests.

Friday night’s game is scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Follow @CovNewsSports on Twitter for live updates.