It’s a light week for Class AAAAAA with regions 3, 4 and 5 entirely off.
Here are four of the more intriguing games -
McEachern at Lovejoy – This is the last of the major inter-region games of the season in AAAAAA. We've had some good ones. McEachern, the preseason No. 1, made it back in the Top 10 after a 35-21 victory over Peachtree Ridge. With two losses, McEachern was a controversial choice to re-enter the rankings, but some forget that the Indians still have five major D-I recruits even without injured RB Taj Griffin (Oregon). Those would be junior DT Julian Rochester, OL Chuma Edoga (Southern Cal), OL Chandler Jones (Louisville), DB Tyler Woodley and WR T.J. Rahming (Duke). McEachern's schedule is rated the toughest in the state by the computer Maxwell Ratings. This will be the Indians' fourth non-region game against a team in the top 20 of Maxwell's all-classification rankings. Lovejoy, ranked fifth, can make a case that it should be even higher. The Wildcats came from 24-17 down with 4:30 left to beat a pretty good Hillgrove team 27-24 on the road last week. A sweep of the Powder Springs pair would be a nice feather. North Cobb, last season, is the only team ever to do it.
Collins Hill at North Gwinnett - North Gwinnett was 7-0 and ranked No. 1 when Collins Hill beat the Bulldogs 53-28 last season. Both teams graduated their leading passer, rusher and receiver. That includes Gwinnett County's two leading passers in 2013 – Collins Hill's Tyler Herman (2,968 yards) and North's Hayden Sphire (2,639). Collins Hill's new quarterback is Monty Horn, who is 50-of-80 passing for 618 yards and four touchdowns. For North, it's John Urzua, who is 71-of-100 passing for 919 yards and 10 touchdowns. Urzua played much of last year's game after Sphire was knocked out with an injury.
Roswell at Milton – Milton is ranked No. 6. The seniors have a chance to be the first group fo have four consecutive wins against their arch-rival since 1961. A victory also would make them 9-1 in their careers against other North Fulton opponents. But Roswell (2-1) is looking pretty good after a 27-15 victory over previously unbeaten Walton. QB James Whitaker threw three TD passes and scored on a 50-yard run. Another pretty good player is WR Mechane Slade, a Memphis recruit who had four catches for 107 yards and 102 yards on two kick returns. The week before against Centennial, he had 108 yards receiving and a 95-yard kick return. He also scored two touchdowns against Lowndes, Roswell's only loss. One other bit of trivia - Roswell has gone 180 games without being shut out. That's the state record. Roswell got only three points last season vs. Milton. Milton shut out defending state champ Norcross last week. I wouldn't bet on it, but something to think about.
Newton at Lowndes – Two reasons this is interesting. One is that Newton beat Lowndes 15-14 last season. Two is that this is, according to the Maxwell Ratings, the most competitive game involving a Region 1 opponent this week. Maxwell projects Lowndes as a 28-point winner. The other games – Camden vs. Wayne County, Colquitt County vs. Pelham, Tift County vs. Alcovy, Valdosta vs. Veterans and Lee County vs. Terrell County – all favor the Region 1 team by at least 30 points. If the region sweeps, as expected, 1-AAAAAA will improve to 28-0 on the season. That would leave one game (Lee County vs. Mitchell County next week) to finish off a potential 29-0 pre-region run.
