Fifth-ranked Harrison emerged as the team to beat in Region 6-AAAAAA after its 27-10 victory Friday over No. 10 Allatoona.
The Hoyas (3-2, 2-0) moved into sole possession of first place in the region, a half-game ahead of defending region champion Dalton and Sequoyah, which also are undefeated in region play but were off this week. Harrison finished as the region runner-up in 2016.
Harrison was in control of the game most of the way, but the Hoyas didn’t put it away until Justin Fields threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to Steven Peterson and ran for an 11-yard score in the fourth quarter to take a 27-3 lead.
Fields, the nation’s top-rated senior recruit, finished with 102 yards rushing on 20 carries and was 7-of-15 passing for 153 yards. He had two touchdowns passing and two more rushing. Fields accounted for all but 24 of Harrison’s 279 yards of offense.
Allatoona finished with 255 yards, 85 of which came on their only touchdown drive that ended with 1.8 seconds play. Harrison limited the Buccaneers’ leading rusher, Adrian Boyd, to 40 yards on 22 carries.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s always nice to be 2-0 in this region,” Hoyas coach Matt Dickmann said after the game. “We’ve got to get better every week now.”
Harrison is off next weekend and then has games against Sprayberry and South Cobb before hosting Dalton on Oct. 20.
Here’s a recap of some of the other big stories in Class AAAAAA from Week 6:
- Any doubts that lingered about Douglas County, despite its 4-0 start and No. 8 ranking, can now be put to rest. The Tigers moved into first place in Region 5 with a 30-27 victory over seventh-ranked Hughes. Marquise Collins threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Dariyan Wiley with about two minutes left for the winning points. Douglas County (5-0, 3-0) is a half-game ahead of Alexander and Mays (both are 2-0 in the region). Douglas County has avenged two of the four losses that kept it out of the playoffs last season.
- Coffee suffered its first loss of the season when Tift County’s Fernando Ramirez kicked a 44-yard field goal with five seconds remaining for a 33-31 victory. Ramirez had three attempts, but the first two were waved off because of a false start penalty on Tift and an offsides penalty on Coffee. He made the one that counted. Coffee’s loss leaves six undefeated teams in Class AAAAAA – Lee County (6-0), Bradwell Institute (5-0), Richmond Hill (4-0), Greenbrier (5-0), Douglas County (5-0) and Winder-Barrow (5-0).
- Bradwell Institute is 5-0 for the first time since 2004 after a 10-7 victory over Long County. Last year, the Tigers went 1-2-1 against the same five teams (its game against Southeast Bulloch was canceled) and went on to a 3-5-1 finish in the regular season, although they made the playoffs as the No. 4 seed from Region 2. They were 0-20 the previous two seasons. Bradwell Institute is in its first season under head coach Ross Couch, who had been the defensive coordinator at Windsor Forest in 2014 and 2015.
- Chattahoochee took sole possession of first place in Region 7 with a 30-14 victory over Dunwoody. The Cougars are 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the region, a half-game ahead of Alpharetta, which was off this week. Centennial (beat Cambridge 24-21), Johns Creek (beat Northview 38-21) and Pope (beat North Atlanta 12-7) are one game behind Chattahoochee at 2-1. Chattahoochee plays Centennial, Johns Creek and Pope in its next three games and closes the regular season at home against Alpharetta on Nov. 3.
- It was another rough weekend for Region 8, which went 2-4 in Friday’s games. Winder-Barrow and Lanier won, but Gainesville lost to Jefferson 33-3, Apalachee lost to Monroe Area 42-0, Dacula lost to Walton 34-20 and Habersham Central lost to Chestatee 41-37. The region didn’t take the cupcake route in terms of scheduling, but it has hurt the won-loss records. Aside from Winder-Barrow’s 5-0 mark, the rest of the region is just 7-17. Region play beings next weekend when Winder-Barrow hosts Apalachee.
About the Author
