Some things change, and some stay the same.
That has been especially true in the first half of the 2018 high school football season for Region 7-AAAAAA, where the top two teams from last year (Alpharetta, Centennial) are back in the race for the region title but the other two playoff teams from a year ago (Chattahoochee and Pope) are still searching for their first victories.
A lot of questions remain in Region 7, but at least some of the answers will begin to come into focus this week.
We continue our Tuesday series examining the playoff outlooks for every Class AAAAAA team as region play kicks off (or shortly after it begins) with a preview of 7-AAAAAA, which is two weeks into league play. Here’s a closer look at each of the teams, broken down by playoff likelihood, in alphabetical order within each group:
Safest bets
*Alpharetta (2-1, 1-0): The Raiders won four region titles in the past seven seasons, including 2017, when they went 8-0 in league play and advanced to the state quarterfinals before losing to Coffee and finishing 11-2. All three of their games have been relatively close this year, but they won two of them and suffered their only loss against a Milton team that's ranked No. 6 in Class AAAAAAA.
*Centennial (2-2, 2-0): The Knights have come agonizingly close to winning region titles the past two seasons, losing by three points early in the year each time in the game that ultimately decided the championship. Centennial had a rough start to this season, losing to Roswell and Northside-Warner Robins, but has hit its stride in region play, averaging 52 points in wins over Pope and Cambridge.
In the hunt
*Johns Creek (3-1, 2-0): The Gladiators got blown out in their highest-profile game of the year – a 49-0 loss to a St. John's (D.C.) team that is ranked as high as No. 4 nationally – but have been solid otherwise, averaging 48 points per game in wins over Fairfield Central (S.C.), North Atlanta and Chattahoochee. Johns Creek won the region title in 2016 and appears poised for another run.
*Pope (0-4, 0-2): They Greyhounds' record is a bit deceiving. Pope lost to Class AAAAAAA schools Lassiter and No. 5 Roswell in its' non-region games and then had to begin region play against Centennial and Alpharetta (it was competitive in both games). Pope got off to a similar slow start last year, going 0-3 before winning three of their next four and eventually earning a playoff berth.
The jury’s still out
*Cambridge (1-3, 1-1): The Bears finished tied for fourth place with Pope last year but lost out on a playoff berth by virtue of their 35-6 loss to the Greyhounds early in the season. Cambridge won four of its final five games in 2017 but has struggled to a 1-3 start that includes three losses by at least 20 points. The Bears' two-point victory over Dunwoody probably wasn't a good sign, either.
*North Atlanta (2-1, 0-1): The Warriors started the season 3-0 last year, including a 14-0 win over Dunwoody in the region opener, but did not win another game all season and finished in eighth place. North Atlanta started this year 2-0 before losing to Johns Creek in region play. Are the Warriors headed down the same path again? They play four of the league's best teams in the next four weeks.
*Northview (3-1, 2-0): The Titans won just two games last season and finished in seventh place. They are 3-1 start this year, with two consecutive region victories, but their three wins have come against teams (Lakeside-DeKalb, Chattahoochee and Dunwoody) with a combined record of 2-10. We'll find out a lot more about Northview's playoff chances this week when it travels to Johns Creek.
Not this year
*Chattahoochee (0-4, 0-2): The Cougars have lived an up-and-down existence since winning a state title in 2010 – three playoff berths (including a No. 3 seed last year), and four seasons with five wins or less. This year, they've been outscored 177-66 in four losses. Chattahoochee has some winnable games at the end of the season, but it's likely to be long out of the playoff race by then.
*Dunwoody (1-3, 0-2): The Wildcats haven't been to the playoffs since 2009, and their chances of ending that drought took a serious hit when they lost to Cambridge (16-14) and Northview (35-7) in the first two weeks of region play. It won't get easier in the coming weeks, with their next three games coming against Alpharetta, Pope and Centennial. Dunwoody finished in ninth place last season.
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Next week: Region 8-AAAAAA
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