High School Sports Blog
AA in brief: Swainsboro WR just misses state record
Week 5 came and went with two ranked Class AA teams losing — No. 2 Callaway and No. 8 Dublin — and there was hardly a change to the top 10.
For a breakdown of last week's games, visit the Friday night recap.
The Cavaliers keep their No. 2 spot since they lost to the No. 6 team in AAAA, but the Fighting Irish fall out of the rankings by losing to the Brooks County Trojans, who return to the polls at No. 10.
No. 1-7 stay the same, while Washington County and Vidalia — previously No. 9 and 10 — move up a spot.
Here's a look at the updated rankings, with the previous week's rankings in parenthesis.
1. (1) Hapeville Charter (3-0)
2. (2) Callaway (3-1)
3. (3) Thomasville (3-1)
4. (4) Bremen (3-0)
5. (5) Rockmart (4-0)
6. (6) Dodge County (4-0)
7. (7) Rabun County (3-1)
8. (9) Washington County (4-0)
9. (10) Vidalia (4-0)
10. (NR) Brooks County (3-1)
Out: No. 8 Dublin
In brief:
- As highlighted in GHSF Daily's top performances from week 5, R.J. Phillips of the Swainsboro Tigers hauled in 313 yards on eight receptions, which was just nine yards short of the state record 322 receiving yards by Decatur's Terryon Robinson in 2011. The 6-foot-2, 185 — listed on MaxPreps and Hudl as a tight end — also had four touchdowns.
- GHSF Daily top performance "best of the rest" honors go to Elbert County's Shun Allen (119 rushing yards, three touchdowns; 67-yard punt return touchdown), Harlem's A.J. Brown (217 yards, two touchdowns; 60-yard kickoff return), Hepzibah's Rayquan Riley (203 yards), Rabun County's Austin Jones (174 receiving yards, three touchdowns) and Swainsboro's Kade Youmans (19-of-53 passing for 457 yards and five touchdowns). Washington County earned "lines of distinction" honors for paving the way to 538 rushing yards.
- Former Chattooga running back Isaac Foster set a Kennesaw State record with his 100-yard kickoff return last week. Here's the run.
- Gordon Central and Pepperell played a nail-biter, with the Dragons pulling away 28-27. The Calhoun Times has a writeup, and here's a clip of the game-winning touchdown catch, which happened with eight seconds left.
- Pepperell coach Rick Hurst calls it an ugly win that he'll gladly take.
- With its 34-12 win over Dade County, the Model Blue Devils won their 7-AA opener and won for the first time in the Ricky Ross era. Ross replaced Gordon Powers, who retired after the 2017 season.
- Washington County's Malik Hall had 155 yards and two touchdowns in the Golden Hawks' shootout win over Swainsboro, earning local player of the week honors.
- At 4-0, the Rockmart Yellow Jackets are looking good and so do their hype videos.
- The Chattooga Indians improve to 3-1 after edging Coosa 34-32, led by Lashaun Lester's 285 rushing yards and three touchdowns — as reported by Casie Bryant for All On Georgia.
- Jefferson County's Josh Aiken-to-Armon Williams catch and run is a finalist for WTXL's play of the week.
- If the Jeff Davis Yellow Jackets beat Bacon County this week in their 2-AA opener, it will be the program's 300th win. They're off to a 4-0 start; Bacon County is 0-4.
- WJBF has highlights for Jefferson County, Josey, Washington County, Swainsboro, Butler and Hepzibah. Washington County's Dyquan Bloodsaw earned top plays honors for his 55-yard touchdown run.
- This 68-yard touchdown run by Callaway's Tank Bigsby demonstrates why he's one of the country's most-recruited running backs.
- Speaking of being recruited, look who was at Callaway's game.
- Here's Callaway's Qua Hines with a 17-yard touchdown run.
- The Heard County Braves, who reached the semifinals in 2017 and began the season ranked in the top five but lost two straight by a combined score of 66-3 — including a 33-0 loss to Rockmart on Sept. 7 — responded last week with a 45-0 win over Central-Carollton, their first shutout since beating Temple 41-0 on Sept. 23, 2016. The Heard Citizen has details.
- Hapeville Charter is rolling, off to a 3-0 start after beating Therrell 57-0 in its 6-AA opener. But there's always room for improvement and the Hornets will be doing suicides in practice this week after taking to long to get to the ball on this play.
- After opening the season with two shutout wins, Social Circle dropped its 8-AA opener to Banks County, 32-10. The Walton Tribune covered the game. The Redskins are 2-1, 0-1 in league play with Elbert County up next.
- Thomasville offensive lineman Grant Conger has been invited to play in the 2018 Georgia Junior Bowl.
- Union County is 4-0 for the fifth straight season after its 38-22 win over Monticello to open 8-AA play. AccessWDUN has details.
- In contrast of the AJC rankings, here's a look at last week's AA coaches poll. This week's rankings will come out Wednesday.
- WJCL has highlights of Vidalia's 35-6 win over Long County.
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