On paper, it looked like it might become one of the worst weekends of the season for Class AAA football.
When the results filtered in Friday night, it was.
After playing against some of the best higher-class competition in the state, and in some cases, against some of the top competition from other states, many of the top-10 teams in AAA jumped into region play this weekend. The results didn't scream of parity; instead they showed a seemingly ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots.
Five of the top-10 teams -- No. 1 Peach County, No. 2 Cedar Grove, No. 4 Greater Atlanta Christian, No. 9 Lovett and No. 10 Jefferson -- outscored opponents 227-33. And No. 8 Crisp County, playing a non-region game against Thomasville, won 32-14. The other top-10 teams enjoyed a bye week.
Forget the good and the bad ... here's the ugly:
-- No. 1 Peach defeated Pike County 38-0. The Trojans did all the damage in the first half after taking a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and tacking on 17 points in the second. Peach substituted liberally in the second half.
-- No. 2 Cedar Grove defeated Redan 57-0. The Saints led 20-0 after the first quarter, 40-0 at the break and used running clock in the second half. Quarterback Austin Smith passed for three touchdowns and scored on a 56-yard run. Chavon Wright scored on runs of 17 and 8 yards. Smith was 7-of-7 passing for 189 yards and three touchdowns. Cedar Grove ran 26 plays on offense and scored eight touchdowns.
-- No. 4 GAC defeated North Hall 45-21. Jackson Hardy passed for two touchdowns and rushed for one. Hardy opened scoring with a short touchdown run in the first quarter, and the Spartans added three touchdowns in the second quarter to break open the game. One of those scores came from Zac Mixon on a 96-yard kickoff return.
-- No. 9 Lovett defeated Towers 54-12. Lovett led 14-6 after the first quarter, but a 27-point second quarter put away the game. Lovett quarterback Blaine McAlister opened scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run. He passed to Charlie Hoke for a 23-yard touchdown with four minutes left in the first quarter. Henry Beery scored on a 12-yard touchdown run, and Michael Hollingsworth added touchdown runs of 6 and 1 yards before halftime.
-- No. 10 Jefferson defeated Franklin County 33-0. Jefferson led a 27-0 lead at halftime. The Dragons got touchdowns on an 8-yard run from quarterback Colby Clark, a 43-yard interception return and a 43-yard run from Malaki Starks, a 28-yard pass from Clark to Josh Cochran and another short run from Clark.
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