Richmond Hill became the first Class AAAAAA team to clinch a region title this season, and Lee County and Mays moved into the driver’s seat in their regions with big victories Friday night.
- Richmond Hill of Region 2 clinched its first region title since 1996, and second in school history, with a 34-24 victory over Bradwell Institute. Jalen Rouse ran for 223 yards and three touchdowns for the Wildcats, who improved to 5-3 overall and 3-0 in the region. Richmond Hill plays Wayne County in a non-region game next week and concludes the regular season at Effingham County. Even if the Wildcats lose to Effingham, they would finish no worse than tied for first place with the Bradwell Institute-Glynn Academy winner, and they would win the tiebreaker because they beat both teams.
- Fourth-ranked Lee County, the two-time defending champion of both Region 1 and Class AAAAAA, moved into sole possession of first place with a 53-50 victory over second-ranked Valdosta, which would have clinched the region title with a victory. Lee County still needs to beat Coffee in the regular-season finale to clinch the outright region title, regardless of what happens in its game against Houston County next week.
- Mays is alone in first place in Region 5 after beating South Paulding 28-7 in a matchup of the two teams that had not lost a region game. Mays is one game ahead of South Paulding and defending region champion Creekside and has beaten both teams, so the Raiders can clinch their third region title in four years with a victory against Alexander next weekend (or against Northgate the following week). Barring a major upset, the Region 5 playoff teams will be Mays, South Paulding, Creekside and the winner of the Alexander-Douglas County game on Nov. 8.
- The Region 7 title will be decided next week when Alpharetta travels to Johns Creek. Both are undefeated in region play, and no other team has fewer than three region losses, so the winner will be the No. 1 seed and the loser will be the No. 2 seed. Three-loss teams Pope, North Atlanta, Northview are battling for the region’s other two playoff spots, although four-loss teams Cambridge and Dunwoody aren’t mathematically eliminated yet.
- Top-ranked Dacula can clinch the Region 8 championship when it visits fifth-ranked Lanier in the biggest game on the Class AAAAAA schedule next weekend.. Both are 8-0 overall and 3-0 in the region. A victory would give the Falcons a one-game lead over the Longhorns and possibly Gainesville, but Dacula would have beaten both teams. Lanier would still need to beat Gainesville on Nov. 8 to avoid a three-way tie for first unless Gainesville (4-4, 2-1) loses next week against Apalachee, (2-6, 0-3).
- In the other Class AAAAAA regions: Tucker moved into first place in Region 4 with a 23-13 victory over M.L. King, which entered the night tied with the Tigers and Stephenson at the top of the standings. Stephenson can pull back even with Tucker by beating Drew in a Saturday night game. Region 4 is the only one in the classification without an unbeaten team in region play. … Evans is one win away from clinching the Region 3 championship after beating Greenbrier 46-15. Evans (5-2, 3-0) is one game ahead of Heritage-Conyers and Lakeside-Evans, both of which lost to Evans. The Knights can clinch by beating either Alcovy (2-6, 1-2) or Grovetown (3-5, 0-3) in their final two games. … The most significant game in Region 6 this week was Sequoyah’s 29-14 victory of Sprayberry. That left Sequoyah, Creekview and Dalton in a tie for third place behind Harrison and Allatoona. Sprayberry isn’t out of contention yet but must win at Creekview next weekend to retain a realistic shot at the playoffs.
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