Upsets and bad weather were the dominant stories in Class AAAAAA in the fourth week of the high school football season.
Mount Zion of Jonesboro kicked off the weekend Thursday night with the most significant upset of the year when it knocked off Stephenson 14-9 in the teams’ Region 4-AAAAAA opener. Stephenson is the defending region champion and was ranked No. 7 in the classification this week. The Jaguars, who won the previous three meetings with Mount Zion by a combined score of 105-2 (including 41-0 last year), had been projected as 28-point favorites by the computer Maxwell Ratings. Mount Zion went 2-8 last season and finished eighth in the nine-team region.
Victories by Valdosta, which moved to No. 1 in the rankings this week, are rarely considered an upset, but its 50-49 win Friday against Colquitt County was one. Colquitt, ranked No. 2 in AAAAAAA, had won the past six games in the series, the past five by at least 21 points, and was a 19-point favorite, according to Maxwell.
Colquitt County trailed by 21 points early but took its first lead when a Jaycee Harden touchdown pass made it 49-42 with about five minutes to play. Valdosta answered with a touchdown drive of its own, pulling to within 49-48 on a 1-yard touchdown dive by TJ Dailey with 1:03 to play. The Wildcats converted the two-point try for the 50-49 lead.
Colquitt County has one last shot to win, but a 41-yard field goal attempt with 12 seconds was wide to the left.
“They’re a good football team. They just made one more play than we did,” Colquitt County coach Justin Rogers said.
Houston County, the only unranked team in Valdosta’s Region 1, managed to do something that fellow region teams Northside-Warner Robins and Lee County weren’t able to accomplish – beat Peach County. The Bears knocked off the No. 1 team in Class AAA 32-31 in overtime in a game they entered as 24-point underdogs. Houston County is 4-0 for the first time since 2016, when Jake Fromm was the quarterback. The Bears were a combined 4-16 the past two seasons.
Peach County led 24-10 late in the third quarter, but Houston County rallied to force overtime and then won it when Max Rigby threw a pass to Jaylen Mills for the game-winning two-point conversion.
Peach County beat the Bears 44-14 in 2017 and 49-14 last year. The Trojans had beaten Northside 21-13 and Lee County 40-17 the past two weeks.
Lightning and thunderstorms in much of north Georgia Friday night forced the postponement or cancellation of more than 30 games across the state, including 15 involving Class AAAAAA teams. Here are those games, and the makeup plans that were available late Friday evening.
- Liberty County at Evans, canceled
- Washington County at Greenbrier, postponed to Saturday
- Forest Park at Tucker, postponed (TBA)
- Alexander at South Paulding, postponed to Saturday
- Creekside at New Manchester, postponed (TBA)
- Harrison at South Cobb, postponed to Saturday
- Allatoona at River Ridge, postponed to Saturday
- Creekview at Osborne, postponed to Monday
- Dunwoody at Cambridge, postponed to Saturday
- Chattahoochee at Northview, postponed to Saturday
- Centennial at Pope, postponed to Saturday
- North Atlanta at Johns Creek, postponed to Monday
- Habersham Central at Franklin County, postponed to Sept. 27
- Flowery Branch at Winder-Barrow, canceled
- Jackson County at Apalachee, postponed to Saturday
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