Class AA blog: Week 11 Friday night recap

The Bleckley County Royals finally overcame their fiercest rival.

On Friday, the No. 7 Royals withstood a furious rally and defeated the Dodge County Indians, 41-34, to improve to 7-2, 4-1 in Region 3, clinching second place and home-field advantage in the first round. The Royals led 27-6 at halftime. The win snaps a five-game losing streak to the Indians dating back to 2014.

Dave Whitaker has the game story for The Bleckley Progress.

The Indians (4-6, 3-3) remain in fourth place in the region and should still qualify for the playoffs in what is considered a down year for the program under first-year coach Ken Cofer. Their regular season is over with their bye next week, and it’s their first losing regular season since 2013. They were a combined 20-3 the last two seasons including the playoffs.

There were also two major upsets of ranked teams on Friday: Jeff Davis beat No. 6 Swainsboro 21-14, and Northeast beat No. 9 Washington County 26-13 (see the bullet below for details on Washington County).

In Hazlehurst, the Swainsboro Tigers needed a win to clinch the region but unranked Jeff Davis — a 29-point underdog according to Maxwell’s projections — played the role of spoiler. The Tigers are now 7-2, 4-1 and fall into a tie for first with Metter (8-1, 4-1), which beat Vidalia 21-3 on Friday.

The good news for the Tigers is they hold the tiebreaker over Metter because they beat them 14-7 on Oct. 4. So, if they beat Toombs County (6-2, 3-2) next week, they’ll win the region for a second straight year. If they lose and Metter beats Jeff Davis (7-2, 3-2), then Metter wins the region.

However, there could be chaos in Region 2.

Vidalia (6-3, 3-2) is likely to beat Bacon County (1-8, 1-4), so if Swainsboro and Metter lose then Swainsboro, Metter, Toombs County and Vidalia will all be 4-2. In that event, Swainsboro coach Scott Roberts said there will be a discussion among the 2-AA coaches.

Roberts issued the following statement when asked about that scenario:

“In a three-way tie, it is point differential between the three teams — capped at 15 (points) for a game — to get the highest seed, then it goes back to head to head for the other two. I'm sure we'll have some clarification this week for four-way (tie).”

Correction: If Swainsboro and Metter lose, and Vidalia win, five teams will have 4-2 region records: Swainsboro, Metter, Vidalia, Toombs County and Jeff Davis, meaning there will be more teams than playoff spots. A conversation will be had to sort the mess, according to two region coaches. 

ToombsNow has details of the Jeff Davis win, including a breakdown of the head-to-head matchups of the region's top four teams.

Finally, Hapeville Charter and Jefferson County clinched their regions.

For No. 4 Hapeville Charter (7-1-1, 6-0 in Region 6), the 41-18 win over Washington served as a formality to what was a foregone conclusion: that the Hornets would win 6-AA for a fourth straight year.

In Louisville, the unranked Jefferson County Warriors rode a seven-game win streak to another region title after starting the season 0-2. They beat Westside-Augusta 41-7 for their second straight 4-AA title and their third region championship since 2015. The Warriors are 7-2, 7-0.