Five things learned in the high class tonight …
Wait, there are six bullets here.
Just pick the five that you actually learned and skip the rest. :)
-Lassiter is legitimate: The Trojans (5-0) beat No. 8 South Forsyth 35-21. Lassiter, a team that went 5-5 last season and 1-9 the one before, was observed skeptically with its No. 6 ranking. But that's at least two pretty good wins now for the Trojans. The first was Kell, which otherwise is undefeated and has beaten Tucker, which has beaten Colquitt County. The second (South Forsyth) is a 2015 region champion and quarterfinalist. What is legitimate? Not talking titles yet, but Lassiter clearly deserves to be ranked and respected. Next for Lassiter is No. 1 Roswell on the road Oct. 7. Those would be two of the five undefeated teams left in 7A.
-Colquitt County is the team to beat in Region 1: Despite the 0-4 start, Colquitt County is the region favorite again. A week after blowing out Brookwood last week, the Packers beat Valdosta, the No. 3 team in Class 6A, 45-24 on the road tonight. Remember that Valdosta beat No. 7 Lowndes 38-13 in the opener and Tift County 42-13 last week. And Camden County (1-4) is the least of anyone's worries at the moment. Just a four-team region. No a piece of cake, but quite edible.
-South Gwinnett is rank-able again: South Gwinnett got bumped from the rankings last week without even playing, much less losing, partly because the Comets' best victory, over Brookwood on Sept. 2, didn't look so hot after Colquitt drilled Brookwood 52-14. South then beat Hillgrove 27-13 tonight. Not that Hillgrove (2-3) is awesome, but the Hawks did beat South Forsyth, the only team that had beaten South Gwinnett. So you might say that South indirectly scrubbed that stain away. Most of it.
-McEachern can score: No. 4 McEachern (4-1) got some grief in this space for its offense's failure to score touchdowns against Grayson (16-13 loss) and Westlake (6-2 win). The Indians beat Camden County 34-3 on Friday. Camden's struggles are real, but still a nice confidence boost for McEachern.
-Grayson is really good: Grayson (3-1) beat Ramsay (Ala.) 38-6. Ramsay was 5-0 and ranked No. 3 in Alabama's second-highest class, 6A. The Rams continue to show signs of moving forward, if not being the team it was expected to be (preseason No. 1). (Ramsay is also known as the Rams, but don't be confused by that.) Also looking good are No. 1 Roswell, which beat Archer 47-0, and No. 2 Mill Creek, which beat Collins Hill 43-7. Archer and Collins Hill aren't what they used to be (about 1-10 combined), but still nice wins in their decisiveness.
-North Paulding is the only unbeaten, unranked: There had been three of those, but Forsyth Central (3-1) lost to Kennesaw Mountain 32-17, and Mountain View (4-1) lost to North Gwinnet 38-14. But North Paulding (5-0) - a fun-to-watch-team that throws for about 300 yards a game - survived and is knocking on the door of a state ranking. The Wolfpack defeated Cherokee 31-21. If North can enter the McEachern game Oct. 21 still unbeaten, that would be an achievement. Beating Hillgrove and North Cobb in the meantime would take a pretty strong effort.
