In the only matchup involving two ranked AA teams, the No. 4 Callaway Cavaliers hosted and beat the No. 9 Heard County Braves 24-14 to move to 7-0, while the Braves dropped to 5-3 and likely lost their spot in the rankings. More importantly for the two teams than the polls is the implications the game had for Region 5.
The Cavs are 2-0 in league play, good for a share of first place with Spencer. Those two play Oct. 28. The Braves are now 1-1 with Lamar County to round out the region's top four.
The No. 1-ranked Benedictine Cadets overcame the challenges presented by Hurricane Matthew to take out Toombs County on the road, 42-13. This was a game originally scheduled to be played in Savannah, but with Matthew forcing the city to evacuate last week, coupled with the school being closed through this week, the Cadets were forced to hit the road and postpone their homecoming.
By looking only at the scoreboard, you would have never known what the Benedictine community endured over the previous 10 days. With the win in Region 2 play, the Cadets (6-0, 3-0) have all but clinched a No. 1 seed. They've already beat Vidalia and Toombs County (5-2, 3-1) was the region's only other unbeaten team.
In Region 7, the No. 10 Pepperell Dragons took charge with a convincing 31-7 win over Rockmart. The Dragons are now 5-1 and 4-0 in league play and only Chattooga (4-3, 3-1) stands in their way and that's only if Chattooga doesn't lose another game before the two teams meet in the season finale on Nov. 4. Of course, that's assuming the Dragons also beat Dade County and Armuchee (both 1-3 in league play) in the meantime. In other words, Pepperell is in a very good place.
Here's how the rest of the top 10 fared:
- No. 2 Fitzgerald shut out Berrien 42-0. The Purples Hurricane are now 6-1 and 2-0 in Region 1.
- No. 3 Jefferson County beat Butler 44-8 in Region 4 to improve to 8-0 (5-0).
- No. 5 Rabun County is now 5-0 after running up the score on Social Circle, 67-5. The Wildcats are 6-0 (2-0 Region 8).
- No. 6 Brooks County shut out Albany 42-0 and are 6-1 and 2-0 in Region 1.
- No. 7 Vidalia beat Jeff Davis 42-7 to improve to 5-2 and 3-1 in Region 2.
- No. 8 Screven County beat Westside-Augusta 40-0 ans is now 6-1 (4-0 Region 4).
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