The No. 2-ranked Hapeville Charter Hornets traveled to AAA's No. 7 Pace Academy Knights and beat them handily, 37-3. This is the second "Game of the Week" that failed to live up to its name as the Hornets (2-1) made a mockery of their role as 1-point favorites as generated by the Maxwell projections.
It's the first time the Hornets have beaten Pace in four tries dating back to 2014, so for the senior class they go out having shifted the series momentum for a Hapeville Charter program on the come-up. Earlier in the week, a confident Chris Smith — the senior four-star defensive back — talked about how important a win against Pace would be to the team.
The Hornets have a chance to run the tables against Georgia schools, but face another tough non-region test next week when they travel to play Wesleyan, the No. 3 ranked team in A-Private.
Here’s how the rest of the top 10 faired:
- The No. 1 Benedictine Cadets (2-0) hosted AAAA's St. Pius and beat them 41-13. Dennis Knight of the Savannah Morning News has game story. Weather delays forced opening kickoff back to 9:30, but the wait was worth it for the Cadets, who earned Danny Britt his 100th career coaching victory. Nick Iannone threw for 141 yards and three touchdowns on 8-for-11 passing.
- The No. 3 Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane fell 24-21 at AAAAAAA's Camden County and drop to 1-2. Gordan Jackson of The Brunswick News had the game coverage and notes that Fitzgerald switched quarterbacks from star and team leader James Graham to Matthew Howell late in the game, but it's not clear why a change was made. Howell threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to its final margin. Graham accounted for the Purple Hurricane's other two touchdowns with a 48-yard run and 41-yard pass, but threw an interception on the drive before Howell entered.
- The No. 4 Screven County Gamecocks made easy work of Wade Hampton (an AAA school in South Carolina), beating them 48-13 to move to 2-0. WTOC has the highlights here .
- The No. 5 Rabun County Wildcats (2-0) won 28-6 at AAAA's Stephens County. Here's a recap from accessWDUN . Bailey Fisher accounted for all four of the Wildcats' touchdowns with two rushing and two passing, and completed 10 of his 16 passes for 189 yards.
- The No. 6 Callaway Cavaliers (2-0) blanked Handley (Alabama) — the Alabama Sports Writer Association's No. 1 team in AAAA — by a score of 35-0. Kevin Eckleberry of the LaGrange Daily News has the game story.
- The No. 7 Thomasville Bulldogs beat AAA's Monroe 45-7 to move to 3-0. Clint Thompson has the game story for the Thomasville Times-Enterprise . It was yet another record-setting night for the Bulldogs, with JT Rice throwing for a school record 428 yards. In the previous two weeks, kicker Carl Blackmore twice broke the record for longest field goal.
- The No. 8 Brooks County Trojans edged A-Public No. 1 Clinch County 17-14 and are now 2-0. Justin Lewis covered the game for The Valdosta Daily Times . The Trojans were down 14-0 before closing on a 17-0 run that began with an onside kick to start the second half.
- The No. 10 Dodge County Indians are 2-0 after beating AAAA's West Laurens 26-20 for their second narrow victory in a row.
On bye: No. 9 Jefferson County
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Credit: Adam Krohn
Credit: Adam Krohn
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