The Friday performances from the top 10 in Class AAA provided a little bit of everything -- unnecessary postponements, a touch or rain here and there, a top-ranked team avoiding an upset and a higher-class program suffering its first-ever loss to a newly-ranked AAA school that was aided by a wild play early in the game.
Here's what we saw:
1. Calhoun (4-0): Defeated North Murray 34-10. Notable: Top-ranked Calhoun made an adjustment at halftime to score 34 unanswered points after falling behind North Murray 10-0 in the first quarter. Calhoun rallied back with a rushing touchdown from Zack Fuller, which was set up by a 49-yard pass from Gavin Gray to Brannon Spector, a Clemson commitment. Gray then connected with Collin Baggett on a 19-yard screen pass. Luke Moseley's two touchdowns catches in the second half (80 and 20 yards) cemented the comeback victory. Gray finished with more than 280 passing yards.
2. Cedar Grove (3-1): Off this week. Plays host to No. 10 Lovett on Friday.
3. Peach County (2-2): Lost to Class AAAA No. 4 Mary Persons, 35-21. Peach County allowed Mary Persons two defensive touchdowns, one on a fumble recovery by Bulldogs Danny Lavelle to put Mary Persons ahead 21-7. Desmond Williams' interception return added to Peach's frustrations. This game marked the final of Peach's four-game opening schedule -- all against higher-class opponents. The Trojans defeated Northside-Warner Robins and Houston County and lost against No. 1 Lee County and Persons. Peach County might drop in the polls, but the likelihood that the losses will impact anything in AAA is slim.
4. Monroe Area (4-0): Off this week. Plays host to Morgan County on Friday.
5. Westminster (2-2): Off this week. Travels to Towers on Friday.
6. Greater Atlanta Christian (2-2): Defeated Thomson 41-14. Notable: After losing two consecutive games, GAC was pleased to get back on track. The Spartans relied heavily on Jake Floyd, who scored three touchdowns. Floyd caught touchdown passes from Josh Rose and Jackson Hardy. Rose also passed to Ty James for a 25-yard touchdown. GAC's run game was productive, with touchdowns from Tyler Bride and Montae Bailey. Thomson was ranked sixth in the AAAA polls in Week 4 before dropping out last week after its loss to Clarke Central.
7. Benedictine (1-1): Was scheduled to play host to Groves, but the game was postponed/cancelled due to threat of weather.
8. Pace Academy (2-2): Off this week. Plays host to Redan on Friday.
9. Jefferson (3-1): Defeated Gainesville 41-10. Jefferson weathered all sorts of trouble before blowing out Gainesville (0-4) at home. The Dragons were sloppy in the first half -- fumbling four times in the third-ever meeting between the two programs. Trailing 10-7 entering an hour-long rain delay, the Dragons scored two quick touchdowns, one on a 30-yard keeper by quarterback Colby Clark and one on a 32-yard pass from Clark to Zac Corbin.
10. Dawson County (4-0): Defeated Denmark 38-21. Newly ranked Dawson County had the privilege of handing first-year school Denmark (AAAA) its first loss in school history as it capitalized on every mistake Denmark made. But according to David Almeda of the Forsyth County News, mistakes, missed opportunities and one remarkable play summed up Dawson's ability to capitalize, even if a little luck was involved. In the first quarter, Dawson County quarterback SeVaughan Clark passed toward Ryan Glass in the back left of the end zone. The pass, which in any other situation would have been incomplete, deflected off the helmet of a Denmark player as it was sailing out of bounds and bounced back into Glass' hands.
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