Five region championships and the nine remaining unclaimed playoff berths in Class AAAAAA were secured on the final weekend of the high school football regular season.
- The most dramatic title-clinching game came in Region 6, where Creekview’s Cade Radam ran in a two-point conversion in overtime to give the Grizzlies a 36-35 victory over defending region champion Harrison. The win gave Creekview, which opened in 2006, the first region title and first 10-0 regular season in school history. Harrison could have won the championship with a victory but instead finished as the No. 4 seed. The Hoyas tied for second place with Sequoyah and Allatoona, but Sequoyah got the No. 2 seed based on the region’s point-differential tiebreaker, followed by Allatoona and Harrison.
- Grovetown, which opened in 2009, won the first region title in its history when it beat defending champion Evans 30-20 in Region 3. Last season, Grovetown finished second to Evans, with the Knights’ 42-32 victory midway through the region schedule ultimately deciding the championship. Like Harrison, Evans could have won the title with a victory but ended up as the No. 4 seed after dropping into a tie for second place with Greenbrier and Lakeside-Evans and losing out on the tiebreaker. Greenbrier, which will be making its first playoff appearance since 2003, earned the No. 2 seed, followed by Lakeside and Evans.
- Stephenson ended Tucker’s 25-game winning streak in region games and two-year reign as region champion with a 30-24 victory in a matchup of 4-AAAAAA teams that were unbeaten in region play. The championship was Stephenson’s first since 2015 and only its second in nine years. Lovejoy was already locked in as the third seed. Mundy’s Mill beat Drew 28-10 in the game that decided fourth place. Mundy’s Mill, a 2-8 team a year ago, will be making its first playoff appearance since 2014 but has the unenviable task of traveling to top-ranked Lee County for its first-round game.
- Creekside beat South Paulding 44-7 to clinch the Region 5 championship, becoming the first team since Adairsville in 2000 to go winless one season and win a region title the next. It is the first region title for the Seminoles since 2014. Douglas County, which finished tied with Creekside but lost the head-to-head matchup, is the No. 2 seed. Defending region champion Mays beat Northgate in the game that decided the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
- Glynn Academy beat Bradwell Institute 42-21 in a Region 2 game to clinch its third consecutive region championship. The Red Terrors reached at least the state quarterfinals each of the past four seasons. Bradwell Institute, like Harrison and Evans, could have won the region title with a victory but finished as the No. 4 seed after ties were sorted out. Bradwell finished tied with Effingham County, which is the No. 2 seed, and Richmond Hill, which will be the No. 3. Bradwell hasn’t won a region title since 1997.
- Lee County (Region 1), Johns Creek (Region 7) and Dacula clinched their region titles last week. Other teams securing playoff berths on Friday were Coffee and Northside-Warner Robins in Region 1, Alpharetta and Pope in Region 7, and Habersham Central and Gainesville in Region 8. Gainesville started the season 0-7 and lost to Lanier 6-2 in the regular-season finale to finish 2-8, but its 2-3 region record was good enough to earn its 19th consecutive playoff berth. Habersham Central will be in the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
- According to the GHSA Web site late Friday night, here are the first-round matchups:
(R4 #3) Lovejoy at (R1 #2) Valdosta
(R3 #4) Evans at (R2 #1) Glynn Academy
(R6 #3) Allatoona at (R7 #2) Centennial
(R5 #4) Northgate at (R8 #1) Dacula
(R1 #3) Northside-Warner Robins at (R4 #2) Tucker
(R2 #4) Bradwell Institute at (R3 #1) Grovetown
(R7 #3) Alpharetta at (R6 #2) Sequoyah
(R8 #4) Gainesville at (R5 #1) Creekside
(R2 #3) Richmond Hill at (R3 #2) Greenbrier
(R1 #4) Coffee at (R4 #1) Stephenson
(R5 #3) Mays at (R8 #2) Lanier
(R6 #4) Harrison at (R7 #1) Johns Creek
(R3 #3) Lakeside-Evans at (R2 #2) Effingham County
(R4 #4) Mundy’s Mill at (R1 #1) Lee County
(R8 #3) Habersham Central at (R5 #2) Douglas County
(R7 #4) Pope at (R6 #1) Creekview
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