All of the turmoil that has taken place in the Class AAAAAA football rankings this season have not had any impact on Lee County and Coffee, the Region 1 teams that met for the state championship in December.
Teams other than Lee County and Coffee that were ranked in the top 10 were just 10-13 over the first three weeks of the season. But top-ranked Lee County (the defending champion) and No. 2 Coffee (the 2017 runner-up) just keep rolling along.
Lee County improved to 4-0 with a 49-7 victory Friday over Class AAAA Americus-Sumter. The Trojans, who are 18-1 since the start of the 2017 season, have outscored their opponents 164-16 this year.
Coffee also is 4-0 after a 54-6 victory over Taravella of Coral Springs, Fla. Coffee has won 11 consecutive games when playing anybody other than Lee County, which won both meetings with Coffee last season.
The rest of five-team Region 1-AAAAAA didn’t fare as well this week. Northside-Warner Robins (2-2) beat Whitewater 41-3, but Houston County (2-2) lost to Peach County 49-14 and Valdosta (2-2) lost to Class AAAAAAA No. 1 Colquitt County 48-13.
Here are some of the other big stories in Class AAAAAA from Week 3:
*Battle of top 10 teams: No. 10 Sequoyah moved into the rankings this week for the first time since 2009, and the Chiefs made the most of it, routing No. 5 Dalton 42-14 in the only matchup between ranked Class AAAAAA teams. The victory put Sequoyah at 3-0 overall (2-0 in the region) for the first time since 2008 and left the Chiefs in a tie for first place with No. 3 Harrison and No. 4 Creekview. The three other leading playoff contenders in Region 6 – Harrison, Creekview and Allatoona – all had easy times. Harrison (4-0, 2-0) beat South Cobb 45-27; Creekview (4-0, 2-0) rolled past Osborne 46-7; and Allatoona (1-2, 1-1) beat River Ridge 52-10. South Cobb, Osborne and River Ridge are all 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the region. Dalton hosts Creekview next weekend.
*Finding their happy place II: Last week, it was Tucker that opened region play (4-AAAAAA) with a lopsided victory after losing its first two games of the season. This week, the distinction belongs to Mays, which took care of Hughes 26-0. Mays had lost to Norcross 42-26 and Central-Phenix City (Ala.) 42-18 in its two non-region games. Mays was the Region 5 champion each of the past two seasons, winning all 16 of its region games during that stretch. Hughes has been outscored 84-7 in its three games. Other Region 5 winners this week were Douglas County, Alexander and Creekside, which beat New Manchester 38-0 to snap a 12-game losing streak.
*Region 7 begins league play: Defending champion Alpharetta had the week off as league play began in Region 7. The most significant victory was likely Centennial's 35-28 win over Pope. Both were playoff teams last year – Centennial as the region runner-up, and Pope as the fourth-place team. Pope's Zach Owens (committed to Georgia Tech) had 104 yards rushing and 96 yards receiving and scored all four of his team's touchdowns. "Zach is just unbelievable. He is obviously our go-to guy," Pope coach Tab Griffin told Matt Nascone of the Marietta Daily Journal. "When the game is on the line, he is going to touch it and he is going to touch it a lot."
*The top 10: Here's a look at this week's top-10 teams, with their results from Friday night and their games for next week:
No. 1 Lee County – Beat Americus-Sumter 49-7; Next week vs. Southwest-Macon
No. 2 Coffee – Beat Taravella, Fla., 54-6; Next week vs. Miller Grove
No. 3 Harrison – Beat South Cobb 45-27; Next week vs. Sprayberry
No. 4 Creekview – Beat Osborne 46-7; Next week at Dalton
No. 5 Dalton – Lost to Sequoyah 42-14; Next week vs. Creekview
No. 6 Glynn Academy – Did not play; Next week at Wayne County
No. 7 Valdosta – Lost to Colquitt County 48-13; Next week vs. Beaufort, S.C.
No. 8 Alpharetta – Did not play; Next week at Pope
No. 9 Tucker – Did not play; Next week vs. Mundy’s Mill (at Adams Stadium)
No. 10 Sequoyah – Beat Dalton 42-14; Next week vs. Campbell
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