The final Friday of the regular season is in the books; the Class AAA high school football bracket is set.
Your region champions: Region 1: Crisp County; 2: Pierce County; 3: Benedictine; 4: Peach County; 5: Cedar Grove; 6: Calhoun; 7: Greater Atlanta Christian; 8: Monroe Area.
Here were the highlights:
-- Top-ranked Calhoun clinched its 18th consecutive region title, a state record, following a 49-0 victory against Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe. Calhoun celebrated Lamb's victory with a plaque presented to him by his father, Ray, a legendary high school coach in Georgia who won 249 games and three state titles in his career. The Yellow Jackets, who were aware of Lakeview's thoughts of an upset, scored on each of its first four possessions to silence any chances of a disappointing evening in Calhoun.
-- The one surprise on Friday, if you want to call it that, was Lovett's (5-5, 4-3) 34-28 victory against No. 5 Westminster (6-4, 4-2) to snatch away the No. 2 seed from Region 5. Blaine McAllister threw three touchdown passes and rushed for another score. Lovett took a 21-17 lead in the third quarter on a 62-yard touchdown pass from McAllister to Will Bray for the fifth and final lead change of the game. The Lions extended their advantage to 34-20 in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard run by McAllister before Westminster mounted a late charge. The Wildcats cut into the lead on a Parks Harber-to-Luke Jannetta touchdown pass with four minutes left and got the ball back with two minutes remaining while trailing 34-28. But K.J. Wallace came up with a game-clinching interception for Lovett—his second of the night – to win the No. 2 seed in the region.
-- In Region 2, Pierce County capped off a 10-0 regular season with a 29-26 victory against Liberty County after being behind 26-7 at the half. Pierce then held Liberty scoreless in the second half to claim its place at the top of the region.
-- In the Region 4, No. 4 Peach County took the No. 1 seed with a 28-12 victory against Westside-Macon. Peach, scoring in each quarter, took a 14-6 halftime lead and held Westside scoreless in the first and fourth quarters. Peach will face Ringgold in the first round of the playoffs.
Here are the first-round pairings in the AAA state playoffs:
Region 4 No. 3-seed Jackson at R1 No. seed Monroe
R3 No. 4 Windsor Forest at R2 No. 1 Pierce County
R6 No. 3 Haralson County at R7 No. 2 Dawson County
R5 No. 4 Pace Academy at R8 No. 1 Monroe Area
R1 No. 3 Cook County at R4 No. 2 Westside-Macon
R2 No. 4 Tattnall County at R3 No. 1 Benedictine
R7 No. 3 North Hall at R6 No. 2 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
R8 No. 4 Hart County at R5 No. 1 Cedar Grove
R2 No. 3 Liberty County at R3 No. 2 Southeast Bulloch
At Large Ringgold (Projection) at R4 No. 1 Peach County
R5 No. 3 Westminster at R8 No. 2 Jefferson
R6 No. 4 North Murray at R7 No. 1 Greater Atlanta Christian
R3 No. 3 Jenkins at R2 No. 2 Appling County
R4 No. 4 Pike County at R1 No. 1 Crisp County
R8 No. 3 Morgan County at R5 No. 2 Lovett
R7 No. 4 Fannin County at R6 No. 1 Calhoun
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