Here’s what to look for this weekend in the second round of the Class AAAAA playoffs:
- It makes for a tough draw when the second- and fourth-ranked teams have to meet in the second round, but that’s the challenge facing No. 2 Coffee and No. 4 Allatoona this week. Coffee (10-1) started the season at No. 3, fell to No. 6 after a 24-21 loss to top-ranked Ware County on Sept. 12, and gradually worked its way back up. Allatoona (11-0) was unranked in the preseason, but the Buccaneers found little resistance in winning the Region 5 championship. Allatoona was the first team to clinch a region title this season. The winner will meet Gainesville or Harris County in the quarterfinals.
- Allatoona is one of three undefeated Class AAAAA teams going into the second-round games. Ware County, which hosts Mays on Friday, went 10-0 during the regular season for the first time in program history, and the Gators’ 11-game winning streak is two short of the school record. Ware’s 2012 team lost its opener against Coffee and then won 13 straight before losing to Gainesville in the state championship game. Third-ranked Kell went 10-0 in the regular season for the second consecutive season and third time overall. Kell, which lost to Creekside in the semifinals last season, is at home this week against Jones County. The other Class AAAAA team that was undefeated going into the playoffs, No. 5 Lanier, was upset by Sequoyah 24-21 in the first round.
- Region 6-AAAAA, long considered one of the state’s strongest, took a hit when perennial state power Tucker moved up to Class AAAAAA. However, the blow was softened when defending state champion Creekside moved over from 4-AAAAA. The region got three teams into the final 16, and two – Stephenson and Creekside – are favored to win this week by the computer Maxwell Ratings. Mays has the toughest task of the three, travelling to top-ranked Ware County. Mays has never been to the quarterfinals, going 0-4 in its previous second-round games.
- Only five teams remain that have ever won a GHSA championship, and all are on the right-hand side of the bracket. Gainesville (2012) and Creekside (2013) are the two most-recent state champions in AAAAA. Northside-Warner Robins has won two titles (2006, 2007), and Dalton (1967) and Glynn Academy (1964) have won one each. Glynn Academy plays Creekside and Dalton faces Northside this week, and the winners will meet in the quarterfinals. Three other schools with state titles in their histories – Carver-Columbus, LaGrange and Warner Robins – were eliminated in the first round.
- Here are the matchups for Round 2:
Mays at Ware County
Jones County at Kell
Stephenson at Stockbridge
Sequoyah at Houston County
Glynn Academy at Creekside
Dalton at Northside-Warner Robins
Coffee at Allatoona
Gainesville at Harris County
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