1. Marietta 21, St. Joseph's Prep (Pa.) 17: Marietta validated its standing as the No. 1 team in AAAAAAA when it rallied to beat a team ranked among the top 20 in virtually every national poll. The Blue Devils' offense gets a lot of the attention, but the defense has been outstanding, allowing just 31 points in two games after giving up 91 during an 0-2 start in 2018.
2. St. Pius 10, Dunwoody 8: St. Pius, projected as a 40-point favorite by the computer Maxwell Ratings, escaped what would have been the biggest upset of the season so far when Eli Marshbank kicked a field goal in the final minutes for a two-point victory. St. Pius won last year's meeting 45-21 and has won three straight in the series, which it leads 6-2.
3. Tough week for Lovett, Pace: Lovett and Pace Academy were heavy underdogs going into their Week 2 games, but things turned out worse than expected, as both trailed 42-0 at halftime and lost 49-0. Lovett's loss to Marist was tied for the third-most lopsided in school history. Pace Academy's loss to Eagle's Landing Christian was tied for the second-worst.
4. Bowdon 20, Bremen 7: Bowdon, a longtime power in west Georgia that has struggled in recent years and went 1-9 last season, is 2-0 for the first time since 2013 after its victory over a Bremen team that came in as a 28-point favorite. Bowdon lost the past two meetings, including 41-7 last season, but leads the series 45-28. Bremen (9-3 last year) is 0-2.
5. Gilmer 56, Towns County 12: Gilmer, in its first season under former Pebblebrook coach Kevin Saunders, ended a 31-game losing with a victory over a Class A team that was projected as a seven-point favorite. The Bobcats were 0-10 each of the past three seasons and lost in the 2019 opener. The Bobcats' previous longest losing streak was 16 games.
Worth noting: Brantley County beat 21-point favorite Charlton County 34-16 for just its second victory in the past 26 meetings in the series. Charlton was No. 6 in Class A (public) last week. Brantley ended a 22-game losing streak to the Indians in 2016. ... Collins Hill, which started the season 0-4 last year against a rugged stretch that included games against Walton, Marietta, Brookwood and McEachern, got off on the right foot in 2019 with a 12-10 victory over Walton, which was a 25-point favorite. ... Chattahoochee, a 17-point underdog, beat Lambert 46-28 to end a 13-game losing streak that, ironically, began during a 7-4 playoff season. The Cougars lost the final game of the regular season and the first-round playoff game in 2017, went 0-10 in 2018 and lost the season opener this year. ... Three other teams that went 0-10 last season ended long losing streaks. Rutland (23 games) beat Hawkinsville 44-21; Fayette County (15 games) beat Pike County 34-21; and Oglethorpe County (11 games) beat Georgia Military 14-7. ... M.L. King, which lost to Villa Rica 28-19 in the 2018 opener as part of what would become a school-worst 1-9 season, turned the tables on the 24-point favorite Wildcats with a 26-14 victory. It was the Lions' first season-opening win since 2016.
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