Cartersville and Marion County are new No. 1 teams in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution football rankings.
Cartersville took Buford’s place atop Class AAAA after Buford’s 42-game winning streak was snapped last week by McEachern, the No. 2 team in Class AAAAAA, 37-14. Buford had been No. 1 for 32 ranking weeks dating to 2012, the season of Buford’s most recent defeat.
Cartersville, which defeated North Cobb last week to avenge its only regular-season loss from 2014, is No. 1 for the first time since 2005. Buford fell to No. 2. Buford beat Cartersville 27-3 in the 2014 semifinals.
In Class A, Marion County No. 1 for the first time in a football history that dates to 1976, when the Eagles were part of Tri-County High. Marion became independent in 2006, and its football history has begun to soar. The Eagles are 56-8 since 2010, when Mike Swaney became their head coach.
Room at the top of Class A was made when previous No. 1 Eagle’s Landing Christian lost to Greater Atlanta Christian 33-3 and fell to 1-2.
Meanwhile, three of the 10 longest active rankings streaks are over.
Washington County, the 2014 AAA runner-up, is out after a 38-14 loss to Mary Persons. Lovett of AA dropped to 0-3 after a 16-15 loss to Marist. Both had been ranked for 45 straight ranking weeks.
Also gone is Griffin in AAAA after 31 weeks. Griffin lost to Burke County 28-27.
Eight teams are newly ranked this week. They are Walton for Dacula in AAAAAA, Lanier for Carver-Columbus in AAAAA, Burke County and Jonesboro for St. Pius and Griffin in AAAA, Westside-Macon, Central-Carroll and Cook for Washington County, Westminster and Pierce County in AAA and Dublin for Lovett in AA.
There will be seven games this week between ranked teams. The marquee matchup is No. 1 Archer at No. 4 Grayson in Class AAAAAA. Grayson won the 2014 game 14-10 with a goal-line stand in the final minute, dropping Archer to 0-3, but Archer then won 11 straight and wound up in the state-title game.
Other games this week matching ranked teams are No. 8 Walton at No. 7 Etowah (AAAAAA), No. 6 Ware County at No. 7 Coffee (AAAAA), No. 5 Mary Persons (AAAA) at No. 6 Lamar County (AA), No. 4 West Laurens (AAAA) at No. 8 Westside-Macon (AAA), No. 8 Thomson at No. 6 Hart County (AAA) and No. 3Jefferson at No. 10 Commerce (A).
Class AAAAAA
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