Mountain View and Marietta handily defeated No. 1 seeds on Friday in an otherwise fairly predictable first round in Class AAAAAAA.
Mountain View beat Region 5 champion South Forsyth 31-13 while Marietta beat Region 2 champ Westlake 34-7.
This is the first time that two No. 1 seeds have gone down in the first round of the highest classification since 2012, when Colquitt County beat McEachern, and Brookwood beat Lassiter.
The outcomes were not shocking in either game Friday, although the scores might’ve been.
Marietta was the classification’s at-large playoff team, given to the highest-rated fifth-place finisher. But Marietta (7-4) returned its star quarterback, Bailey Harrison, who had missed several games with a shoulder injury. Westlake (7-4) made the semifinals last year but was unranked most of this season.
With its first playoff win since 2013, Marietta advances to face Woodstock (7-4) – a 28-14 winner over North Paulding - next week. A victory there would put Marietta in the quarterfinals for the first time since 1994. Woodstock hasn’t been to the quarters since 2008, and neither has been ranked this season, so there’s your surprise elite-eight team in either case.
Mountain View (9-2) tied for second in Region 6 but got the No. 4 seed on tie-breakers, making for a tough draw for ninth-ranked South Forsyth (9-2), which wouldn’t entered 10-0 except for a non-region forfeit for technical reasons.
The victory was Mountain View’s first ever in the playoffs. The Gwinnett County school opened in 2009 and reached the playoffs for the first time last year at 8-3.
Here is how the scores went down in AAAAAA.
Looking to next week, the most interesting games will be No. 8 Colquitt County at No. 3 Walton, and No. 4 Grayson at No. 5 North Gwinnett. All of them look pretty good, though, for one reason or another.
Milton 44, Collins Hill 15
Brookwood 28, South Gwinnett 0
Tift County 59, Newnan 13
Hillgrove 49, Roswell 7
Mill Creek 29, West Forsyth 14
Archer 37, Meadowcreek 0
Colquitt County 49, Pebblebrook 7
Walton 28, North Cobb 14
Parkview 42, Newton 35 (OT)
Mountain View 31, South Forsyth 13
McEachern 39, Etowah 7
Lowndes 60, Campbell 6
Grayson 31, Norcross 14
North Gwinnett 55, North Forsyth 7
Woodstock 28, North Paulding 14
Marietta 34, Westlake 7
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