The third weekend of the 2018 high school football season brings another round of challenges for the strongest region in the state’s second-highest classification.
The five teams in Region 1-AAAAAA – Coffee (2-0), Lee County (2-0), Houston County (1-1), Northside-Warner Robins (1-1) and Valdosta (1-1) – have a combined record of 7-3, the only region in the classification with a winning record.
The games this Friday could put those numbers to the test, as three of those teams will be taking on top-10 opponents, although from lower classifications.
Lee County, the No. 1-ranked team and defending state champion, faces perhaps the most intriguing matchup of the week. Lee will host Peach County, the same team that handed Northside a 27-24 loss on Saturday at Mercer University in the Middle Georgia. Peach County is ranked No. 3 in Class AAA and was the state runner-up last season.
Second-ranked Coffee will travel to Waycross to meet Ware County, the No. 8-ranked team in Class AAAAA. Coffee beat Ware County 21-14 last season, part of the Gators’ 0-4 start. Ware is 7-2 since the end of that slump and is 2-0 this year, with victories over Pine Ridge (Fla.) 62-0 and Burke County 25-24.
Northside will try to recover from the loss to Peach County when it hosts Class AAAAA No. 9 Jones County (2-0) at McConnell-Talbert Stadium. The teams haven’t met since they played in Region 2-AAAAA together from 2012 to 2015. Northside won three of those four meetings and leads the series 6-1 overall.
The rest of the schedule for Region 1 includes Valdosta hosting Bradwell Institute (0-2) of Region 2-AAAAAA, and Houston County hosting Rutland (0-1) of Class AAA.
Here are five other games involving Class AAAAAA teams to keep an eye on this weekend:
*Allatoona at Creekview: Creekview moved into the rankings this week for the first time since 2009, and the Grizzlies hope to keep the momentum going in a game that could set the tone for the Region 6 playoff race. Allatoona was the region's No. 2 seed in the playoffs in 2017. Creekview came up a game short. Both are projected by the computer Maxwell Ratings to be playoff teams this year.
*Alpharetta at Lanier: Alpharetta was ranked No. 9 and Lanier No. 10 after the first week. Losses last weekend dropped Alpharetta to No. 10 and knocked Lanier out of the top 10. The Maxwell Ratings project Alpharetta as the Region 7 champion and Lanier as the Region 8 runner-up, and they give Alpharetta a six-point edge this week. This will be the first meeting between the teams.
*Eagle's Landing Christian at Heritage-Conyers: Heritage has had two weeks to recover from a 22-16 season-opening loss to Rockdale rival Salem. Unfortunately for the Patriots, they're catching Eagle's Landing Christian at a bad time – the Chargers had their 37-game winning streak ended last week by Pace Academy. ELCA beat another AAAAAA school, Morrow, 41-0 the previous week.
*Richmond Hill at Wayne County: Richmond Hill moved into the rankings, at No. 6, this week for just the second time since 1996, but the Wildcats are facing a challenging four-game stretch against teams with a combined record of 5-1. That begins on Friday against Wayne County, the No. 7 team in AAAAA. Richmond Hill started the season 7-0 in 2017 before losing its final three games.
*Tucker at Forest Park (Tara Stadium): Tucker looks to recover from an 0-2 start that included lopsided losses to Gwinnett County powers Buford (No. 2 in Class AAAAA) and Grayson (No. 1 in AAAAAAA). This game marks the beginning of Region 4 play for the Tigers, who are the two-time defending regions champions. Forest Park (0-2, 0-1) did not play a region schedule last season.
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