Bowdon-Lincoln County smashes state championship record with 7 lead changes

There’s never been a state final like Bowdon’s 35-31 victory over Lincoln County on Monday.

The record book confirms it.

The Class A Division II final, the first of eight GHSA championship games this week, featured seven lead changes — three more than any previous GHSA final in history. That covers 386 state finals dating to 1947.

The lead-change data was compiled in 2023, when Georgia High School Football Daily and AJC researched the scoring plays of every final and published a series of stories on the 100 best finals of all-time.

Lead changes are far less common than one might expect. There were only five lead changes in all eight championship games combined in 2024.

The score progression in the Bowdon-Lincoln County game, with lead changes in bold, was 0-3, 7-3, 7-10, 14-10, 14-17, 21-17, 28-17, 28-25, 28-31, 35-31.

The most stunning lead changes came in the final six minutes of the game, the first on Kelby Glaze’s 84-yard run for a 31-28 Lincoln County lead, then on Josh Hopkins’ 27-yard pass to Berkley Perkins for the go-ahead, game-winning score with 2:34 left.

Lincoln County was tackled on the Bowdon 3-yard line on the game’s final play.

“I am glad there weren’t 5 more seconds on the clock or there might have been eight lead changes,” Bowdon coach Rich Fendley said.

Lincoln County’s opening score, a 50-yard field goal by Fortson Partridge, does not count as a lead change, only those that put a team ahead that previously was trailing.

Bowdon coincidentally held the previous record of four lead changes with six other pairs of schools. That came in 2022 in a 39-31 victory over Schley County for the first of Bowdon’s four straight titles.

The only other teams to win with four lead changes are Pierce County in 2023, Sandy Creek in 2022, Dublin in 2019, Eagle’s Landing Christian in 2016, LaGrange in 1991 and Cairo in 1990.