Friday recap: Top 10 teams make history with 58-0 record vs. unranked teams
Top 10 teams posted their best single-week performance in AJC football rankings history Friday night, going 58-0 against unranked teams, while six Top 10 teams moved closer to region championships by beating other Top 10 opponents.
Winning those Top 10 region showdowns were Carrollton, Milton, Prince Avenue Christian, Holy Innocents’, Taylor County and Charlton County.
The last time the Top 10 swept unranked opponents over a full week of games was Oct. 19-25, 2009, when the Top 10 was 42-0. Before that, it was Oct. 21-23, 1983, with a 30-0 record. Fewer classes in earlier years made a 58-0 mark impossible before then. AJC rankings began in 1952.
There were some close calls Friday – with No. 7 Mays beating Southwest DeKalb 34-31 in overtime in Class 5A, No. 4 Monroe Area beating Cherokee Bluff 35-31 in 4A, and No. 3 Dublin beating Dodge County 53-47 in Class 2A – but every ranked team came out on top, except when playing another Top 10 team.
In one of the biggest of those Top 10 games, No. 2 Carrollton of Class 7A beat No. 6 Westlake 62-27, giving Carrollton its fifth straight region title. CJ Cypher threw seven touchdown passes, four to Keaires Miller, and Carrollton led 52-13 at halftime.
Milton, No. 5 in Class 6A, beat No. 4 Gainesville 49-46. Milton trailed 30-13 late in the first half and broke a 46-46 tie on Ryan Jung’s 47-yard field goal with a minute left.
Jung, the consensus No. 1 senior kicker prospect nationally, transferred from IMG Academy, was declared ineligible by the GHSA but won an appeal in August. He is committed to Michigan.
Milton (7-1, 4-0) is the only Region 7 team without a region loss. Milton won seven straight region titles until last season, when Roswell ended the streak. Milton likely needs to beat Roswell in two weeks to win the region outright.
Holy Innocents’, ranked No. 3 in the Class 4A-2A Private rankings, beat No. 6 KIPP Atlanta Collegiate 13-12 and clinched Region 5-3A. It is Holy Innocents’ first region title since 2022. KIPP Atlanta, which has played a full varsity schedule only since 2014, would have captured first place in its bid for its first region title.
Prince Avenue Christian, the No. 1 team in 4A-2A Private, beat Commerce, the No. 6 Class 2A team, 24-9. Prince Avenue (7-0, 3-0) is now the only unbeaten team in Region 8-2A. Prince Avenue’s streak of five region titles ended last season.
In Class A, No. 4 Taylor County beat No. 10 Schley County 35-34 in Region 6, and No. 5 Charlton County beat No. 7 Mitchell County 21-14 in Region 2. Charlton County took first place in its region, while Taylor County is among three teams with one region loss.
Two more Top 10 teams are on this week’s schedule, with No. 7 Hughes playing at No. 2 Creekside in Class 6A on Saturday.
The Top 10’s record against unranked opponents included four games played Thursday.
Two weeks remain in the regular season.