First-round recap: Woodward, Centennial, Archer, North Murray score upsets

Woodward Academy and Centennial defeated heavily favored Top 10 opponents, Archer and North Murray defeated top-10 seeds and Hephzibah and Treutlen won their first state-playoff games in history in a first round that went mostly as predicted, with ranked teams going 73-2, Maxwell Ratings favorites going 110-13 and higher seeds going 104-19.

Woodward Academy defeated No. 10 Hughes 24-21 in Class 6A, avenging a 28-7 loss on the same field, Hughes’ Panther Stadium, on Oct. 16. Woodward (7-4) was a 28-point underdog, according to the computer Maxwell Ratings. Hughes (8-3) will miss the second round for the first time since 2019.

Centennial, a team that went 6-4 in the regular season, beat No. 10 Mays, the eighth seed, 17-10 as an 18-point underdog in Class 5A. Mays finished 9-2.

In Class 7A, Archer beat eighth-seeded North Cobb, an unranked 8-2 team, 24-17. Archer (6-5) was a 16-point underdog.

In Class 3A, North Murray beat No. 6 seed Ringgold, an unranked 9-1 team, 34-23. North Murray (5-6) was a 17-point underdog that lost to Ringgold 33-20 on Sept. 25.

The biggest historymakers of the first round were Hephzibah and Treutlen. Each broke two of the longest state-playoff droughts in GHSA history with their victories.

Hephzibah, which began football in 1954, defeated Pike County 55-14 in Class 3A. The 72-year wait for the first state-playoff victory is a state record, breaking a mark set in 2022 by Cass, which had gone 69 seasons before winning.

Tying Cass for second in that record book was Treutlen, which beat Wheeler County 35-6 in Class A. Treutlen played its first season in 1957.

Treutlen’s victory, unlike Hephzibah’s, was an upset, as the Vikings lost to Wheeler County 28-16 on Oct. 8 and entered as a 4-point underdog. Treutlen won a region playoff game in 1991 before the GHSA expanded the state playoffs to 32 teams in 1996.

Joining Treutlen, Woodward and North Murray in reversing the outcome of a regular-season game was LaGrange, which defeated Ola 27-21 in Class 5A. Ola had won 26-16 on Sept. 3, but LaGrange had rebounded with six straight wins and was ranked No. 6 and favored in the rematch.

The original winning team was 23-4 in first-round rematches.

Also winning their first playoff games were KIPP Atlanta Collegiate (first season 2013), Hampton (2014) and ACE Charter (2018). Also winning their first playoff games in more than 10 years were Randolph-Clay (last win 2005), White County (2013) and Taylor County (2016).