At this late stage in the season, for a lot of teams a win is more than a win — it’s also a region title.
On Friday, several ranked teams won their region — the top-ranked Rabun County Wildcats, the No. 6 Putnam County War Eagles and the No. 7 Haralson County Rebels.
The Wildcats could have been penciled in to win this year’s Region 8 title ages ago, as they haven’t been meaningfully challenged in years. They made what was long a foregone conclusion a formality by beating Union County 56-14 on the road in their season finale, improving to 9-1, 3-0.
Blitz has highlights.
The Wildcats’ Region 8 win streak is now 47, with their last region loss coming to Washington-Wilkes on Oct. 18, 2013. The current cast of Wildcats was in elementary school then.
Winning region is nothing new for Rabun County. What is, though, is Gunner Stockton breaking Trevor Lawrence’s state record for touchdown passes. Stockton, committed to Georgia, threw five in the first half and broke the record in the first quarter.
In Region 4, the Putnam County War Eagles won their first region title since 2010 by beating Josey 49-18. Stats, a scoring log and video highlights can be found on MaxPreps. Under fourth-year coach Shaun Pope, the War Eagles (9-0, 6-0) are also in line for their first 10-0 season since 1973. All they have to do is beat Butler (0-9, 0-6) at home.
The Haralson County Rebels (8-1, 3-0) clinched Region 5 while on bye thanks to the Heard County Braves’ 25-23 win over the Bremen Blue Devils. The Rebels close the season against the Blue Devils (5-4, 1-2) and even if they lose, they hold the tiebreaker over both the Braves and Callaway, the only other teams with one region loss, because they’ve already beaten both teams handily.
For the Rebels, led by fifth-year coach Scott Peavey, it’s their first region title in a program that dates to 1968. Peavey discussed the possibility of a region title and how he turned the program around earlier this month in Ep. 34 of The Class 2A Blogcast.
Here’s how the rest of the top 10 faired:
- The No. 2 Thomasville Bulldogs, champions of Region 1, ended their regular season with a 35-14 win over Berrien, finishing 9-1, 5-0. Tim Morse covered the game for the Thomasville Times-Enterprise, and WTXL has highlights.
- Region 3 champions, the No. 3 Bleckley County Royals, beat Southwest 42-6 on Thursday for their first 10-0 season since 1978. Dave Whitaker covered the game for The Bleckley Progress and WMAZ has highlights. The Royals went 6-0 in league play.
- The No. 4 Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane, who are locked in to the No. 2 seed in Region 1, closed their season with a 46-26 win over Cook. The Cane finished 8-2, 4-1.
- The Northeast Raiders, ranked No. 5, beat Jasper County 40-7 to improve to 7-2, 4-1 in Region 3. A scoring log can be found on MaxPreps. Having already locked up the No. 2 seed, the Raiders close the season next week at home against Lamar County (5-4, 2-3).
- The No. 8 Callaway Cavaliers beat Temple 56-19 in Region 5 to improve to 6-2, 2-1. Daniel Evans covered the game for The LaGrange Daily News. They can clinch the No. 2 seed with a win over Heard County (5-2, 2-1) next week.
- In Region 3, the No. 9 Dodge County Indians beat the No. 10 Washington County Golden Hawks 26-19 to improve to 6-3, 3-2. A box score and video highlights can be found on MaxPreps. With the win, the Indians grab the No. 3 seed. The Golden Hawks (4-4, 2-3) will clinch the No. 4 seed next week with a win over Jasper County (0-9, 0-5) or a Lamar County loss.
Correction: An early version of this story had Callaway on bye for this week.
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