For the second year in a row, the No. 3 Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane defeated 1A Public’s Irwin County when the Indians were ranked No. 1, this year winning 18-15 in an overtime thriller.
WALB has highlights.
The Purple Hurricane (1-0), who reached the title game last season, also beat then-No. 1 Irwin County 21-6 in 2020, and, like this year, Fitzgerald was also the No. 3 team. Irwin would go on to win a second consecutive 1A title.
The Purple Hurricane had their opener last week against Cario canceled. They’ll play 1A Public’s unranked Turner County next week.
Here’s how the rest of the top 10 faired:
- Top-ranked Callaway disposed of cross-county rivals and 4A’s unranked Troup with a 28-7 win. Daniel Evans has a game story for The LaGrange Daily News. The Cavaliers are 2-0.
- In a 2A crossover game played Saturday and televised on ESPN2, No. 2 Rabun County beat Pace Academy 47-14. The Wildcats are 1-1, while the Knights are 0-1. Blitz has complete coverage.
- No. 4 Thomasville scored 16 unanswered points to rally and beat crosstown rival and 4A’s unranked Thomas County Central 23-14. Pat Donahue has coverage for the Thomasville Times-Enterprise and WTXL has highlights. The Bulldogs are 2-0.
- The No. 5 Northeast Raiders shut out 3A’s unranked Central Macon 43-0, improving to 2-0.
- No. 6 Bleckley County edged 1A Public’s No. 7 Wilcox County 21-19 to improve to 2-0. Dave Whitaker covered the game for The Bleckley Progress.
- No. 7 Haralson County lost 18-15 to 1A Public’s unranked Manchester. The Rebels dropped to 1-1.
- No. 8 Lovett rebounded from an opening week loss to a ranked team from 5-3A to beat another 5-3A team, this time edging unranked GAC 16-12. GAC entered the season ranked No. 5 in 3A but fell out of the rankings entirely when Tennessee’s Lipscomb beat them 76-7 last week. Lovett is 1-1.
- The No. 9 Dodge County Indians blew past 1A Public’s No. 4 Dublin 27-7. It was the first time since 2014 that Dublin has lost its home opener, per WMGT’s Tucker Sargent. The Indians are 2-0 under first-year coach Ray Hardin.
- No. 10 Bremen lost to 1A Public’s No. 10 Bowdon 32-28, dropping to 1-1.
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