The playoff picture will continue to be shaped Week 9 with a schedule that includes four Thursday night games and 21 Friday night matchups within the classification. In Region 1, No. 7 Bainbridge will be the only team in action as Thomas County Central, Westover, Cairo, Dougherty and Monroe are all off on byes. As a result, the Bearcats will take on Florida-based Dade Christian in a cross-state matchup. This will be the first meeting between the programs and Bainbridge is coming off a 56-7 win over Dougherty.
The action kicks off early in Region 2 with an unprecedented trio of Thursday night region matchups. Hardaway (5-1, 4-0) will have an opportunity to move closer to clinching a playoff berth against Shaw (1-5, 1-3) and Kendrick (0-6, 0-5) will face Spencer (0-7-0-5) in a battle between two winless teams. The other Thursday game will be LaGrange (4-2, 3-1) and Jordan (3-4, 2-3). On Friday night, No. 3 Carver-Columbus (5-0) will take on Troup (4-3, 4-1). Carver-Columbus has racked up a 40-point average margin of victory against region foes so far this year and Troup has shaken off a 28-26 loss to Hardaway by stringing together a four-game region win-streak entering the matchup against the undefeated Tigers. Carver-Columbus has won its last seven games against Troup.
In Region 3, No. 3 Benedictine will face South Effingham in a cross-classification game as the rest of the region (Islands, Jenkins and New Hampstead) are off this week. There will be three region matchups played in Region 4 and one cross-classification game between Spalding (1-5, 1-2) and a winless Class 3A Pike County (0-5) team. The region contests will see No. 10 Baldwin (3-0, 3-0) look to stay unbeaten against Howard (3-3, 0-2), as well as Perry (2-4, 2-0) vs. West Laurens (3-3, 2-1) and Rutland (1-5, 0-3) vs. Westside-Macon (3-2, 1-1).
The most consequential region game played this week in Region 5 will be between Fayette County and Riverdale. Both teams are unbeaten in region play entering the matchup—however Fayette County is already 3-0 in region play while Riverdale sits at 1-0. Luella (5-2, 3-0) will take on winless North Clayton (0-7, 0-3) and Hampton (1-5, 0-2) will face McDonough (1-5, 1-2). Finally, Winless Mt. Zion-Jonesboro (0-4, 0-1) will face off with Class 6A’s Morrow (1-4).
In Region 6, Druid Hills (1-2, 0-2) and Hapeville Charter (1-3, 1-1) will meet Thursday night and Friday’s action will see No. 1 Marist (4-0, 1-0) back in action to face Arabia Mountain (2-2, 2-1). Mays (3-4, 1-2) will look to challenge No. 4 ranked Stephenson (3-0, 2-0) and Miller Grove (1-3, 1-2) will face Class 3A Salem (1-1) in non-region play.
Region 7 continues to be ultra-competitive and there are some crucial region games on this week’s lineup. Cedartown, which entered the rankings recently at No. 9 will put its flawless 2-0 start in region play on the line against a Ridgeland team that snapped a 0-5 start to the season with a 1-0 start in region play. Heritage-Catoosa is fresh off its big win over Central-Carroll and will face a Northwest Whitfield team that has stumbled to an 0-2 region start after opening the year with a 4-0 non-region record. Central-Carroll will attempt to shake off last week’s loss to Heritage when it faces off with Pickens and Southeast Whitfield will continue its non-region slate against Tennessee based Chattanooga Central.
No. 2 ranked Jefferson will be off on a bye week, but No. 6 Flowery Branch (4-2, 1-1) faces Cedar Shoals (1-4, 1-1) in one of the three region showdowns scheduled for Friday out of Region 8. Winless Chestatee (0-6, 0-2) will take on Madison County (1-5, 0-2) and North Oconee (2-5, 2-1) will face East Hall (4-1, 1-0) after its 42-35 overtime loss to Flowery Branch spoiled their flawless region record last Friday.
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