The Week 5 schedule includes 35 total matchups with 33 Friday games, two Thursday games and 12 region battles. Region 4, Region 5, and Region 8 will have region contests, while the remaining regions wrap up their non-region slate. In Region 1, No. 10 ranked Bainbridge will host Class A Division I No. 6 ranked Brooks County. No. 5 ranked Perry also has a top 10 cross-classification battle against Class 3A No. 8 ranked Peach County. Additionally, 1-2 West Laurens will visit Class A Division I No. 4 ranked Bleckley County. Perry quarterback Armar Gordon Jr. is amongst the most productive passers in Class 4A this season. Gordon has racked up 721 passing yards (243.7 ypg) and six touchdowns through three games. Dakariai Anderson has hauled in 17 passes for 399 yards and five touchdowns in three games—giving him a classification best 133 receiving yards per game and 23.47 yards per reception. Westside-Macon’s James Neville, New Hampstead’s Paul Seeley and Trinity Christian’s Henry Brodnax are among the other passers averaging more than 200 yards per game and Seeley has led the way with his 12 passing touchdowns. Additionally, Westside’s Justin Walker has accumulated 30 tackles and a classification-high 10 tackles for loss and seven sacks through four games.
Benedictine is the lone Region 3 team off on its bye this week and No. 9 ranked Burke County has a huge home game against Class 3A No. 7 ranked Oconee County. New Hampstead will attempt to be one of the first teams in Class 4A to reach 5-0 this season on the road at Class 7A’s Richmond Hill.
A star-powered four-pack of region battles will take place in Region 4 this week with North Clayton and Fayette County hitting the field Thursday along with No. 6 ranked Troup and No. 4 ranked Whitewater. On Friday, LaGrange is set to host No. 7 ranked Starr’s Mill and Trinity Christian will host Riverdale—which is already 1-0 in region play after opening its season with a win over North Clayton.
“Obviously, Starr’s Mill is a veteran team that has been there year in and year out in the playoffs and playoff hunt. They have played a lot of really good football,” LaGrange head coach Matt Napier told Score Atlanta’s Najeh Wilkins. “They are well coached and have great athletes. They have weapons on both sides of the ball that are very worthy of our attention. They present problems in all three phases of the game.”
Starr’s Mill head coach Chad Phillips also spoke about the matchup.
“If we can limit an opponent to seven, maybe eight possessions, and we stop them three times, we feel like we have a chance to win,” said Phillips. We got to take the ball and play keep away from LaGrange because they are so dangerous. They got a quarterback, two running backs, and a wideout that are just a threat to us, so we will have to play keep away from them.
In Region 5, Pace Academy will look to bounce back from its 30-20 loss to Lovett with its trip to Woodland-Stockbridge. The Lions will host McDonough—which opened up its region last week with a 49-7 victory over Mt. Zion. Luella and Mt. Zion-Jonesboro will both look for their first win on the year in their region contest and undefeated Hampton (4-0) will look to remain Region 5′s lone unbeaten on the road at Stockbridge—which cruised to a 47-0 win over Luella last week. Hampton’s Crishaun Kindle is leading the team with 583 rushing yards (145.8 ypg) and Conner Tolley has racked up 473 yards (118.2 ypg) and 12 touchdowns. Hampton also has wide receiver Cameron Goggins, who has tallied 381 yards off 16 catches and four touchdowns. Additionally, Hampton’s Lionel Mann is leading the classification with four interceptions so far.
In Region 7, Cedartown, Heritage-Catoosa and Northwest Whitfield are all 4-0, Central-Carroll ad Sonoraville are 3-1 and Southeast Whitfield is 2-1—making Region 7 the only region in 4A with all its member schools possessing winning records heading into Week 5. Cedartown, Heritage-Catoosa and Central-Carroll have been outstanding running the football this season and Jonaz Walton is pacing Central with 853 rushing yards (213.2 ypg) and (12.36 ypc) to go with his 11 rushing touchdowns. Paxton McCrary is leading Heritage with 499 yards and Cedartown features the two-headed attack of Patrick Gardner and Harlem Diamond. As for Cedartown’s defense, middle linebacker Eli Barrow has racked up 58 tackles (14.5 tackles per game), five tackles for loss and four sacks.
Region 8 will stage a Johnson-Gainesville vs. East Forsyth and four region matchups. Cherokee Bluff and Chestatee are both 1-0 in region play heading into their matchup and undefeated Walnut Grove (3-0, 1-0) is going to host winless Cedar Shoals (0-3, 0-1). Rivals East Hall and North Hall will faceoff after both programs opened up region play last week with losses and No. 2 ranked North Oconee will host Madison County—which is coming off a 20-19 heartbreaker to Cherokee Bluff.
CLASS 4A WEEK 4 RESULTS
REGION 1
Shaw 2-2
Bainbridge 2-2
Cairo 2-2
Hardaway 0-4
Westover 1-3
Friday, Sept. 16
Bainbridge vs. Brooks County
Cairo at Pelham
Hardaway vs. Harris County
Shaw vs. Columbus
Westover at Turner County
REGION 2
Howard 3-0
Westside 4-0
West Laurens 1-2
Spalding 2-2
Baldwin 1-3
Griffin 0-4
Perry 2-1
Friday, Sept. 16
Howard vs. Pike County
Perry vs. Peach County
West Laurens at Bleckley County
REGION 3
Burke County 3-0
New Hampstead 4-0
Benedictine 2-2
Wayne County 2-1
Islands 0-4
Southeast Bulloch 0-3
Friday, Sept. 16
Burke County vs. Oconee County
Islands at Brunswick
New Hampstead at Richmond Hill
Southeast Bulloch vs. Tattnall County
Wayne County vs. Statesboro
REGION 4
Riverdale 2-2, 1-0 LaGrange 3-0
Starr’s Mill 3-0
Troup 3-0
Whitewater 3-0
Fayette County 0-3
Trinity Christian 1-2
North Clayton 1-3
Thursday, Sept. 15
North Clayton vs. Fayette County
Troup vs. Whitewater
Friday, Sept. 16
LaGrange vs. Starr’s Mill
Trinity Christian vs. Riverdale
REGION 5 Hampton 4-0
Pace Academy 3-1 McDonough 2-1
Stockbridge 2-2
Woodland-Stockbridge 2-2
Lovett 1-2
Luella 0-4
Mt. Zion-Jonesboro 0-3
Friday, Sept. 16
Lovett vs. McDonough
Luella vs. Mt. Zion-Jonesboro
Stockbridge vs. Hampton
Woodland-Stockbridge vs. Pace Academy
REGION 6
Holy Innocents’ 2-2
Miller Grove 2-2
Westminster 1-2
Hapeville Charter 0-4
Southwest DeKalb 1-3
Stephenson 1-2
Druid Hills 1-2
Clarkston 0-3
Stone Mountain 0-4
Friday, Sept. 16
Clarkston vs. Osborne
Holy Innocents’ vs. Douglass
Miller Grove at Central Gwinnett
Southwest DeKalb vs. Redan
Westminster vs. Centennial
REGION 7
Cedartown 4-0
Central-Carroll 3-1
Heritage-Catoosa 4-0
Northwest Whitfield 4-0
Southeast Whitfield 3-1
Sonoraville 2-2
Friday, Sept. 16
Central-Carroll vs. Northgate
Northwest Whitfield at Darlington
Sonoraville vs. Calhoun
Southeast Whitfield vs. Armuchee
REGION 8
East Forsyth 2-0, 1-0
East Hall 2-1, 0-1
North Oconee 2-0, 0-0
Walnut Grove 3-0, 1-0
Madison County 1-2, 0-1
Cedar Shoals 0-3, 0-1
Cherokee Bluff 1-2, 1-0
Chestatee 1-2, 1-0
North Hall 0-3, 0-1
Johnson-Gainesville 0-3, 0-0
Seckinger 0-3, 0-0
Friday, Sept. 16
Cherokee Bluff vs. Chestatee
East Hall vs. North Hall
Johnson-Gainesville vs. East Forsyth
North Oconee vs. Madison County
Walnut Grove vs. Cedar Shoals
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