Three Class 6A teams clinched region championships Friday in the next-to-last weekend of the high school football regular season.
Westlake won the Region 4 title in the most inspired performance of the week. Playing five days after the deaths of school principal Jamar Robinson and his wife Ann, the Lions routed Lovejoy 51-0 to improve to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in region play. The Robinsons died Sunday while swimming in the ocean behind their hotel room in Puerto Rico.
“I told them, the community is hurting, and we have an opportunity to put the community on our back,” Westlake coach Bobby May told S. Thomas Coleman, who covered the game for the AJC. “We’re obligated to go out and give our best effort because that’s what Mr. Robinson did every time.”
The fourth-ranked Lions led 30-0 at halftime and never looked. The victory gave Westlake, which moved down from 7A in the offseason reclassification, its seventh consecutive region title. Lovejoy, which was 7-0 until a loss to Hughes on Saturday, probably needs to beat North Atlanta next week to secure a playoff berth.
No. 1 Lee County of Region 1 won its fourth consecutive region title with a 41-7 victory over No. 3 Valdosta in the teams' regular-season finales. Both teams were 2-0 in region play and two games ahead of Northside-Warner Robins and Houston, so Valdosta will take the No. 2 seed for the playoffs. Northside, which missed the postseason last year for the first time since 1991, earned the No. 3 seed with a 26-23 victory over Houston County, which will be the No. 4. A 14-yard touchdown pass from Elijah Robinson to Centavious Lowe in the fourth quarter was the game-winner.
Allatoona, the state runner-up in 2019 and one of only two remaining unbeaten teams in Class 6A this season, cliched first place in Region 6 with a 44-9 victory over Lassiter. It is the Buccaneers' first region title since 2015, when they also won the state championship. Also in Region 6, Kell beat Sprayberry 38-31 to take sole possession of second place. Allatoona and Kell are likely to be joined in the playoffs by Sprayberry and Pope.
A fourth team had a chance to win a region title but came up short when Carrollton lost to Alexander 23-22 in a Region 5 game. Jacob Tucker gave Alexander its only lead of the night when he kicked a 29-yard field goal with 2:14 remaining, and the Cougars held on for the victory. Carrollton will get another chance to win its second straight region title when it faces Douglas County next week. Rome pulled even with Carrollton in first place after beating Douglas County 16-15 Friday, but the Wolves would lose the tiebreaker because of its 34-12 loss to the Trojans on Oct. 9. Carrollton, Rome and Douglas County have clinched playoff berths, and the winner of next week’s Alexander-South Paulding game will be the fourth team.
Two of the five region championships that will be settled next week will come down to battles of first-place. Evans (7-2, 2-0) will take on Alcovy (2-4, 2-0) for the championship in Region 3, and Buford (7-1, 5-0) will face four-time defending champion Dacula (6-2, 5-0) for the Region 8 title.
River Ridge, at 8-0 the only other unbeaten Class 6A team, missed out on a chance to lock up Region 7 when its game against Johns Creek was canceled over COVID-19 concerns. The Knights can put the finishing touches on their first region title with a victory against Cambridge next week.
In Region 2, Richmond Hill, Glynn Academy and Brunswick appear headed for a three-way tie for first place. If Glynn Academy (vs. Effingham County) and Brunwick (vs. Statesboro) win their games next week, all three teams will finish 5-1 in region play. In that case, Glynn Academy would win the region’s tiebreaker. A loss by Glynn Academy, however, would give the title to Richmond Hill. Statesboro clinched the fourth playoff berth with a 35-33 victory over Effingham and could finish in third place if it beats Glynn Academy.
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