Three top-10 Class 6A teams were knocked off and three more regions begin league play Friday in the sixth week of the high school football season.
Lee County lost to Class 5A defending champion Warner Robins 56-30 in a rare battle of No. 1-ranked teams. The loss was the Trojans’ first in a regular-season game since falling to Lowndes 38-13 in the third game of the 2020 season. Warner Robins avenged a 27-7 loss to the Trojans last year in what was the only blemish on the Demons’ state championship season.
Lee County pulled within 28-23 in the third quarter, but Warner Robins scored four touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the quarter to put the game away.
The victory gave Warner Robins a four-game sweep of Lee County’s Region 1. The Demons had beaten Valdosta (48-20), Northside-Warner Robins (49-7) and Houston County (49-9) earlier this season.
Ninth-ranked Valdosta also lost a high-profile game Friday when it was beaten by crosstown rival Lowndes 21-0. It was the fifth consecutive victory, including three by shutout, for Lowndes in the Winnersville Classic.
It was not a good night for Region 1 overall as Northside also lost, to Colquitt County 52-7, but Houston County provided a bright spot with a 20-13 victory over Newton, the No. 9-ranked team in Class 7A.
The most impactful loss among the top 10 teams, however, belonged to Carrollton because it came in Region 5 play. The third-ranked Trojans were upset by Rome 45-27, opening the door to a wild playoff race in the region. Carrollton and Rome were the preseason favorites in the region by the computer Maxwell Ratings, but Rome was upset by South Paulding in its region opener last week. Now Carrollton and Rome are both looking up in the standings at No. 10 Douglas County and South Paulding, the region’s only remaining unbeaten teams.
Regions 2, 3 and 8 began league play this week, and there were some significant results.
Brunswick established itself as the front-runner in Region 2 with a 17-14 overtime victory against rival Glynn Academy. Brunswick beat Glynn Academy 24-21 last year, but both teams ended up in a three-way tie for first place with Richmond Hill, and Glynn Academy got the No. 1 seed through tiebreakers. It was the Red Terrors’ fourth region championship in five seasons. Brunswick, which is seeking its first region title since 2009, is tied for first place with Effingham County (a 34-0 winner over South Effingham) and Richmond Hill (37-14 over Bradwell Institute).
Region 8 went as expected with Buford (41-0 over Central Gwinnett), Winder-Barrow (45-14 over Habersham Central) and Dacula (54-20 over Lanier) winning their openers. They were three of the four playoff teams from Region 8 last season, along with Habersham Central. Shiloh played a non-region game against No. 4 Westlake and lost 26-6.
There was only one region game on the schedule in Region 3, where Alcovy moved out to an early lead in the standings with a 24-6 victory over Rockdale County. The victory was Alcovy’s third in its last four region games, dating to last season. The Tigers went 2-28 in region games from 2014 to 2019.
Another region game of note, although it wasn’t an opener, was Centennial’s 33-6 victory over Chattahoochee. The win ended Centennial’s 23-game losing streak that was the longest in school history. It was the Knights’ first win since beating Northview 38-28 in the final regular-season game of 2018.
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