So it will be Lowndes and Gwinnett County in the Class 7A semifinals.
Grayson, Collins Hill and Norcross of Gwinnett got through Friday night while Lowndes maintained a South Georgia presence with a 23-13 victory over Milton.
At least one South Georgia team has made the semifinals in the highest class 19 of the past 20 seasons, missing only in 2016. That’s a remarkable record considering there are only four South Georgia schools still in the highest class. Lowndes has made the semifinals the past three seasons but not won a state title since 2007.
Lowndes’ opponent will be Collins Hill, playing in its first semifinal since 2010. That’s also the last year that Gwinnett had three teams in the semifinals of the high class. Collins Hill beat Parkview 21-14.
The Collins Hill-Lowndes game will match two of the highest-rated junior quarterbacks in the nation. Collins Hill’s Sam Horn is the consensus No. 4 pro-style prospect while Lowndes’ Jacurri Brown is the No. 6 dual threat. But both teams are playing exceptionally well on defense, too.
On the other side of the draw, No. 1 Grayson beat unranked West Forsyth 33-0 and will travel to No. 3 Norcross, a 17-7 winner over Colquitt County.
Grayson remains in the top five of several national rankings and could finish as the top public school in the country. The Rams have not had a close game since midseason while beating six straight playoff teams, but none of those is as stout as Norcross, which moved to 13-0 Friday night.
Norcross, in the semifinals for the first time since its state-championship team of 2013, hasn’t allowed more than 20 points in a game this season.
The Gwinnett-South Georgia flavor isn’t that shocking given the history. Teams from one or the other had won state titles in the highest class every season from 1996 through 2017 until Milton (2018) of north Fulton County and Marietta (2019) of Cobb broke the trend.
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