Nineteen top-10 Georgia high school football teams lost Friday night, including two No. 1-ranked teams, but almost all had good reasons for their demise in an evening of few genuine upsets.
Benedictine, Georgia’s No. 1 Class 4A team, lost in Miami to Christopher Columbus 41-15. The Cadets lost to Columbus by a similar score in 2021 and wound up state champions. Columbus went on to the Florida Class 8A semifinals.
Eagle’s Landing Christian, the No. 1 team in Class 2A, lost to Blessed Trinity 37-14. Blessed Trinity, ranked No. 6 in 6A, is a much bigger school.
Only five of the 19 losing top-10 teams lost to lower-ranked or smaller schools, and most of those also were mild, if not expected.
The most surprising, measured by the computer Maxwell Ratings, was Bainbridge’s 24-21 victory against Coffee. Bainbridge, the No. 9 team in 4A, was a 17-point underdog. Coffee was ranked No. 4 in 5A after 55-7 victory against Tift County.
Also surprising perhaps was unranked Fellowship Christian’s 23-19 victory over No. 8 Trinity Christian of 4A. Those teams were Class A Private semifinalists last season, with Trinity Christian winning the title. Both lost their openers, although Fellowship Christian’s defeat, against unranked Mount Pisgah, was deemed more troubling than Trinity Christian’s loss to Class 6A power Woodward Academy.
The three other so-classed upsets were barely that.
No. 8 Walton defeated No. 7 Brookwood 34-20 in Class 7A, and Class 3A’s No. 8 team, Oconee County, beat 5A’s No. 8, Clarke Central, 33-9. But Walton and Oconee County also beat those opponents in 2021.
In Class A Division II, No. 6 Clinch County defeated No. 3 Macon County 24-20, but Clinch County was favored by four in the Maxwell Ratings and holds more victories than any other Division II school this century.
Another notable ranked Georgia team to fall was No. 5 Woodward Academy of Class 6A. The War Eagles lost to McCallie 17-13. McCallie is a three-time Tennessee champion in the private-school division.
Georgia’s other No. 1-ranked teams in action – Buford of 7A, Hughes of 6A and Cartersville of 5A – won handily.
Buford defeated Mallard Creek, a North Carolina traditional power, 56-7.
Hughes defeated McEachern, a Class 7A school, 47-21.
Cartersville defeated unranked Jonesboro 38-16.
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