Cherokee ended the state’s longest regular-season winning streak Friday night with a victory over Cartersville, and Cedar Grove showed no rust from a four-week delay to start the season and beat top-10 Milton of Class 7A in the Saints' opening game.
Cherokee, unbeaten but unranked in Class 7A, defeated Cartersville 14-12 in Canton, ending Cartersville’s state-record 62-game winning streak in the regular season. Keith Adams scored both Cherokee touchdowns, his second on a 31-yard run with 2:05 left for a 14-5 lead.
Cartersville, ranked No. 3 in 5A, hadn’t lost in the regular season since 2014, when beaten by North Cobb in former Cartersville quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s second game as a freshman.
Cherokee improved to 5-0 for the first time since 2007.
Cedar Grove, the No. 1 Class 3A team despite the 0-0 record, defeated No. 7 Milton 14-7 on the road. Cedar Grove and 16 other DeKalb County Schools teams were playing their opening games this week after the district postponed games until October because of COVID-19.
Other teams scoring standout victories Friday were Pierce County, Westminster, Hillgrove, Archer and Irwin County.
Pierce, the No. 6 team in 3A, beat Class 1A Private’s No. 1 team, Eagle’s Landing Christian, 20-13. It was ELCA’s third consecutive loss, all against ranked schools from higher classifications. ELCA is the five-time defending champion in its class.
Westminster, the No. 8 team in 3A, beat 5A’s No. 7 team, St. Pius, 27-24. Westminster also upset St. Pius last season but was a 5-point underdog again, according to the computer Maxwell Ratings.
Westminster’s players wore helmet stickers to honor Pace Academy sophomore wide receiver Jordan Sloan, who suffered a head injury in last week’s Westminster-Pace game and remains hospitalized.
Hillgrove, a 7A team that’s now 2-1, beat No. 3 Westlake of 6A 42-21. Westlake, now 2-1, had been the highest-ranked undefeated team in 6A.
Archer, another unranked 7A team, beat No. 9 North Gwinnett 14-13.
Irwin County, the defending Class 1A Public champion, beat 7A’s Tift County 35-20 in the first game at Irwin County between those neighboring-county schools since 1964.
Prince Avenue Christian and Fellowship Christian beat other top-10 teams in Class 1A Private games. No. 3 Prince Avenue Christian beat No. 4 Wesleyan 52-26, and No. 5 Fellowship Christian beat No. 6 North Cobb Christian 27-0.
Savannah schools opened their season Friday, and there was a significant upset as Islands beat No. 6 Jenkins of 4A 26-18 in the opener for both Savannah teams.
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