Five top-10 teams in the highest classification lost Friday night in a high school football weekend accentuated by Warner Robins’ victory over Lee County in a rare game between No. 1-ranked teams.
The defending champion in Class 5A, Warner Robins beat Class 6A’s top-rated team 56-30 at McConnell-Talbert Stadium in Warner Robins.
Warner Robins has won five consecutive games against No. 1 teams. Other victims are Blessed Trinity, Ware County and Valdosta (by forfeit) in 2020 and Rome in 2018.
Class A Public’s No. 1 team, Irwin County, also won a showdown Friday, defeating No. 2 Brooks County 21-13 in a rematch of the 2020 final, which Irwin County also won. One No. 1 team, Callaway of Class 2A, was beaten, but by a Class 4A school, Thomas County Central, 24-8.
The highest classification suffered the most tumult when half of Class 7A’s top 10 went down.
Two were inevitable as No. 1 Collins Hill beat No. 10 East Coweta 34-0 and No. 2 Mill Creek beat No. 8 Grayson 28-14. Collins Hill and Mill Creek lost to those opponents in 2020.
More surprising in 7A on Friday were Brookwood’s 31-26 victory over No. 7 Marietta, Houston County’s 20-13 victory over No. 9 Newton and Walton’s 24-13 victory over No. 6 Roswell.
Nine other ranked teams lost Friday.
Rome upset No. 3 Carrollton 45-27 in Region 5-5A. Those two were the region’s preseason favorites, but Rome was bounced out of the top 10 last week when South Paulding beat the Wolves 34-32. Now, South Paulding and No. 10 Douglas County are the eight-team region’s lone unbeaten teams in region play.
Several games Friday matched top-10 teams.
No. 3 Pierce County of Class 3A beat Class 2A’s No. 3 team, Fitzgerald 17-0. The victory avenges Pierce’s only loss from the 2020 state-championship season.
No. 4 Benedictine of Class 4A beat Ware County, Class 5A’s No. 2 team, 49-42. The shootout was not unexpected as the game matched two of the state’s elite quarterbacks – Benedictine’s Holden Geriner and Ware’s Thomas Castellanos.
In a Class A Public game, No. 10 Charlton County beat No. 6 Clinch County 35-34, evening South Georgia’s Swamp War rivalry at 30-30-1.
In other games between ranked teams, No. 1 Jefferson beat No. 7 Flowery Branch 27-7 in Class 4A, and No. 5 Bleckley County beat No. 7 Dodge County 21-19 in Class 2A
Lowndes beat No. 9 Valdosta of Class 6A 21-0. Lowndes, a 7A school, has beaten its crosstown rival five consecutive times and won each of the past three home games in the rivalry by shutout.
In Class A Private, unranked Brookstone beat No. 9 Whitefield Academy 29-28. It was Brookstone’s first victory over a top-10 private school since 2014 (Mount Pisgah Christian).
The region season, six weeks old, is halfway complete.
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