Valdosta defeated arch-rival Lowndes for the first time in six years Friday night, and eight unranked teams beat top-10 opponents – including Hiram over Calhoun – making the eighth week of the Georgia high school football season the most tumultuous so far.
Valdosta entered the storied rivalry game known as the Winnersville Classic with a 6-0 record and a No. 5 ranking in Class 7A, so the 13-7 victory wasn’t startling, but it marked a sharp turn in the rivalry and the Wildcats’ fortunes.
Valdosta had not beaten Lowndes, which entered 4-2 and ranked No. 9, since 2016. The victory came at Lowndes’ Martin Stadium before a crowd of more than 11,000. Valdosta was coming off a 4-6 season during which it was banned from the playoffs for a recruiting scandal that led to eight forfeits in 2020. Valdosta is now 7-0 under second-year coach Shelton Felton.
Among the eight unranked upset winners, Hiram stood proudest in a list that included Commerce, Dublin, Lincoln County, Monroe Area, Ola, Thomasville and Trinity Christian.
Hiram beat No. 4 Calhoun 44-34 in a Class 5A game a week after Calhoun defeated No. 1 Cartersville. Hiram was 1-9 and 1-10 the past two seasons, lost to Calhoun 63-17 last season, and was reported as a 42-point underdog by the computer Maxwell Ratings. The Hornets are now 4-3 overall, 1-1 in Region 7-5A. Calhoun dropped to 4-3, 1-1.
Also in Class 5A, Ola beat No. 8 Jones County 22-15 in Region 2. It was Ola’s second victory ever against a top-10 team from the same class or higher, the first since beating Eagle’s Landing in 2017. Ola was a 25-point underdog in this game but evened its record at 3-3, 1-1. Jones County fell to 4-3, 2-1.
Trinity Christian beat No. 7 Whitewater 27-23 in Class 4A. Trinity Christian won Class A Private last season but is playing three classes higher and is 5-2, 3-0, joining No. 4 Troup (7-0, 4-0) as the only Region 4 teams without a region loss.
Monroe Area beat No. 5 Hebron Christian 41-7 in a Region 8-3A game. Hebron entered 6-0 after an upset of then-No. 5 Oconee County. Monroe Area (3-4, 1-1) has a high loss count, but each has come against a top-10 team, and it was only a five-point underdog to the previously unbeaten Lions.
Thomasville beat Carver-Columbus 15-14 in a game between 2021 state runners-up now playing in 3A. Thomasville is 4-3, 2-0 in their Region 1 while Carver, ranked No. 10, dropped to 4-2, 1-1.
In Class A Division I, Dublin defeated No. 4 Bleckley County 31-13 in Region 2. Dublin leads the all-time series 16-1, but they hadn’t played since 2019, the year of Dublin’s most recent state title, and the two programs had moved in different directions since, making Bleckley County a 22-point favorite. But Dublin improved to 3-2, 1-0 while Bleckley County fell to 6-1, 0-1.
Commerce (5-2) defeated No. 10 Social Circle (4-2) 24-21 in a non-region Class A Division I game.
In Class A Division II, Lincoln County beat No. 5 Washington-Wilkes 41-14 in the 100-year anniversary of the first meeting in the rivalry. Washington-Wilkes had won four of the past five in the series.
In other notable games, No. 8 North Cobb beat No. 6 Walton 33-6 in Region 5-7A, and No. 1 Prince Avenue Christian of Class A Division I defeated Chattanooga’s Baylor School, a No. 1-ranked team from Tennessee, 42-35 to remain unbeaten at 6-0.
