The regular season is over and all eight regions from 2A have submitted their four seeded playoff teams to the GHSA. Here’s what that looks like:
As mentioned in Tuesday’s blog, there were region championships and seeding to be determined on Friday. Let’s take a look at those games.
For the second year in a row, the South Atlanta Hornets are Region 6 champions. This year, there’s nothing anyone can say to discount that. Last year, DeKalb Schools — of which 6-2A has three members — served as a wrecking ball to the season by postponing the start of fall sports by a month. The region was forced to adopt a points system in which some region games played on the field didn’t count toward the standings, like when the Hornets lost to Lovett.
But all 6-2A games counted this year, and after the Hornets (9-1), under first-year coach Michael Woolridge, beat the Columbia Eagles 36-32 on Friday, they finished undefeated in league play at 8-0. They’re now again region champions after having never earned that distinction before last year.
Prep Sports Nation covered the game.
With the loss, the Eagles (7-3) fell into a three-way tie with Pace Academy and Lovett at 6-2 in league play. After applying the region’s tiebreaker procedures, Lovett takes the No. 2 seed, Columbia is No. 3 and Pace Academy is No. 4.
In 7-2A, the Fannin County Rebels are back-to-back region champions after a come-from-behind 21-17 win over the Dade County Wolverines, finishing 9-1, 6-0. The up-and-coming Wolverines were leading 17-7 midway through the third quarter.
The Wolverines have turned the program around in Jeff Poston’s second season at the helm. They went 2-8, 1-5 in 2020, but this year finished 7-3, 4-2. With the loss, they fell into a three-way tie with Pepperell and Chattooga. With the region’s tiebreaker procedures, they still took the No. 2 seed, with Pepperell taking No. 3 and Chattooga No. 4.
Second place was up for grabs in Region 5 between the No. 8 Callaway Cavaliers and the Heard County Braves, and the defending-champion Cavs notched their most impressive win of the season. On the road and trailing 21-0 in the first half, they rallied for a 24-21 win.
Daniel Evans covered the game for The LaGrange Daily News.
The Cavs finished 7-2, 3-1 and the Braves, who took the No. 3 seed, finished 5-5, 2-2.
In Region 2, the Vidalia Indians — who lost 48-0 to No. 10 Swainsboro — needed the East Laurens Falcons to upset Toombs County on the road to secure the No. 3 seed. Sure enough, the Falcons won 10-7 in a game they were 12-point underdogs. The Falcons’ win forced a three-way tie at 2-3 between Vidalia, East Laurens and Toombs County and, after the region’s tiebreakers were applied, Toombs County was the odd team out, with the Falcons taking the No. 4 seed.
The Indians are 3-7 and the Falcons are 6-4.
With third place on the line in Region 4, the Jefferson County Warriors beat the Laney Wildcats 21-12. The Warriors finished 6-4, 5-2, and Laney, which takes the No. 4 seed, finished 6-4, 4-3.
In Region 8, the Elbert County Blue Devils needed a win over Banks County to secure the No. 2 seed and avoid a three-way tie with Union County and Banks County. The Blue Devils won 20-18 to finish 5-4, 3-1. Union County (3-6, 2-2) takes the No. 2 seed and Banks County (2-7, 1-3) is the No. 4 seed.
Check back Tuesday, when I release my annual predictions, plus a special playoffs preview episode of The Class 2A Blogcast.
Here’s how the rest of the top 10 fared:
- The No. 5 Northeast Raiders lost 28-21 to Lamar County to finish 7-3, 4-2 in Region 5. They’re a No. 2 seed. They’re in the playoffs back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011-12.*
- The No. 6 Putnam County War Eagles closed the season with their third shutout, beating Butler 61-0 for a perfect 10-0 season, including 7-0 in 4-2A. It was their first undefeated regular season since 1973.
- The No. 7 Haralson County Rebels, region champs, beat Bremen 35-16 to finish 9-1, 4-0 in Region 5. Tucker Cole covered the game for The Times-Georgian.
- The No. 9 Dodge County Indians beat Southwest 31-16 to finish 7-3, 4-2 in Region 3. They’re a No. 3 seed.
- On bye: No. 1 Rabun County, No. 2 Thomasville, No. 3 Bleckley County, No. 4 Fitzgerald
*A previous version of this blog had Northeast beating Japser County on Friday. Northeast beat Jasper County on Oct. 29.
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