HIGH SCHIIL FOOTBALL / FRIDAY NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS
Top-10 Class 7A teams Grayson and Norcross overcame regular-season losses to win region titles Friday night.
Norcross’s region loss actually happened Friday – to North Gwinnett 51-41 – but the Blue Devils stayed close enough in points to win Region 7-7A’s No. 1 seed in the kind of three-way tiebreaker that can spice the final weekend of the regular season.
Coffee, Bainbridge, Trion and Portal were others that claimed championships in impressive or unusual ways. So did Toombs County, Pierce County and Appling County from Region 3-2A in South Georgia.
As for Norcross, the Blue Devils entered Friday’s game road game against its archrival with a 5-0 record in region play. North Gwinnett, the defending region champion, was 4-1, as was Peachtree Ridge, which also won Friday to finish 5-1.
The three-way tiebreaker was point differential in the games among the three. North Gwinnett needed to win by 13 points but fell short. So Norcross got the region’s No. 1 seed, Peachtree Ridge the No. 2 and North Gwinnett the No. 3.
The only other three-way tie for first place came in the Toombs-Pierce-Appling region. Each beat another by three points, so those teams remained tied. A draw will determine those seeds.
Meanwhile, Grayson, ranked No. 8 in 7A, settled things in a more straightforward way by beating No. 7 Parkview 41-14 on the road to finish first in Region 4-7A. Grayson lost its region opener to Newton on Sept. 29 but won its final four region games, all must-win games, to claim its eighth region title in 10 seasons. It was Grayson’s first under new coach Santavious Bryant.
Several games were for region titles Friday.
Coffee, the No. 1 team in Class 5A, beat No. 5 Ware County, the classification’s defending champion, 28-5 to capture Region 1-5A. It was Coffee’s first region title since 2015.
No. 3 Bainbridge of Class 4A routed No. 8 Cairo 56-6 to win Region 1-4A in another region championship game between top-10 teams.
Portal, a Class A Division II school, won its first region title in history with a 36-14 victory over No. 6 and previously unbeaten Jenkins County. Portal began playing football in 1976.
Trion won its first since 2003 with a 42-14 victory over Darlington. Trion, of Class A Division I, is 10-0 for the first time since winning a state title in 1974 and is ranked No. 2.
Arabia Mountain beat Tucker 24-23 in overtime to win Region 4-5A in a game between DeKalb County schools. It is Arabia Mountain’s first region title since 2017.
Another DeKalb school, Stephenson, beat Southwest DeKalb 41-32 to win Region 6-4A. It was Stephenson’s first region title since 2019.
Effingham County won its first region title since 1995 with a 31-28 victory over Brunswick in Region 2-6A.
Others clinching region titles Friday or Thursday were Aquinas, Bowdon, Brooks County, Central-Carrollton, Fellowship Christian, Jefferson, Lamar County, Milton, Morgan County, Prince Avenue Christian, Rockmart, Roswell, Starr’s Mill, Walton and Whitefield Academy.
The most surprising outcome Friday probably was unranked Hebron Christian’s 37-6 victory over No. 2 Stephens County in 3A. Stephens County had clinched Region 8-3A, and Hebron was not assured of making the playoffs until that victory. Hebron beat Stephens County under similar circumstances a year ago.
The state playoff draws in each of eight classifications were to be completed later Saturday.
Note: For a look at the playoff brackets, go to AJC.com.
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