Defending Class 7A champion Mill Creek won a battle between No. 1 and No. 2 teams against Buford on Friday night; Elbert County ended Rabun County’s 50-game win streak in region games, and Archer, Cartersville, Elbert County and Pierce County also posted good wins on the ninth weekend of the football regular season.
Mill Creek won 31-24 as quarterback Shane Throgmartin hit Justin Content with a 22-yard touchdown pass with 1:20 left for break a 24-24 tie. Neither team led by more than seven points, and the score was tied four times.
Mill Creek entered ranked No. 2 despite its 6-0 record and 2022 championship. Buford, also coming in 6-0, had dealt Mill Creek its only loss last season and was ranked in the top 10 of five national polls.
The game, televised by ESPN2, was the 10th meeting in GHSA history between No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the highest class. The No. 1 team is 5-5.
Elsewhere around the state, No. 6 Elbert County beat No. 4 Rabun County 21-9 in Class A Division I. Rabun County has won nine consecutive region titles, and the 50-game streak in region play was the longest of its kind active in the state. Rabun County, a program made prominent by future University of Georgia players Gunner Stockton and Charlie Woerner, had not lost to a region opponent since Washington-Wilkes beat the Wildcats in 2013.
The only bigger upset of a ranked team occurred in Class 7A. Archer, unranked, beat No. 7 Parkview 28-27. Archer, coming off a 2-8 finish, is 4-3 overall, 2-0 in Region 4, while Parkview dropped to 5-2, 1-1.
Cartersville, the No. 4 team in Class 4A, beat No. 8 Hiram 35-34 after scoring the winning touchdown in the final three minutes. Hiram missed an extra point earlier in the quarter.
Pierce County, the No. 5 team in Class 2A, beat No. 3 Toombs County 17-14. Pierce, Toombs and No. 4 Appling County are 1-1 against each other in Region 3, all three games among them decided by three points.
In another game between top-10 teams, No. 9 Fellowship Christian beat No. 10 Athens Academy 52-28 in Class 2A.
Top-10 teams were 42-2 against unranked opponents. Brooks County of Division I beat No. 7 Early County of Division II 14-6.
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