Friday night highlights: Northeast-Macon beats No. 1 Fitzgerald

Warner Robins, Buford, Carrollton and Marist also had significant victories on the third week of the Georgia high school football regular season.

Northeast won 27-20 after losing to Fitzgerald 28-27 last season. Fitzgerald went on to reach the 2A final while Northeast lost in the second round.

Northeast’s victory was the first for a Macon public school over a No. 1-ranked team from the same classification since Central-Macon beat Northside-Warner Robins in the 1975 quarterfinals.

Westlake’s victory over Cedar Grove, won on a touchdown pass in the final minute, avenged a 2022 defeat. Though it is a smaller school, Cedar Grove has won four state titles since 2016 in 3A and defeated two 7A teams last season. The Saints lost to Monarch, a bigger Florida school, 50-42 last week.

Westlake is 3-0 for the first time since 2007 despite its seven region titles over the past decade.

Warner Robins, the No. 3 team in 5A, beat No. 9 Northside-Warner Robins of 6A 39-35 in one of the state’s top crosstown rivalries. Warner Robins has won seven consecutive games in the series.

Buford, the No. 1 team in Class 7A, struggled early against North Cobb before winning 45-28. No. 5 Carrollton of 7A beat No. 7 Rome of 6A 33-13. Marist, the No. 10 team in 6A, beat No. 5 Savannah Christian of 3A 21-7.

Ten other ranked teams lost, four against unranked but larger schools.

The unranked winners were 5A Arabia Mountain over 4A No. 10 Stephenson 27-22; 4A Stockbridge over 3A No. 10 Dougherty 54-0; 4A Cairo over 3A No. 8 Thomasville of 2A 24-3; and 3A Wesleyan over 2A No. 9 North Cobb Christian 9-7.

Three No. 1-ranked teams fended off ranked opponents and won easily. They were 5A Ware County (over Baldwin), A Division I Prince Avenue Christian (over Athens Academy) and A Division II Schley County (over Early County).

In other games between ranked opponents, Perry beat Jones County 54-21, Thomas County Central beat Bainbridge 45-14, and Troup beat Callaway 21-13.