1. Beating the odds: Cook pulled off the upset of the weekend Friday with its 21-20 victory over defending Class A Public champion Irwin County, which had been projected as a 30-point favorite by the computer Maxwell Ratings. Cook came into the game 0-1 after a 38-6 loss to Class 5A Ware County. Irwin County, which lost to Fitzgerald 21-6 in its opener, is 0-2 for the first time since 2011. This game came about after both lost opponents because of COVID-19 concerns – Irwin County’s game on Sept. 4 against Eagle’s Landing Christian was canceled, and the Indians were scheduled to be off last week; Coffee’s original opponent for Friday, Pelham, is in quarantine.
2. Champs struggling: Irwin County wasn’t the only 2019 state champion to come up short in Week 3. Defending Class 7A champ Marietta (1-1) lost 49-28 to a McEachern team that had lost its first two games to North Gwinnett and Grayson. Harrison (6A champ now playing in 7A) fell to 0-3 with a 14-7 loss to a Hughes team that was a 21-point underdog. Class A Private champ Eagle’s Landing Christian (2-1) lost 38-14 on Saturday to Blessed Trinity (4A champ now playing in 5A). Overall, the eight state champions are 5-9, and only Blessed Trinity (which has played one game) and Cedar Grove (which hasn’t played any) remain undefeated.
3. Long droughts end: Cobb County schools Osborne and Campbell, located about three miles apart, brought school-record losings streaks to an end with victories in Week 3. Osborne ended a 31-game losing streak with a 29-8 victory over Forest Park. It was the Cardinals' first win since beating Forest Park 14-8 on Oct. 21, 2016. Campbell beat Berkmar to end a 21-game losing streak that stretched back to a 34-20 victory over Villa Rica on Aug. 17, 2018. Campbell was favored to win its game, but Osborne was an 11-point underdog. Ringgold also broke through, ending a school-record 12-game losing streak with a 38-12 victory over Ridgeland, which was a 16-point favorite and had won seven straight in the series.
4. Breakthrough in Macon: Bibb County teams returned to the field Friday after a two-week delay because of COVID-19 concerns, and Central of Macon made it a memorable night with a 12-7 victory over crosstown rival Westside. It was the Chargers' first victory in 19 tries in a series that began in 1998, one year after Westside opened. Westside, which was ranked No. 10 in Class 4A, was a 14-point favorite. Central was one of six 14-point underdogs that won their games on Friday. The others were Cherokee (won 21-15 vs. Rome), Houston County (17-10 vs. Coffee), River Ridge (38-7 vs. Etowah), Towns County (43-14 vs. Lumpkin County) and Worth County (21-7 vs. Americus-Sumter).
5. Walker in charge: Chip Walker has never lost a game as a head coach in the five all-time meetings between Newnan and Sandy Creek. His Newnan team was an 11-point underdog in Friday’s contest but came away with a 28-6 victory to improve to 2-0 for the first time since 2015. In the previous games in the series, from 2012 to 2015, Walker was the head coach at Sandy Creek, which won all four by at least 17 points. Sandy Creek came into last week’s game ranked No. 5 in Class 3A. Walker is 18-17 in three-plus seasons at Newnan after inheriting a team that went 3-7 in 2016.
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