Calhoun defeated No. 1 Cartersville, ending the Purple Hurricanes’ 62-game win streak in region play, and unranked Hebron Christian, Trinity Christian and Callaway defeated top-10 teams this weekend.
Calhoun, ranked No. 8, beat Cartersville 50-48 in triple overtime of a Region 7-5A game Thursday, when most of the week’s football games were played to avoid any bad weather brought on by Hurricane Ian.
Calhoun led 28-7 in the first half before things got tight. Calhoun scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion for a 50-48 lead, and Cartersville’s ensuing two-point conversion, a quarterback keeper, was stopped short, giving Calhoun the victory.
It was Cartersville’s first region loss since 2011 against Cedartown. This is only the third time in that span that Calhoun and Cartersville have shared a region.
The week’s biggest upset prize belonged to Hebron Christian, a Gwinnett County private school that defeated No. 5 Oconee County 35-28 in a Region 8-3A game. The victory was Hebron’s first against a top-five team or any ranked opponent outside of Class A in the program’s 16-year history.
Hebron was 4-7 last season playing in Class A Private but is 6-0 this season in 3A under first-year coach Jonathan Gess, who won six state titles while at Eagle’s Landing Christian.
The only other unranked teams to beat top-10 opponents were Trinity Christian and Callaway.
Trinity beat No. 7 Starr’s Mill 3-0 in a Region 4-4A game. Trinity won Class A Private last season and was ranked this preseason and is 4-2 after an 0-2 start.
Callaway defeated No. 8 Columbia 32-12 in 2A. Although unranked, Callaway (3-3) has been a semifinalist or better in 2A each of the past four seasons.
Six other games pitted top-10 teams against each other.
No. 3 Roswell beat No. 10 Blessed Trinity 41-10 in a Region 7-6A game. Always in different classifications, the crosstown schools had never played each other in football until this year.
Also in 6A, No. 1 Lee County routed No. 8 Houston County 50-21 in Region 8. Houston County had been 5-0 under first-year coach Jeremy Edwards, the former Warner Robins offensive coordinator.
In Class 5A, No. 6 Loganville is 7-0 for the first time since 1971 after a 13-10 victory against No. 10 Eastside in Region 8.
In Class 3A, No. 2 Carver-Atlanta beat No. 6 Peach County 8-6 in a non-region game. Carver was the 3A runner-up last season, while Peach County has made six consecutive quarterfinals or better in 3A.
No. 1 Prince Avenue Christian of Class A Division I beat No. 10 Mary Persons of 3A 47-14. Prince Avenue Christian has been No. 1 since preseason and is 5-0.
In Class A, No. 3 Bowdon beat No. 10 St. Francis 28-23. Bowdon is a Division I school. St. Francis is in Division II.
Thirty-six other top-10 teams played and won. Those included No. 5 Walton of 7A, a 51-49 winner against North Paulding. Also barely getting by was No. 3 Creekside of 6A. The Seminoles beat unranked Mays 22-21.
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