Lowndes and North Cobb, two preseason top-10 teams with two losses, struck back Friday night, each beating ranked teams and proclaiming they will be Class 7A factors after all. Troup and Social Circle also had big victories on the high school football season’s sixth weekend.
Lowndes had the most impressive win of the night, taking down No. 2 Grayson 24-14 in a 7A game. Lowndes started the season No. 8 but was 2-2 with losses to American Heritage of Florida and unranked East Coweta. Grayson, the 2020 Class 7A champion and 2021 semifinalist, entered 4-0 with six Top 25 national rankings.
North Cobb, another 7A team, started the season No. 4, but was 2-2 and lately without its best player, Super 11 quarterback Malachi Singleton, with an injured foot, but the Warriors defeated No. 9 Milton 21-7. Both teams had two losses, but Milton’s came against nationally prominent out-of-state teams while North Cobb had lost to unranked Northside-Warner Robins 20-17 in overtime last week.
In Class 4A, Troup became the front-runner in Region 4 with a 44-17 victory over No. 5 Starr’s Mill. Troup entered 4-0 and ranked No. 4. Troup had beaten then-No. 3 Whitewater 43-33 the week before. Troup is chasing its first region title since 1987.
In Class A Division I, unranked Social Circle defeated No. 8 Lamar County 39-7 for the Redskins’ first victory over a ranked team in the program’s 44-year history. Social Circle had been 0-64 all-time against teams in the AJC’s top 10.
In other notable games, No. 3 Colquitt County and No. 4 Mill Creek of Class 7A affirmed their high standing. Colquitt County beat 3A’s No. 1 team, Cedar Grove, 39-17, while Mill Creek defeated a ranked 7A team, No. 7 Parkview, 40-17.
No. 8 Houston County of 6A beat defending 5A champion Warner Robins 28-8. Warner Robins, ranked No. 10, fell to 1-4. Houston County is 5-0.
In other games between ranked opponents, No. 2 Ware County of 5A beat No. 9 Bainbridge of 4A 22-16, and No. 3 Rabun County beat No. 8 Whitefield Academy 28-14 in a Class A Division I game.
The only other ranked team to lose Friday was Crisp County to Northside-Warner Robins 29-10. Northside is a 6A school. Crisp County is ranked No. 6 in 3A.
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