Trinity Christian and Rabun County defended their No. 1 rankings by picking up signature victories Friday night while another No. 1 team, Collins Hill, won a game but lost its best player to injury.
Travis Hunter, an AJC Super 11 pick and the nation’s consensus No. 2 football recruit, left Collins Hill’s 63-0 victory over Peachtree Ridge with a lower leg injury. He acknowledged the injury on his Twitter account with a photo he took from the ambulance that took him to a local hospital.
Hunter entered the game with a state-leading 673 receiving yards, a category he also led in 2020. The Florida State commit is considered the top cornerback prospect in the country.
Trinity Christian, the top team in Class A Private, defeated No. 2 Eagle’s Landing Christian 34-3. Trinity Christian was the 2020 A Private runner-up to Prince Avenue Christian, but was 0-4 all-time against six-time former champion Eagles Landing Christian Academy, which defeated Trinity Christian 34-0 last season.
Rabun County, No. 1 in Class 2A, beat 3A defending champion Pierce County 28-21 in Blackshear, a 290-mile drive from the northeast Georgia mountains. The game was scheduled after both teams lost previous opponents to COVID-related cancellations.
Several top-10 teams lost in upsets Friday in the seventh weekend of the regular season.
Unranked North Forsyth beat No. 7 West Forsyth 30-27 in Region 6-7A. North Forsyth (now 4-2, 1-1) also beat West Forsyth (2-1, 0-1) in 2020, but West went on to reach the Class 7A quarterfinals while North finished 6-4 and out of the playoffs. For this game, West Forsyth was favored by 29 points by the computer Maxwell Ratings.
No. 7 Hughes beat No. 3 Westlake 31-24 in a Region 4-6A game for what might also be called the championship of south Fulton County. Hughes is now favored to end Westlake’s streak of seven region titles. Westlake is 4-2, 0-1, after suffering only its third region loss since 2014. Hughes is 5-1, 1-0.
Riverwood beat No. 4 River Ridge 45-15 in Region 7-6A. Riverwood, coached by former Georgia and NFL running back Robert Edwards, gained its first victory over a top-five team since 1983 (Marist). River Ridge is the region’s defending champion.
Spalding defeated No. 3 Perry 31-26 in Region 4-4A. Spalding was a 20-point underdog, and Perry is the highest-ranked opponent that Spalding has beaten. Spalding (5-1, 2-0) is now tied with Baldwin for the region lead.
Class A saw two upsets. No. 8 Wesleyan defeated No. 5 Athens Academy 23-2 while unranked Turner County beat No. 6 Charlton County 13-7.
Three other games matched top-10 teams. No. 5 Carver-Columbus beat No. 9 LaGrange 42-27 in 2-4A; No. 9 Northeast beat No. 8 Washington County 27-23 in Region 3-2A; and No. 3 Calvary Day beat No. 10 Stratford Academy 42-6 in 3-A Private.
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