South Georgia supplied the most intrigue in high school football Friday night as Richmond Hill stunned Valdosta, Clinch County beat No. 1 Irwin County and reigning champions Coffee and Perry, with victories over top-10 opponents, showed they’re far from done despite losses on their records.
Cartersville and Hapeville Charter also had notable wins in the 10th week of the regular season.
The evening’s most surprising result came at Richmond Hill, outside Savannah, where the unranked Wildcats beat No. 4 Valdosta 35-14. Richmond Hill is 7-1 overall, 2-1 in region play, but was a Maxwell Ratings 23-point underdog to Valdosta, which came in undefeated and sporting consecutive top-10 wins against Camden County and Colquitt County.
It was Richmond Hill’s first victory over a top-five team since 2019, when the opponent also was Valdosta, in the Class 6A quarterfinals.
Those teams play in suddenly tight Region 1-6A, where Lowndes (7-1, 2-1) moved back into contention with a 33-7 victory over Camden (6-2, 1-2). Colquitt (5-3, 2-1) is still a factor in a region that’s become a musical-chairs game for four playoff berths.
In Class A Division II, Clinch County beat top-ranked Irwin County 34-28. Irwin came in 7-0 while Clinch, now 6-1, was coming off a blowout loss against second-ranked Brooks County, the team most likely to inherit the top spot.
This was Clinch County’s first victory over a No. 1 team since the Panthers beat Irwin for the 2018 Class A Public championship. Coach Jim Dickerson retired with his fifth title after that game. He came out of retirement this season.
Coffee, ranked No. 6 in Class 5A, bounced back from a 48-14 loss to Lee County to beat No. 8 Houston County 14-0.
Perry, which had two non-region losses, beat No. 4 Ware County 31-21 in Class 4A. Ware was coming off a 38-14 victory over No. 2 Benedictine.
In another Class 4A game between ranked teams, No. 2 Cartersville beat No. 5 Cedartown 19-13. Both teams entered 8-0. Cartersville must beat Hiram (5-4, 4-1) next week to win the region outright.
Hapeville Charter beat Lovett, the No. 5 team in Class 3A-A private, 25-15.
Lovett was undefeated, and Hapeville has three losses, but all against bigger schools, so this Region 5-2A game was expected to be tight. Though playing for the same region title, Hapeville will play in the Class 2A playoffs while Lovett goes into the 3A-A private division.
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