The King Lions are going to the state playoffs for the first time since 2019.
King beat Forest Park 61-14 on Saturday and wound up in a three-way tie with Drew and Pace Academy for fourth place in Region 4 at 3-4 in league play. Since the three teams have beaten each other during the regular season, the final playoff spot was determined by point differential, which put King in the state playoffs.
The loss eliminated Drew, which finished 6-4 and was the only participant in the tie with a winning record. But the Titans were essentially done in by a 25-point loss to King in the season’s penultimate game.
King (4-6) will play Region 3 champion Central Carroll (8-2) in the first round.
Shaking out the rest of the regions
Region 1: Perry (7-3, 4-1) will be the region champion, despite last week’s 27-24 loss to Warner Robins. Ware County (5-4, 3-1) will be the No. 2 seed, with Benedictine (5-4, 3-2) No. 3 and Warner Robins (7-3, 3-2) at No. 4. Even if Ware County loses to New Hampstead on Friday, which would create a three-way tie for second place, the Gators will be No. 2 based on wins over Warner Robins and Benedictine. BC gets the third spot based on its head-to-head win over the Demons.
Region 2: This league played nice and finished on time. The top four seeds are: No. 1 Stockbridge, No. 2 Ola, No. 3 Jones County and No. 4 Hampton.
Region 3: Jonesboro (7-3) handed Starr’s Mill (9-1) its first loss of the season and joined Central Carroll (8-2) in a three-way tie for first place with 5-1 league records. After the points differential tiebreaker rule was imposed, Central wound up No. 1 and Jonesboro got the No. 2 seed. Starr’s dropped into third place and will not host a first-round game. Harris County (7-3, 3-3) is No. 4.
Region 4: Creekside (7-2, 7-0) has won seven straight and sailed through region play. Mays (7-2, 5-1) is No. 2, Maynard Jackson (8-2, 5-2) is No. 3 and King is No. 4.
Region 5: No. 1-ranked Marist (10-0, 8-0) is the No. 1 seed. Southwest DeKalb (7-3), Tucker (7-3) and St. Pius (7-3) tied for second place with 6-2 league records. But since they all lost to Marist and beat each other, the seeds were determined by point differential, which went in favor of SWD and gave the Panthers the No. 2 seed. Tucker got the third seed based on its regular season win over St. Pius.
Region 6: Blessed Trinity (9-1) beat Cambridge in the final game to finish undefeated in league play and emerge as the No. 1 seed. That threw three teams into a tiebreaker for second place – Cambridge (8-2), Kell (6-4) and Westminster (5-5). After the points differential was applied, Kell came out with the No. 2 seed and Cambridge was No. 3, based on its 42-36 regular-season win over Westminster.
Region 7: The top four seeds will be No. Cartersville (10-0, 6-0), No. 2 Cedartown (9-1, 5-1), No. 3 Hiram (5-5, 4-2) and Cass (6-4, 3-3).
Region 8: North Oconee (10-0, 6-0) and Eastside (9-1, 5-1) finished one-two in the standings. East Forsyth (8-2, 4-2) secured the third seed by beating Madison County 42-14. Flowery Branch (4-6, 3-3) closed the season by beating Cedar Shoals 21-7 to claim the final spot.
First-round matchups
Now that all the playoff teams have been set, here are the first-round matchups:
Top left bracket: Jones County at Eastside, St, at Perry, Hiram at Kell, Harris County at Creekside.
Bottom left bracket: East Forsyth at Ola, Warner Robins at Marist, Cambridge at Cedartown, King at Central Carroll.
Top right bracket: Maynard Jackson at Jonesboro, Cass at Blessed Trinity, Benedictine at Southwest DeKalb, Madison County at Stockbridge.
Bottom right bracket: Starr’s Mill at Mays, Westminster at Cartersville, Tucker at Ware County, Hampton at North Oconee.
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