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 against top-10 opponents, showed they’re far from done despite losses on their records.
Cartersville and Hapeville Charter also had notable victories 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 with consecutive top-10 victories against Camden County and Colquitt County.
It was Richmond Hill’s first victory against 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 County (6-2, 1-2). Colquitt County (5-3, 2-1) still is a factor in a region that has become a musical-chairs game for four playoff berths.
In Class A Division II, Clinch County beat top-ranked Irwin County 34-28. Irwin County came in 7-0 while Clinch County, now 6-1, was coming off a blowout loss against third-ranked Brooks County.
This was Clinch County’s first victory against a No. 1 team since the Panthers beat Irwin County 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. 6 Ware County 31-21 in Class 4A. Ware was coming off a 38-14 victory against 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. Although 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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