A new No. 1

A weird year continues.

It was nearing the point of dropping the Division II poll down to five teams, what with so few Class 3A, 2A and A teams having winning records, others being fairly inconsistent.

Division I had some movement, and will have movement again this week, thanks to the Northside-Warner Robins game and perhaps Veterans-Perry. Yessir, Houston County is the place to be in Central Georgia this week.

Lamar County and Hancock Central make their first appearances this season, and they’re likely to hang around, certainly Lamar County with a couple winless teams next on the schedule.

Top 5

Division I

1. Jones County

It was a bit of a struggle last week, for a bit, on the road. But Jones County continues to roll. The Greyhounds have this Friday off, and then they’re on the road against a decent Locust Grove team. Jones County is averaging 41 points a game.

2. Mary Persons

Now we know that Mary Persons is officially for real, with a quality road win at Peach County. The Bulldogs can score in every form and fashion, and they were able to finish a four-quarter game after not having four-quarter games.

3. Northside

Things sure seem normal again for the folks on Green Street. Northside didn’t give Baldwin a chance to make underdog noise, and the Eagles have the momentum going into The Game.

4. Warner Robins

The Demons gave Colquitt County a better game than a 27-point margin indictes. Uncharacteristic mistakes helped dig a hole early, and you can’t dig a hole against good teams, like when teams have dug a hole for themselves against the Demons in 2017 and 2018. Yes, this was a three-spot drop, but the gap between the top four teams is miniscule. And this week is a poll-changing game at The Mac regardless.

5. Veterans

The Warhawks keeping finding ways to survive, and are 5-0. Undefeated midway through September. Already, it’s a magical year.

Top 10

Division II (3A-2A-A-other)

1. Peach County

A two-score loss against a top-5 Class AAAA team still isn’t enough to dislodge the Trojans. A region loss, however, will.

2. Dodge County

The Indians have closed the aesthetic gap with Peach County after putting away a decent Fitzgerald team with a balanced effort.

3. Washington County

The Golden Hawks have scored 156 points. Good time for a Friday off. Rest. Especially after that 47-45 win over Swainsboro.

4. Westside

The Seminoles were off, and at a good time to fix a lot of little things before things start getting tougher schedule-wise in a few weeks.

5. Dublin

The Irish will unload their frustrations of the 13-10 loss to Brooks County on East Laurens. But they were probably going to do that anyway.

6. Mount de Sales

The Cavaliers keep just playing steady football, and they are showing a profiency at winning close games. But they’ll need to show more diversity on offense, because everybody in the region will be seriously eyeballing how to stop QB Dexter Williams.

7. Hancock Central

Don’t look now, but who’s 3-1 for the first time since 2013? And who is second among all 7-A teams in scoring? Now, the question is if the Bulldogs can keep it up. They’ve had nice starts before and stumbled down the stretch.

8. Crawford County

There are only four Class A teams in Central Georgia with a winning record, and the Eagles are one. But the schedule picks up as region play begins, although 4-A isn’t all that strong this year.

9. Bleckley County

Granted, Marion County is a quality Class A team, but the Royals again hurt themselves. Bleckley County’s defense is due for some improvement, with two Class A opponents scoring 26 and 41.

10. Lamar County

The Trojans are, yes, off 31-14 loss to Class AAA Pike County, but there are few Division II teams left with non-losing records. And it’s looking like Lamar County is a legit playoff contender, especially with some potential momentum-building games coming up against winless Jordan and Spencer on consecutive Fridays. Taking care of business will push the Trojans past some teams quickly.

Around Central Georgia

Cracking 1,000

There are, according to MaxPreps, eight quarterbacks in Georgia with more than 1,000 passing yards.

Half are from Central Georgia.

Warner Robins’ Dylan Fromm, Jones County’s Hunter Costlow, and Perry’s Lane Rucker passed the mark two Fridays ago, and they were joined last week by Mary Persons’ J.T. Hartage.

Hartage leads the foursome at a 71.8-percent completion rate, just ahead of Costlow’s 69 percent. Fromm is next at 58.1 percent followed by Rucker at 54 percent.

Costlow leads with 19 touchdown passes, with Fromm 10 and eight each for Rucker and Hartage.

Hartage has no interceptions on 78 attempts, on pace to repeat last year’s total of only three on 215 attempts.

Fromm has only two in 136 attempts and Costlow three on 100 and Rucker five on 126.

Next to join the club: Houston County’s Max Rigby is 29 yards away, and Crawford County’s Cody Guidry is 159 away.

Bleckley County’s Zach Lassiter is at 807 and Westside’s Victor Dixon at 806.

And their targets

Six of the top 20 receivers in the state are from Central Georgia.

Marcayll Jones of Warner Robins is second with 518 yards, but he’s still looking for his first TD catch.

Jones County’s Jontavis Robertson is next with 484 yards while Perry’s Davion Ross is ninth with 444 yards. Maleek Wooten of Jones County is 11th with 406 yards and seven touchdowns – best among the area leaders – with Jaylon Barden of Westside 12th with 395 yards.

Bleckley County’s Marcus Brown is 19th with 345 yards.

Still undefeated

Veterans, Mary Persons, Perry, Dodge County, Washington County, Mount de Sales, and John Milledge are Central Georgia’s lone remaining GHSA and GISA teams.

One of them will be dismissed from the group on Friday when Veterans visits Perry.

Still looking, I

Twiggs County, FPD, Wilkinson County, Rutland, Baldwin are still looking for their first win.

One of them will be celebrating in two weeks when FPD visits Twiggs County. FPD and Wilkinson County are off this week, while Twiggs County takes on Tattnall. FPD, Wilkinson County, and Twiggs County are all in the same sub-region.

Rutland faces Westside and Baldwin welcome winless 6A Greenbrier, which has scored only 18 points.

Still looking, II

Twiggs County is also looking for its first points, as is Central-Talbotton, also in Class A.

On the opposite end, for example, is Region 1-5A, where Valdosta’s 118 points scored are the fewest in the region.