Central Georgia polls

          Well, No. 10 in Division II is open again.

          Northeast had it for a week, but a run of two good games came to a halt at Bleckley County, which is moving up.

          There is shuffling in Division I all the way through, and there will be shuffling there the rest of the season.

          It still comes down to if a team is a little better than the team it’s ahead of, win or lose last week, because it’s a big-picture view, and competition is a huge part of the equation.

 

Division I (6A, 5A, 4A)

1. Warner Robins

          Yeah, you beat Northside 39-0 – to nothing – at McConnell-Talbert, you’re going to jump teams and clearly deserve it. You hold Northside to a stunning – maybe the stat of the year – 1.2 yards a play, you’re going to jump teams. The Demons are a revelation, with rare balance, which means when it matters, they’ll be able to rely on one thing if something else isn’t working.

2. Jones County
          The Greyhounds were off. Yes, they beat Northside a couple weeks ago, by 23, but in Gray. There’s not much difference – other than schemes and such – between 1 and 2. And yes, one starts looking ahead to possible meetings in the playoffs (From Kathleen: “Not so fast, our friend”. No doubt).

3. Veterans

          No, the Warhawks aren’t really playing phenomenal football on either side of the ball right now. They’ve pulled two pretty ugly games out the past two weeks. But for a still-fairly-young program and a second-year staff, those are huge signs of progress, and things that set up for that big win. Must respect taking care of business. Don’t underestimate gritty and stubborn, and be prepared for that game when they click.

4. Houston County

          The Bears were off, and got a good look at their next opponent, Warner Robins. The oddness of their loss to Veterans – outgained the Warhawks 243-161 but lost three fumbles and ran for two yards a carry – likely led to a good week of practice. And the door to the playoffs may – may – now be a little more open, so the Bears need more consistent play since that regular-season finale with Northside is most likely for the final playoff spot.

5. Howard

          The Huskies get the nod ever so slightly over West Laurens. And who does Howard play this week? West Laurens. And that is a game worth a little drive if you’re free. The Huskies are playing more disciplined, are a little more versatile than expected, and taking care of business, better than many programs much older.

 

Division II (3A, 2A, A, others)

1. Peach County
          The Trojans got the passing game going, such as one can in a game like the rout of Kendrick. And they started building depth – because depth doesn’t just happen – by giving backups the entire second half.

2. Dublin
          It wouldn’t have hurt the Irish to throw some passes in the expected hammering of East Laurens and sharpen up that part of the game for when it’ll be needed in the postseason, and perhaps once or twice in the regular season. But goodness, that wing-T is just rocking.

3. Washington County
          A week off is followed by East Laurens – geez, poor Falcons – and then Bleckley County. The Golden Hawks will need to tighten up the pass defense a little bit for three of the following four weeks.

4. Westside

          The Seminoles took care of business against Rutland, avoided any letdowns or looking ahead.

5. Lamar County
          A legit top-1o team in AA – in one poll, while another poll has a 1-3 team ranked - for the first time since early 2015, when they opened at fourth, but fell out after a 20-7 game 3 loss to 4A ranked Mary Persons. The Trojans won six straight and couldn’t get back in. Lamar County avoided the trap game syndrome against Jordan, and Spencer is better than a trap-game opponent.

6. Dodge County
          As expected, the Indians got back in sync with an easy romp over Southwest, one that would have been a bigger margin save for some mistakes. But don’t expect abundant consistency, with a young offensive line and quarterback, fairly substantial tweaks on offense, still some transition to a new staff, and a little less depth and experience than usual. Clearly, though, Dodge County doesn’t have to go far to look like Dodge County.

7. Mount de Sales
          The strength of schedule – although Central Georgia Class A is down again – lifts the Cavs past John Milledge. They handled Stratford, and now have to muddle through two winless opponents before Tattnall, and a chance to knock off the Trojans and Stratford in the same year for the first time in awhile.

8. Bleckley County
          The Royals avenged last year’s loss to Northeast, and showed some big-play ability and the ability to bounce back quickly after a bad play. A 94-yard catch-and-run put them on top, and the lead was 35-14 until the final 80 seconds, a good second half for the defense.

9. John Milledge
          The Trojans haven’t gotten any worse, it’s just that some other teams have gotten better. And rest assured, there’s not much difference between No. 6 and No. 9, but there’s a gap after No. 9.

10. Vacated
          There are 10 Class A and six AA area teams below .500, with two at .500 and five with winning records. And there are more “ouch” losses in the .500-and-below group than “ooooh” wins. By far.
         

Loughdmouthings

          Ah, the fun of Region 2-4A is here. And it gets off to a burly start with West Laurens and Howard, the top two teams in the region.

          This won’t be fancy, and there won’t be a flurry of pitchin’ and catchin’ around the ballfield. But both passing games, especially that of West Laurens and A.J. Mathis, are a little underrated.

          All games are invariably won and lost based on the performances up front, and this is a huge posterchild game for that. The Raiders have had an upper-level defense for years now, and the Huskies have some size up front.

          The ball will matter, and it’ll be a shocker if it doesn’t come down to the final few minutes and if somebody can make that play on offense. …

          Memo to all coaches using Hudl for box scores and stats: please check the final numbers out before sending/finishing, because the majority of boxes forwarded the past few weeks – and much appreciation – have had incorrect scores all over the place. More, in fact, have been wrong than right.

          And it’s never a bad time to check rosters on MaxPreps and Hudl and anywhere else. …

          Find somebody with such a roller coaster set of weeks.

          Kevin Kinsler goes from his 100th win on Friday to the biggest loss of his career the next. And now, one of the biggest challenges is ahead: spend an off week trying to get better and convincing enough players that the Eagles aren’t done, and can repeat last year’s stunning playoff run.

          But Houston County is better, and that regular-season finale should be the biggest since the end of the Fromm and Co. period. Expect it to be for the final playoff spot from the region. …

          Wisdom and logic won out last week, and the ejection of West Laurens’ head coach Kagan McClain was overturned, so he was on the sidelines for Friday’s game against Statesboro. …

          Stat watch: Jones County quarterback Hunter Costlow is three or four games from becoming yet another Central Georgia 5,000-yard career passer. He’s at 1,355 yards this year, on top of 2,413 last year and 656 as a sophomore.

          Costlow needs 571 yards, which he’d cover in a little more than two games. But after winless Locust Grove this week, the Greyhounds have co-favorite Dutchtown on the road, and then 1-4 Eagles Landing on the road.

At 250 yards a game through the regular season, Costlow would have 5,679 yards, which puts him ahead of the likes ofConnor SHaw, Buck Belue, A.J. Bryant, Mike Bobo, and David Greene.

         

Note to keepers of standings, results

          In this age of technology, certainly more teams can have stats on Friday night or Saturday morning to send to centralgasports@gmail.com so folks can find out what happened – everybody loves reading about high school football on a Saturday morning - other than seeing video of a few plays that don’t tell much about the game.

          Thanks last week to Northside, Brentwood, John Milledge, Dublin, and Mount de Sales for Friday night’s boxes, and info from Northeast, Peach County, and Lamar County afterward.

 

Around the state

          Adding to the belief that anything is possible, Holy Innocents followed its win over Rutland by knocking off Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy, a Class A powerhouse, 42-41.

          And so ended the longest streak of being ranked No 1 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, at 48 weeks. There is currently no notable active such streak.

          It was Holy Innocents’ second win over ELCA, breaking a six-game losing streak. The Chargers went 13-1 last year in winning their fourth straight state title, and that followed two undefeated seasons.

          Staggeringly, it was ELCA’s first region loss since Holy Innocents did the dead 35-13 on Sept. 4, 2009. …

          Calhoun had its streak of 119 straight region wins come to an end with a stunning 31-7 loss to North Murray.

          Stunning in that Calhoun was a 33-point favorite in the Maxwell Ratings. Stunning in that North Murray is in its first decade of football, and hadn’t been closer than 24 points in losing seven times to Calhoun, which fell out of the AJC poll for the first time in 146 weeks. .

          The Mountaineers, though, are midway through what will be their fourth straight winning season, and sixth non-losing season out of 11.

Quotable

          Spoon Risper and Rusty Easom had known each other for years, and when Easom took the Rutland job, Risper saw that he’d be driving from home to Rutland every day, a drive of more than an hour.

          “Coach, if you’re ever working late and you need somewhere to stay, you can always come stay at my house,” Risper said, Easom told the Macon Touchdown Club last week. “I called him (last Sunday) night and said, ‘Hey man, I think I’m just going to crash at your place this week.’”

          Westside and Rutland played Friday night.

          “He told me I couldn’t stay. I said, ‘What kind of neighbor are you?”