Review in high class: South Forsyth, North Gwinnett, Tift pass big tests

ajc.com

Credit: Adam Krohn

Credit: Adam Krohn

Week six of the high school football season is in the books. Here are five things that stood out from Friday night in Class AAAAAAA:

-South Forsyth improved to 5-0 with a 37-20 victory over Lassiter in a game between unranked 4-0 teams. The War Eagles were dropped out of the AJC Top 10 last week without losing, but this win will be noticed (although it will be noted below that the Top 10 went undefeated). South Forsyth led Lassitter 16-13 entering the fourth quarter, then went on a 21-0 run to finish it. Jared Honey scored three rushing touchdowns. The War Eagles are the team to beat in Region 5. That schedule begins Oct. 6 vs. Lambert. Milton and West Forsyth figure to be the toughest outs toward running the table to 10-0.

-Sixth-ranked North Gwinnett (4-1) withstood the challenge of previously unbeaten Mountain View, winning 27-14 and beating the Bears for the eighth straight time. That sets up a showdown next week between North and fifth-ranked Mill Creek (4-1). The winner of that will be the clear favorite in Region 6. It’s been a productive first season under new coach Bill Stewart. North Gwinnett was 6-5 in 2016 and early this season lost its starting quarterback, Texas A&M-commit Cade Fortin, to injury.

-Tift County, ranked 10th, is now 6-0 after a 33-31 victory over Coffee, which entered 3-0 and ranked No. 3 in Class AAAAAA. Tift won the game on a late field goal. Tift plays at Fitzgerald next week before starting the three-game Region 1 schedule against No. 2 Lowndes on Oct. 13. Tift has not had a winning record in region play since 2008, but also hasn’t started 6-0 since 1993.

-Meadowcreek is now 5-0 after beating Lakeside 42-28. The Mustangs are one victory from clinching their first winning season since 1990. This is a program that recently finished 0-10 eight times out of nine. Next is Berkmar (0-5), so the odds of 6-0 are looking pretty good right now.

-As noted above, the Top 10 in this class didn’t lose. Here's how it played out:

1. Grayson (4-0) Beat International School (Broward, Fla.) 74-0

2. Lowndes (5-0) Beat Shiloh 55-0

3. Archer (5-0) Beat Roswell 37-26

4. Walton (5-0) Beat Dacula 34-20

5. Mill Creek (4-1) Beat Collins Hill 42-13

6. North Gwinnett (4-1) Beat Mountain View 27-14

7. Colquitt County (5-1) Beat Valdosta 47-0

8. Brookwood (3-2) Beat Berkmar 63-6

9. McEachern (3-2) Beat Camden County 38-13

10. Tift County (6-0) Beat Coffee 33-31