Six top-10 teams fall in first round of GHSA playoffs

Unranked Sequoyah, Cambridge and Luella defeated top-10 teams, and Archer, Peachtree Ridge, Houston County and Bleckley County eliminated region champions in highlights of last week’s first round.

The opening round was light on upsets, which is the norm. The computer Maxwell Ratings pegged 104 of 119 games correctly. Six top-10 teams lost, but three were playing other ranked teams.

In those games, No. 4 Douglas County beat No. 9 Mill Creek 27-18 in Class 6A, No. 1 Marist beat No. 9 Warner Robins 47-25 in Class 4A and No. 9 Douglass beat No. 10 Cairo 14-13 in Class 3A.

The most notable upsets were Sequoyah over Gainesville in Class 5A, Cambridge over Cedartown in 4A and Luella over Westover in 3A.

Sequoyah defeated No. 6 Gainesville 38-28 in Class 5A by scoring two touchdowns in the final six minutes after Gainesville took a 28-24 lead.

Sequoyah was 9-1 in the regular season, its only loss to Sprayberry, a region champion, but had not faced a top-10 team, so the Maxwell pegged the Chiefs as a 13-point underdog.

Gainesville, the preseason No. 2 team, had lost to No. 1 teams Carrollton and Milton and to No. 5 Roswell and finished third in Region 7, forcing the road trip to Cherokee County. Gainesville is the highest-ranked team that Sequoyah has beaten since No. 5 Dalton in 2018 and the best playoff win since the Chiefs beat No. 5 Lanier in 2014.

In Class 4A, Cambridge defeated No. 6 Cedartown 51-44, rallying from a 44-30 deficit in the fourth quarter. Weston Taylor threw six TD passes.

Cambridge started the season 8-0 but lost its final two regular-season games to Kell and Blessed Trinity and fell out of the rankings. The playoff victory was Cambridge’s fourth in history and first against a top-10 opponent.

In Class 3A, Luella beat No. 6 Westover 25-24. This is the second straight season that Luella has won a first-round playoff game despite a 5-5 regular-season record, but this one came on the road and represented Luella’s first win over a top-10 opponent since 2008, when the Lions beat Stephenson.

In the highest class, Archer beat Region 3 champion Harrison 46-42, and Peachtree Ridge beat Region 6 champion North Atlanta 43-27. Archer entered the game with a 3-7 record.

Houston County of Class 5A beat Region 8 champion Clarke Central 69-49. The Bears' Region 2 went 4-0 as Lee County, Thomas County Central and Coffee also won their playoff openers against Region 8.

Bleckley County beat Class A Division I fifth seed and Region 5 champion Social Circle 41-16.