In a week where Region 1-6A blew out every team that they faced, Friday night consisted of padding stats for the varsity and getting reps for the backups. This made narrowing down our top 5 performances difficult, particularly in the play of the QBs.
Every QB in the region had a huge performance, but Chase Parrish once again stood out from the crowd. Despite only playing one half, he racked up 6 TD passes and 252 yards. It didn’t take long for Parrish to put up the stats that would secure him the top spot on our list.
Right behind him, however, is Lowndes’ Austin Dixon. Quietly playing at a very high level, Dixon had a career high performance that continued his impressive run this season. Adapting to the new offense brought in by OC Coach Pruitt, it appears as if Dixon has found his stride in his 3rd year as a starter.
Fitzgerald’s James Graham may be taking the snaps at QB, but his stats would lead you to believe that he is an elite running back. Graham posts gaudy rushing numbers each and every week as Fitzgerald continues to outscore opponents with the one-two punch of Graham and J.D. King, who put up 24 carries, 186 yards, and 4 TDs.
Dameon Pierce makes his debut on our Top 5 list, running his way to 141 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns. Bainbridge defeated TCC 34-16 and face off against Crisp on Friday.
D.J. Pollard and the Irwin County offense made a statement with a decisive win over Clinch on Friday. Scampering for almost 136 yards and 2 touchdowns, Pollard graces our Top 5 once again, this time against a highly acclaimed Clinch defense.
Week 5 brought change to our Top 5 Teams, largely due to Irwin’s defeat of Clinch. Clinch, showing some inexperience on the offensive side of the ball, fell to an early 21-0 lead and wasn’t able to rebound. This left an open spot on our list that wasn’t easy to fill.
With that said, now is the perfect opportunity to give you a peek behind the curtain and grant you some insight into how we select our Top 5:
Our criteria is NOT pinning these teams head-to-head in an effort to crown a champion; that is settled on the field within each respective division, from A to AAAAAA. College polls and BCS rankings are designed to do just that, but high school, unlike college, crowns multiple champions per year, not just one. Our Top 5 is meant to highlight great teams who are excelling within their schedules, regardless of classification. For example, we will never know if this year’s Fitzgerald can hang with a Colquitt/Lee/Valdosta, but Fitzgerald continues to dominate every opponent that they face, earning them our #3 spot. It would be unreasonable and unfair to eliminate teams in lower classifications from our Top 5 simply because of that fact. We can only hold teams accountable to whether or not they are impressively performing against the teams that they are scheduled to play.
Our criteria is based upon projecting performances and the likelihood of championships, regardless of classification.
With that settled, now for our top 5!
Colquitt and Lee, our two current powerhouses, both pulled their starters by halftime in easy wins. However, all of 1-6A enters into an off week on Friday, and then region play begins; that is when they will be truly tested for the first time this year.
With Clinch losing, Fitzgerald moved up a spot to #3. Until someone finds an answer to the King-Graham combo, Fitzgerald will continue to coast. Although their defense doesn’t hold teams to few points, their offense always manages to overcome that fact with their ground game.
The switch comes in by replacing Clinch with Tift County. While Tift makes for the 3rd 1-6A team in our list, they are the only other team in our coverage area that is undefeated. Although we have not covered Tift much this year, they have been improving and continually winning under the radar. With region play approaching, however, we will once again have to project the longevity of their success and determine the likelihood of them making the playoffs amongst such strong opposition.
Lastly, Brookwood holds down the 5 spot as the most impressive team in GISA. SGA didn’t stand a chance against the Warriors in a 64-6 rout. Per usual, Valwood is their biggest challenge on their way to a region title.
