Sunday Morning Quarterback: What we learned
Showdowns set for Region 2-AAAAA: Just like a year ago, the local teams in 2-AAAAA rolled to good starts by stomping the Augusta schools, and that thankfully keeps intact huge marquee games this week. On Thursday, No. 1 Northside tries to avenge last year’s shocker against No. 5 Jones County. Friday, Warner Robins seeks payback for a 32-point loss to No. 3 Houston County. Good week for The Mac, a very good week.
Best ever, but just getting started: Howard improved to 4-0, claiming a fourth win for the first time in program history. Now, how will the Huskies fare in GHSA Region 2-AAAA play? After a week off, the Huskies will host West Laurens, which lost to Westside 27-24 on Friday. In Howard’s four games so far, the biggest challenge for the Huskies was trying to stop the proflic passing game Central brought to the table in a game that wound up being decided by a point. West Laurens threw the ball a lot last year, but the Raiders struggled to get anything going through the air against Westside. A win over West Laurens would thrust Howard into the region championship discussion, or at least put the Huskies in the running for a first-round home playoff game.
Upset special: Perry was off a nice night in a close loss at Peach County, but Macon County had hammered Veterans. The math didn’t quite add up to what happened in Montezuma, with Perry upsetting Macon County 34-33. It was arguably the Panthers’ biggest win since 2010’s 21-7 win over host Mary Persons, and backed up the praise of Peach County head coach Chad Campbell that the Panthers had progressed.
Westside shows resilience: Penalties, a bad throwing decision that led to a long interception return for a touchdown and a well-placed punt that led to a safety hampered Westside in the first half against West Laurens. But the Seminoles didn’t crumble against the Raiders, ranked fifth in GHSA Class AAAA. A pair of touchdowns in the final eight minutes of the second quarter put Westside back in the lead, and the Seminoles hung on from there to take a 3-0 record into Friday’s big Region 2-AAA showdown with Central.
Speaking of resilience: After falling just short against Howard last week, Central sailed to a 51-28 win at Jordan. The Chargers, who led 41-7 in the third quarter, once again got strong performances from quarterback Derrick Evans and running back Antonio Sanders Jr. as they improved to 2-1 heading into Friday’s game against Westside.
A traffic jam is forming: Life in Region 2-AAAA got a whole lot more interesting, at least potentially, with Perry’s stunner of Class AA No. 4 Macon County. Veterans winning by 17 at Washington County was equally noteworthy, as was Baldwin getting thumped 52-0 -- the Braves’ worst loss since 55-0 at Northside late in he 2001 season -- at Class AAAAAA Tift County. Howard is an attention-getter, and Upson-Lee is rolling and West Laurens is likely angered by its performance at Westside.
Keeping things fairly close: Although Peach County pulled away in the second half to a 35-12 victory over Southwest, the two first-quarter touchdowns the Patriots scored kept things interesting for awhile. While Peach County has dominated the all-time series, the 23-point margin of victory was the closest since 2003.
This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Sunday Morning Quarterback: What we learned ."