Line: Cedar Grove -10 (75.4% chance of winning). It will be remembered as the game that promoted the GHSA to adopt instant replay to review officials calls. Sandy Creek’s Travis Franklin scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 50 seconds left, and Kaleb Cost intercepted a long pass at the Sandy Creek 31 to clinch the victory. Video indicated that Franklin’s run came up short of the goal line. The play took place on third down, so Sandy Creek would’ve had another shot at the touchdown or a tying field goal, but video of the play and criticism of the call went viral. Just days later, multiple GHSA board-of-trustees members said the GHSA would take a serious look at allowing replay in light of the controversy. Rules at the time prevented officials from using any video evidence to assist in calls. While Cedar Grove fans felt the call cost their team the game, Sandy Creek’s supporters felt slighted, also. This was a remarkable upset. Cedar Grove was ranked No. 1 and going for its fifth state title in seven seasons and had beaten Sandy Creek 49-34 in the regular season. Sandy Creek led 314-254 in total yards and held Cedar Grove’s vaunted passing offense to a 6-of-17 showing for just 33 yards. Sandy Creek’s winning drive, which covered 70 yards in 12 plays, came after Cedar Grove took a 17-14 lead. The key play was quarterback Geimere Latimer’s riveting 23-yard run on a fourth-and-22 that moved the ball to the Cedar Grove 21. Four plays later, Sandy Creek was on the Cedar Grove 1 poised to make history. Franklin’s touchdown is one of only seven last-minute game-winning touchdowns in GHSA finals history. It’s easily the most significant and controversial.

Line: Calhoun -3 (58% chance of winning). Buford won the first overtime game ever played in the state finals and captured its fourth consecutive title, tying a record set by West Rome from 1982 to1985. It looked as though it might be easy after Buford’s Ryan Dillard returned a fumble 57 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Buford led 24-7 in the third quarter, but Calhoun scored 17 points to tie, the final ones coming on a 45-yard field goal by Adam Griffith with 10 seconds left. In overtime, Dominique Swope ran for a 9-yard score on Buford's possession. Calhoun had a third-and-3 at the 8 when Buford's Kurt Freitag tagged Calhoun's 1,500-yard rusher, Dustin Christian, for a 7-yard loss. Calhoun threw incomplete into the end zone on fourth down. Freitag, who would sign with Alabama, also caught a TD pass as a tight end. Calhoun became the first school since Adairsville (1969-72) to lose three straight state finals. All of Calhoun's losses were to Buford.

Line: Norcross -8 (72% chance of winning). Norcross rallied from a 14-3 deficit in the fourth quarter and won its first state title in its 56th season of varsity football. The victory – one of the seven biggest fourth-quarter comebacks in state finals history – came with a sterling performance by future NFL star Alvin Kamara, who scored on a 61-yard reception and a 10-yard run in the final five minutes and rushed for 119 yards on 33 carries. Kamara’s 61-yarder, thrown by quarterback Joseph Wilbur, came on a third-and-19 with Norcross trailing 14-9 and less than five minutes to go. Myles Autry caught an 11-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 14-9 with 7:17 to play. Norcross coach Keith Maloof joined George Maloof to become the third father-and-son pair to win state titles. (The others are Hal and Ray Lamb and Chip and Rodney Walker.) Kamara would be named the AJC’s all-classification player of the year, beating out Gainesville’s Deshaun Watson. Norcross, which finished 15-0, became the sixth team in finals history to win a championship after trailing by 10 or more points in the fourth quarter. Only one (2015 Westminster) has done it since then.

Line: Peach County -8 (71.1% chance of winning). It had a controversial late call, or two. On fourth-and-8 with 3:33 remaining, and Calhoun leading 10-6, Peach County quarterback Antonio Gilbert threw what appeared to be a 21-yard TD pass to Noah Whittington, who caught the ball at the Calhoun 5-yard line and stretched out for the goal line. The ball popped loose when it hit the ground. Instead of a go-head touchdown or first-and-goal, the play was ruled an incomplete pass, giving Calhoun possession. Other video called into question whether Whittington went out of bounds prior to the catch, which, if he was not forced, could've resulted in a 15-yard penalty and replay of the down. Three other calls involving potential or actual turnovers were questionable, two that went against Calhoun, one leading to Peach County's first field goal. After the controversy on the goal line, Peach County forced a three-and-out and got another possession, but Calhoun's Brice Craig came up with a 15-yard sack – Calhoun's fifth sack of the game – to help nail down the victory. Calhoun held Peach County, a team that had averaged 45.7 points per game, to 170 total yards and scored the game’s only touchdown on Brannon Spector’s 45-yard interception return. Peach County supporters didn’t go silently. Fort Valley held a parade for the team. The booster club began raising money to buy the team championship rings, stating, “We know what has happened. The 2017 Peach County Trojans were robbed. ... It's up to the community to show its support to this championship team.” The controversial ending coupled with an equally controversial call in the 2022 Cedar Grove-Sandy Creek championship game were the catalysts for the GHSA adopting video replay in 2023.

Line: Southeast Bulloch -2 (57% chance of winning). The two-point conversion was first allowed in 1969. Two years later, Southeast Bulloch’s Fred Shaver became the first Georgia coach faced with the ultimate two-point decision: Kick the extra point to tie and share a state title or go for two to win it outright. Shaver went for it. His Yellow Jackets had controlled the game but for a certain Bowdon agitator named Craig Roop, who had scored on a 40-yard run and a 30-yard interception return. Michael Striplin also had a pick six as Bowdon had the lead despite just three first downs. Southeast pulled within 20-19 with nine seconds left on Ray Davis’s 4-yard pass to Glenn Davis. For the two-pointer, Ray Davis rolled out to pass again but found no one open. “In desperation, he split for the corner of the end zone with only Roop left between him and a victory,” wrote Bill Fordham of The Times-Georgian of Carrollton. “Roop squared on Davis and met him with a collision that knocked Davis completely off the field, two yards short of the end zone. Both Davis and Roop were momentarily knocked out, but both left the field on their own power with tears in their eyes. But Roop’s were tears of joy.” It was Bowdon’s first state title. Only two other times has a Georgia coach been given that late choice to tie or win. His fellow brave hearts, Peach County’s Neal Rumble in 1992 and Gainesville’s Bruce Miller in 2009, also came up short. Southeast would win its next 34 games with state titles in 1972 and 1973. Had Craig Roop not stood in the way, Southeast Bulloch would’ve won 47 straight games from 1971 to 1974.

Line: Athens -9 (83% chance of winning). Athens had won state titles in 1941 and 1955, but this was thought to be its best team yet. The Trojans were 13-0, no game closer than 12 points. Quarterback Paul Gilbert, who would sign with Georgia, was the Class 3A Back of the Year and the state’s most heralded player. Athens was playing the championship game at home, where it hadn’t lost in more than two years. The field seated 8,000 but squeezed in 10,000, according to the Valdosta Daily Times, which estimated 4,000 came up from south Georgia. Valdosta dominated the first half, leading 14-0 as quarterback Glenn Davis ran for a touchdown and passed for another. Early in the third quarter, Davis suffered a rib injury and couldn’t pass, stalling Valdosta’s offense the rest of the night. On Athens’ next possession, speedy Ed Allen scored on a 71-yard run. With four minutes left, and starting from its 20-yard line, Athens put together its only sustained drive. Gilbert hit on three passes. Valdosta was penalized twice. Allen ran 11 yards to the 3. It took Athens four plays, but with 20 seconds left, Gilbert finally scored from the 1. There was no two-point option or overtime in 1965. A tie and a co-championship were all that Weyman Sellers’ Trojans could salvage. But Athens’ kicker, Chuck Perry, missed against a hard Valdosta rush. It wasn’t close. Perry had made 62 of 70 extra points that season, making him far more accurate that most high school kickers in his day. According to GHSF Daily’s research, Gilbert’s touchdown was the 378th in state finals history. There had been only 223 successful extra points. Valdosta had its fourth state title of the decade.

Line: Roswell -5 (65% chance of winning). It was a tie to end all ties in championship games. Peachtree Ridge quarterback Zach Graham scored on a 6-yard scramble with 4:57 left, then ran in the conversion, knotting the score at 14. The score would stay that way, making it the ninth state finals tie in history and the first in the highest classification since 1978. The game was played before more than 10,000 fans at McEachern’s Cantrell Stadium. “How about a big hand for Peachtree Ridge and Roswell,” the neutral public-address announcer said. He was booed. “Nobody wants a point-five championship,” said Peachtree Ridge defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, a future Ohio State All-American and NFL star. “We just wish it could’ve been settled.” Dublin and Charlton County had tied in the Class 2A final in Dublin earlier in the day. The fallout prompted the Georgia High School Association to change its rules, calling for overtime in future finals. The game was a good one, with Peachtree Ridge – which had won four road playoff games to arrive as the first No. 4 seed to reach the finals – driving 55 yards for the tying score. Graham was 20-of-30 passing for 202 yards. Drew Butler kicked two 42-yard field goals but missed two others, one a 20-yarder. Roswell’s Dustin Taliaferro threw an 83-yard TD pass to Garrett Embry in the second quarter for a 14-3 lead that held until early in the fourth. Peachtree Ridge became the first team in the highest class to win a state title after trailing by more than 10 points in the fourth quarter. Only six in any class have done it. It was Peachtree Ridge’s first state title in its four-season history. It was Roswell’s first state title since 1970.

Line: Valdosta -13 (87% chance of winning). Clarke Central was 13-0 and ranked No. 1, but Valdosta had just crushed defending champion Warner Robins 27-8, and South Georgia teams had won the past four Class 3A titles. Valdosta also had the state’s most renowned quarterback, Buck Belue. The retroactive Maxwell Ratings projected Valdosta as a 13-point favorite. Clarke, playing at home, came out playing like its contemporary human ranking, leading 16-0 in the first half. Lionel Huff returned an interception 41 yards for a touchdown, and Charles Campbell ran Belue out of the end zone for a safety on a play that started at Valdosta’s 10. It would’ve been worse, but Valdosta stopped Clarke at the 1-yard line just before halftime. Valdosta rallied on Belue’s TD passes to John Lastinger and Frank Council. Belue was stopped on a two-point conversion run on the final play of the third quarter, keeping Clarke ahead 16-14. With five minutes left, Valdosta intercepted Clarke’s Jim Bob Harris and got a final chance starting at its 14. Belue completed five passes on a drive that put Valdosta on the Clarke 14, where his 7-yard scramble was 7 yards short of a first down. Valdosta went for the field goal. The snap was high, throwing kicker Robert Baldwin’s timing off, and his kick was a popup that fell around the goal line. The game’s quarterbacks would start on national championship teams, Harris as an Alabama safety in 1978 and 1979 and Belue as Georgia’s quarterback in 1980.

Line: Gainesville -5 (65% chance of winning). Trailing 13-6 with 50 seconds left, Gainesville drove 66 yards and scored as time expired on a 21-yard pass from Blake Sims to Michael Lorentz. Gainesville could’ve kicked an extra point and forced the first overtime in state finals history. Instead, coach Bruce Miller chose to let the hot-handed Sims, who would star at Alabama, win or lose it on a two-point try. As expected, Sims targeted wide receiver Tai-ler Jones, a blue-chip recruit headed to Notre Dame, but Peach County’s unrecruited, 5-foot-8 linebacker, Luke Crowell, knocked down the pass, securing the Trojans’ third state championship in five seasons. The spotlight-sealer Crowell also scored a touchdown in the second quarter and intercepted a pass in the third, returning it 43 yards to the Gainesville 30, setting up a field goal and a 13-6 lead ahead of Gainesville’s last-minute TD drive. Gainesville’s Miller remains one of only three coaches in GHSA finals history to choose a two-point try over a tying PAT. The others – Peach County’s Neal Rumble in 1992 and Southeast Bulloch’s Fred Shaver in 1971 – also failed bravely. It was Gainesville’s seventh straight losing final dating to the 1940s. Peach County coach Chad Campbell made another kind of history. He and Lee Campbell became the first brothers to win GHSA championships. Lee won with Hawkinsville in 2003 and 2004.

Line: Duluth -3 (63% chance of winning). Trailing 12-7 in the fourth quarter, Lyons faced a third-and-14 from its 9-yard line. Lyons hadn’t completed a pass in the game. The other team had George Rogers, the future Heisman Trophy winner. Not looking good for the home team. Next came a screen pass to Eugene Corbett. The Lyons Progress newspaper wrote that Corbett “zig-zagged, twisted, turned and broke at least five tackles.” The play went for 77 yards. Lyons needed five plays to advance the final 14 yards, but Corbett’s 3-yard run hit paydirt, making it 14-12. The Bulldogs still had to contend with Rogers, or maybe not entirely. Duluth had a third-and-1 at its 35 but was stopped cold on consecutive plays. Rogers didn’t get the carry in either. Lyons quarterback Timmy Vaughn then completed his second pass of the game, a 24-yarder, setting up another score and a 20-12 lead. Duluth got to the Lyons’ 43 after a long Rogers kickoff return but was sacked twice and lost a fumble. Rogers finished with 135 yards rushing. Corbett ran for 93 and had a game-high 170 yards from scrimmage.

Line: Buford -1 (52.4% chance of winning). Jamarius Isaac caught a 22-yard game-tying touchdown pass with 26 seconds left in regulation, then intercepted a pass on Warner Robins' overtime possession. Hayden Olsen followed with a 24-yard field goal to win it. Isaac also recovered a game-changing Warner Robins fumble at the Buford 22 with 4:50 left in regulation. Another Buford hero was backup quarterback Ashton Daniels, who entered in the third quarter and later drove the Wolves 78 yards on 14 plays for the tying score and threw the clutch strike to Isaac in the end zone for the tie. This proved to be the most exciting of the eight finals played in their debut season at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium. Both blue-blood programs had first-year coaches (Buford’s Bryant Appling, Warner Robins’ Marquis Westbrook), each the first African American head football coach at their schools. Buford had lost in an upset to Clarke Central in the regular-season finale and entered ranked No. 5. Warner Robins was No. 2. Buford, ending a five-year title drought, became the first school to win championships in five classifications (A through 5A). Warner Robins, which had lost in overtime the previous season to Bainbridge, became the third school in GHSA history to lose in three straight finals, first since Calhoun (2008-10).

Line: Columbus -3 (64% chance of winning). Eddie Woody’s 61-yard punt return in the rain at Georgia Tech’s Grant Field is likely the greatest special-teams moment in state finals history. Seeking its first state title, Marietta trailed 7-0 midway in the fourth quarter and tied the game 7-7 on quarterback Hal Mote’s 8-yard run with about five minutes left. Marietta then forced a three-and-out. The Marietta Daily Journal described the game’s seminal moment: “Young Eddie gathered in a Columbus punt on his own 39, swung to his left and threaded his way down the slippery sideline behind savage blocking for the remaining 61 yards and glory.” It was Marietta’s first state title. In 1966, the Blue Devils lost to Valdosta 14-3 in the championship game. The night before, Marietta’s school for African Americans, Lemon Street, won the GIA’s Class A title. Lemon Street closed, and Marietta absorbed its students. Lemon Street’s coach, Ben Wilkins, became a Marietta assistant under French Johnson and was integral in the integration of the team and school system. Wilkins’ motto, “Be Somebody,” is still the school’s motto, nearly 40 years after Wilkins’ passing, and his plaque is displayed at Marietta’s French Johnson Field/Northcutt Stadium. Marietta would have to wait 52 years for its next state title, in 2019.

Line: Parkview -8 (78% chance of winning). Before a state finals record crowd of 16,000, Southwest DeKalb won its first state title in the coach Buck Godfrey era with a team featuring future Georgia and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter and Olympic track-and-field medalists Angelo Taylor and Terrance Trammell. The Panthers broke a 7-7 tie on fullback Jarrold Dennis’s 14-yard TD run with 5:35 left at the end of an 11-play, 81-yard drive, and Trammell, who would become a two-time Olympic silver-medal hurdler, intercepted a pass with 3:24 left. Southwest DeKalb then ran out the clock. From 1983, when Godfrey was hired, until this game, Southwest DeKalb had won nine region titles and reached the semifinals or better six times. Godfrey’s record was 139-30. Only Valdosta in the highest classification had won more games than Southwest DeKalb over Godfrey’s first 13 seasons. What was lacking, of course, was a state title. Southwest entered the season ranked No. 1 but dropped to No. 8 after an October loss to Douglass, led by future NFL running back Jamal Lewis. Parkview entered 14-0 and ranked No. 2. Quincy Carter, the AJC’s all-classification player of the year, was held to 76 yards passing and 34 rushing. Arvin Richard rushed for 140 yards for Southwest. Parkview’s Brett Millican rushed for 116. The crowd at DeKalb Memorial Stadium, now known as Hallford, was the most for a GHSA championship game until the finals moved to the Georgia Dome in 2008.

Line: Valdosta -14 (89% chance of winning). Valdosta rallied from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit and won after Clarke Central’s potential tying field goal from 28 yards was controversially ruled wide left in the final minutes. Valdosta scored the winning touchdown on Nakia McMullen’s 13-yard run with 11:11 left. Clarke Central then went 75 yards on 11 plays and got to Valdosta’s 9, but the next three plays lost three yards, necessitating a field-goal try with 2:28 left. Matt McNeil’s attempt might’ve left these two longtime state powers as co-champions. There was no overtime in 1992. Many Clarke Central fans believe McNeil’s kick was good, and video from Atlanta’s 11 Alive, which televised the game, did not clearly disprove the notion. In any event, Valdosta came away with its 22nd state title and a sixth national championship (National Sports News Service). After the field-goal miss, Valdosta got one first down and took a knee, running out the clock. The teams’ late coaches – Clarke Central’s Billy Henderson and Valdosta’s Nick Hyder – each would coach three more seasons. This was the last of their five meetings for the championship of the highest classification. Hyder won four. Citing his interpretation of the video, Henderson sometimes claimed he won two.

Line: Cedartown -2 (57.6% chance of winning). Executing the most clutch goal-line stand in state finals history, defending Class 4A champion Benedictine kept Cedartown out of the end zone four times inside the 2-yard line in the final seconds of a rainy, eventful fourth quarter at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium. With 7:42 left, Cedartown was barely hanging on, trailing 14-7 with Benedictine on its 37-yard line, but Cedartown’s Carlos Jones forced a fumble on a sack, and Mikey Esquivel recovered. Cedartown drove 57 yards on seven plays and scored on QB Reece Tanner’s 1-yard run with 4:53 left. But Cedartown missed the extra point, leaving Benedictine ahead 14-13. Benedictine then faced a fourth-and-1 at its 24 and gambled with a fake punt, and the up man dropped the snap, and Cedartown’s Maleek Frederick tackled him for no gain. Back in business, Cedartown used six running plays to earn a first-and-goal at the 1. Having missed an extra point and rain pouring, Cedartown tried four times to run it in, twice with Reece and twice with 230-pound Patrick Garner. On fourth down with three seconds left, Cedartown called time out, then ran Garner into the teeth of Benedictine’s defense again, but for no gain. Had Cedartown scored on the last attempt, it would’ve been the first final-play winning touchdown in state finals history and the fourth winning comeback from 14 points down in the second half. Cedartown, ranked No. 1, was denied what would’ve been its first state title since 1963. Credited with the goal-line tackles were Cole Semien, Keiran Glover, Alijah Alexander and Jeremiah Thomas.

Line: Valdosta -5 (69% chance of winning). With the score 14-14 in the fourth quarter, Valdosta drove 60 yards on 16 plays in what coach Wright Bazemore called “our best drive of the season.” Quarterback Bruce Bennett, a Georgia Football Hall of Fame inductee this year, plunged over from inside the 1-yard line with 29 seconds left. Valdosta’s 1960 team was mostly juniors and sophomores. Bennett, a junior that year, would play at Florida and in the CFL. Bill Myddleton, Bill Schroer, Giles Smith and Rick Thomas, then sophomores, would sign with Georgia Tech. This was Valdosta’s eighth state title but first in the highest class. The ’60 team started Valdosta on a 36-game winning streak, a state record that established Valdosta as Georgia’s king of high school football. Against Avondale, which entered 12-0, Valdosta went up 14-0 in the first half and allowed only six first downs and six rushing yards for the game, but Avondale rallied with two TD passes from Ed Pritchett, who later would start at Florida State. Avondale nearly scored again on the final play of the third quarter, but Valdosta’s Stan Reaves made a TD-saving tackle from behind at the 17 on Avondale’s fullback, who had gone 59 yards on a pass play. Valdosta stopped the threat on a turnover on downs. In the final minutes, Valdosta went on its winning march, keeping the ball on the ground. Valdosta completed only two passes in the game but rushed for 233 yards. Immediately after the game, played in chilly weather before 8,500 fans at Cleveland Field, the Valdosta Touchdown Club presented Bazemore with a 1961 Chevrolet station wagon. The coach called it “the nicest thing that has ever happened to me.” He’d win seven state titles from 1960 until 1971, his final season.

Line: North Springs -10 (84% chance of winning). If back and forth is what you like, this was the championship game of the 20th Century. The six ties or lead changes set a state finals record that lasted 47 years. The game was knotted14-14 on the final play of the third quarter. North Springs’ punter bobbled a snap, and Gainesville recovered at the 16. It took eight plays and two fourth-down conversions for the Red Elephants to score, making it 21-14 with 8:27 left. North Springs came back on its next drive with quarterback Jim Gregory scoring from the 4 with 6:19 left. It was Gregory’s third touchdown, and it was 21-21. Three minutes later, Gregory scored again – this one a 75-yarder – giving North Springs its final margin with 2:56 left. Though he would play at Wake Forest, Gregory was sometimes overshadowed by two others in the North Springs backfield, fullback Dennis Whitt (Georgia) and halfback Frank Schwahn (Georgia Tech). But this night was Gregory’s. His TD runs tied the championship-game record set by Washington-Wilkes’ Johnny Gresham in 1960. North Springs had its first state title. Gainesville would have to wait another 43 years. The game’s scoring sequence was 0-7, 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, 14-21, 21-21, 28-21.

Line: Fort Valley -10 (81% chance of winning). Trailing 14-0, Calhoun carried out the most unlikely fourth-quarter comeback in state finals history, scoring three touchdowns, one sparked by a gutsy fourth-and-8 play. The Yellow Jackets then stopped Fort Valley at the 10 on the game’s final desperate play. Starring was Calhoun quarterback Robert Agee, who scored two of the fourth-quarter touchdowns and passed for the other. Calhoun’s first two point-after attempts were wide and blocked, leaving the score 14-12. The winning drive, set up by J.H. Chapman’s interception, went 70 yards on eight plays, with Agee tossing to Hershel Strickland for the final 28. Three plays before, Calhoun faced fourth down at the Fort Valley 38. Instead of passing, Calhoun called for a halfback sweep, and junior halfback Wiley Clark, needing eight yards, got nine. Fort Valley kept fighting and completed a 36-yard pass to the Calhoun 10-yard line, but that was the final play. It wasn’t until 1996, when Washington County beat Americus, that a team would rally to win from a deficit as large as 14 points in the fourth quarter in a GHSA final. The Calhoun comeback was more unlikely than Washington County’s given the teams involved (Fort Valley had lost only six games in five seasons) and the low-scoring tendencies of the era. The Maxwell Ratings, using all game scores from 1952, gave Calhoun only a 19% chance at the outset. Those odds fell to less than 1% (a 1-in-152, to be precise) entering the final 12 minutes. Calhoun would not win another state title until 2011.

Line: Lee County -2 (56.8% chance of winning). Lee County, which started football in 1971, won its first state championship in an overtime game against its Region 1 rival. The game was supposed to be played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium but was postponed a week and moved to Lee County because of a snowstorm. In the overtime, Jase Orndorff's 11-yard touchdown pass to Drequan Garmon gave Lee County its only lead of the game, and Tay Mayo secured the victory with an interception on Coffee's ensuing possession. Coffee had a chance to win in regulation but missed a 29-yard field goal as time expired. Coffee had led 14-0 and 21-7 in the second quarter. Ty Terrell’s 95-yard kickoff return and two Orndorff TD passes rallied the Trojans, who are among 12 teams in history to overcome a 14-point deficit to win a championship game. Lee County had beaten Coffee 23-7 five weeks earlier in region play.

Line: Decatur -7 (79.7% chance of winning). Fitzgerald was a seven-point underdog trailing 13-0 at halftime. That’s after having scored only seven points the week prior in beating Thomasville for the South Georgia championship. Now playing a team that hadn’t allowed more than 13 points in a game all season, Fitzgerald had only a 1% chance of a comeback victory, according to the Maxwell Ratings’ retrospective assessment, which computed the scores of every 1948 game leading up to the finals. What the Purple Hurricane did have was the state’s fastest and most famous player, All-America halfback Lauren Hargrove. The Phantom of Fitzgerald did his part, scoring on a 13-yard pass reception and 28-yard run in the rally. Playing all 48 minutes, he also intercepted a pass in the first half and recovered a fumble in the second to set up the middle touchdown that put Fitzgerald ahead 14-13. On that score, Fitzgerald faced a fourth-and-goal at the 3, and Gene Pedrick passed to Billy White for paydirt. Decatur fumbled the ensuing kickoff, setting up Hargrove’s second TD. Even with the 20-13 lead, Fitzgerald remained in trouble with 10 minutes left. There were no overtimes or co-champions in 1948. There had to be a winner, and Decatur led on all three tiebreakers (first downs, total yards, penetrations inside the opponent’s 20-yard line). A 20-20 tie would make Decatur the champion. The touchdown was the easy part. Decatur went 62 yards in seven plays. A 15-yard penalty – Fitzgerald was flagged for “slugging” – put the ball on the 1-yard line, as there was no half-the-distance rule then. Decatur scored on a sneak. But as so often happened in those days, the extra point went badly. The clock still showed 5:30, but Decatur didn’t threaten again. Decatur’s kicker, Butch Dowman, also was the one who fumbled the kickoff ahead of Fitzgerald’s last touchdown. And he missed another extra point in the first half. But he would redeem himself a year later by going 3-for-3 on PATs in a 21-19 championship victory over Tifton. Fitzgerald would endure six lost finals until winning again in 2021. The Maxwell Ratings still consider Fitzgerald’s victory the most unlikely halftime comeback in finals history.

Line: Peach County -7 (75% chance of winning). Peach County scored two touchdowns in the final eight minutes in what might’ve been the best fourth-quarter comeback in state finals history to that point, but the Trojans’ two-point try with 1:36 left was stopped by Thomas County Central’s Doss Bozeman. All of Thomas Central’s gambles seemed to pay off as the Yellow Jackets scored both their touchdowns on fourth-down plays in the first half. On fourth-and-5, Julius Smith threw a 19-yard TD pass to Deron Andrews. On fourth-and-1, Dondell Green scored on a 7-yard run. Peach County scored their points in the fourth quarter on Luwon Penamon’s 58-yard pass to Jacquez Green with 7:10 left and Kalen Jackson’s 6-yard run with 1:36 left. Only two other times has a Georgia coach been given that late choice to tie or win – Southeast Bulloch’s Fred Shaver in 1971 and Gainesville’s Bruce Miller in 2009. All lost. Peach County could’ve been the first team since 1952 Calhoun to win a title game after trailing by 14 in the fourth quarter. Thomas Central became the first team to win a state title after a 1-5 start. Central would win four more state titles in the decade under GACA Hall of Fame coach Ed Pilcher.

Line: Swainsboro -6 (68.8% chance of winning). No other final in history provided such a contrast in offensive styles, and few equaled it in scoring and suspense, as Prince Avenue trailed 20-7 in the first half, 27-17 midway in the third quarter and 34-31 early in the fourth. Prince Avenue Christian’s Aaron Philo that season had become the first quarterback in Georgia history to pass for more than 4,000 yards in two seasons, and the Wolverines had three 1,000-yard receivers – Bailey Stockton (1,425), Ethan Christian (1,123) and Josh Britt (1,203), each who went over 100 receiving in this game. Meanwhile, Swainsboro had been 0-for-7 passing in the semifinals and averaged only about four attempts per game. The old-school team took a 34-31 lead with 11:10 left on Ty Adams 46-yard run – the North Carolina signee’s fourth touchdown of the game. Adams rushed for 259 yards. But Philo responded with three TD passes, giving him a state-finals record six in the game. In the end, the Wolverines scored touchdowns on five straight second-half drives that totaled 356 yards on just 20 plays, and Swainsboro couldn't keep pace. Prince Avenue’s Britt had six receptions for 201 yards and three touchdowns, a team-leading seven solo tackles, one forced fumble and an interception. That was his final football game. He enrolled at Georgia as a regular student.

Line: Tifton -4 (67% chance of winning). Decatur was the only school in DeKalb County playing 11-man football in 1949, and it was a dynasty in the making. The Bulldogs would make the state semifinals or better each year from 1948 through 1953. Their first championship would require the third-most-unlikely fourth-quarter comeback in state finals history, according to the Maxwell Ratings, which computed scores of all 1949 games leading up to this one played at Macon’s Porter Stadium. Decatur trailed 19-7 in the fourth, its chances of winning down to 1.2%, and that was before a fumble inside Tifton’s 20-yard line. But Tifton gave the ball back on a fumbled snap, and Decatur got within 19-14 on Courts Redford’s 9-yard TD pass to Dick Popwell. On Tifton’s next drive, future NFL star Larry Morris intercepted a pass at Decatur’s 35-yard line and returned it to the Tifton 44. Decatur cashed that on Redford’s 8-yard run for the 21-19 lead. Redford passed for two touchdowns and ran for another in the game. Tifton didn’t seriously threaten over the last five minutes. The victory was redemption for Decatur’s bitter 1948 loss to Fitzgerald. Decatur led that one 13-0 in the second half but was undone by the heroics of a legendary runner named Lauren Hargrove. Butch Dorman missed two critical extra points in that one-point loss. Dorman was 3-for-3 in this game, making all the difference. Missed extra points were so common in those days that they cost four teams titles in the first nine championship games – including this one, as Tifton missed twice. Two-point attempts were not allowed until 1969. Dowman went on to play at Auburn as an end. Morris went on to fame with Georgia Tech and the Chicago Bears. He won two high school state titles, one college national title and one professional title as MVP of the 1963 NFL championship game. Decatur would win Class 2A in 1950. Coach Charlie Waller was 43-3-1 in his four Decatur seasons. He also ended up in the NFL, finishing up on George Allen’s Washington Redskins staff in Super Bowl VII.

Line: Feldwood -2 (56% chance of winning). Georgia’s Vince Dooley and Clemson’s Danny Ford were among the 5,000 spectators jammed into Johnson County’s home stadium to watch Herschel Walker’s final high school game. The Johnson County tailback and future Heisman Trophy winner was the nation’s most highly recruited player, and he put on a record-setting final performance, starting with a 63-yard touchdown run in the first two minutes. He finished with 318 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 40 carries, blocked Feldwood’s first extra-point try and made seven tackles at linebacker. But Feldwood, a College Park school that existed from 1977 to 1988, was an undefeated opponent and ranked higher (No. 2 to No. 3) than Johnson County, which had lost to ECI 3-0 in the regular season. Feldwood, known as the Flames, trailed only 21-17 with 4:08 left in the third quarter and had a first-and-goal at the Johnson County 4-yard line. Johnson County’s Jack Devero forced a fumble on Feldwood’s quarterback, and linebacker Thomas Jenkins scooped it and ran 92 yards for a touchdown, the longest scoring fumble return in finals history to that point. Walker’s 318 yards rushing stood as the state finals record for 42 years. Brooks County’s Omari Arnold broke it with a 320-yard effort in 2021.

Line: Cedar Grove -7 (70.0% chance of winning). Cedar Grove wide receiver Jadon Haselwood was Georgia’s most heralded player in 2018, and he put an exclamation point on his state player-of-the-year season in this game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. With four seconds left and Cedar Grove facing a third-and-goal, Haselwood caught a 22-yard TD pass from Kendall Boney, and the extra point won it for the Saints. Haselwood set up the drive with a 59-yard kickoff return to the Peach 37. Cedar Grove drove to the Peach 7, then suffered three false-start penalties but was saved by Haselwood's catch just beyond the goal line on a post pattern. Haselwood had 140 all-purpose yards plus two tackles for losses and a forced fumble while playing safety. Cedar Grove became the first school in DeKalb County since Lakeside (1970, 1972) to win two state titles in three seasons. Peach County, also the 2017 runner-up to Calhoun, suffered its second consecutive heart-breaking loss in the finals. Haselwood, the consensus No. 4 recruit in the country, finished with 1,053 receiving yards and was the AJC’s all-classification player of the year. He would sign with Oklahoma and finish at Arkansas.

Line: Lincoln County -2 (57% chance of winning). Relying on a player who had never attempted a field goal, Model became the first team in GHSA history to kick a last-minute game-winner in a championship game. It went for 22 yards with two seconds left, making it also the latest game-winning score of any kind in a state final to that point. The kicker was Norris Allen, a 5-foot-5 scatback and one of Model’s two 1,000-yard rushers (the other was David Stone). Model’s comeback was more dramatic than just a kick. Lincoln County took a 21-13 lead on Barney Bussey’s 5-yard run with 5:37 left. Bussey would play 10 seasons in the NFL as a safety. Model’s Vincent Tutt returned the kickoff to midfield, and Model went the rest on seven running plays. Stone scored the touchdown and ran in a two-point conversion for a 21-21 tie. Lee Jones then intercepted a pass at the Lincoln County 34. Model drove to the 5, but time had run too short to risk another play from scrimmage. The field goal wasn’t much longer than an extra point, but Model had failed on a PAT earlier in the quarter on a high snap. This time, the snap, hold and kick were perfect. Model is one of only four state champions to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit of more than seven points (along with 1952 Calhoun, 1980 Greenville and 2015 Westminster). Allen’s kick was the second game-winning field goal in state finals history. Redan’s Kevin Butler hit one the day before against Marist, though Butler’s came with 9:19 remaining. Allen’s remains one of only six in the final minute.

Line: Central -3 (61% chance of winning). Central coach Gene Brodie called them “Jolly good drives,” a nod to Mike Jolly, his quarterback. Jolly, the AJC’s Class 3A Back of the Year, led Central on a pair of fourth-quarter rallies that defined the 1975 playoffs. In the quarterfinals against No. 1 Northside of Warner Robins, Central trailed 19-14 late in the fourth quarter and faced a fourth-and-20 at Central’s 40. Jolly escaped on a 23-yard run. He scored from the 1 in the final seconds for the win. In the championship at Atlanta’s Lakewood Stadium, Central was up against it again, down 14-13 after Douglass’s Stanley Driskell hit Eddie Slaton for a 50-yard TD pass with 6:03 left. Jolly calmly led the Chargers 76 yards, again scoring from the 1, this time with 1:23 left. It was Central’s first and only state title, though its predecessor, Lanier, had won two. No Macon public school has won a state title since. Jolly went on to play at Georgia Tech and Tennessee Tech. He was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

Line: R.E. Lee -8 (77% chance of winning). Troy Woodard kicked an 18-yard field goal with 55 seconds left to give R.E. Lee its first state title. This was the seventh of what is now a dozen last-minute winning scores in state finals history. The decisive drive started with 3:57 left and covered 71 yards. Quarterback Douglas Stanley threw completions of 20 and 39 yards to Gary Thornton, who had 580 of Lee’s 679 receiving yards that season, 135 of that in the final, as Lee averaged fewer than five passes per game. Lee’s 1,000-yard rushers, Tim Perry and Randy Marshall, were banged up in the closing minutes, forcing a change in strategy. A critical play in the game occurred when R.E. Lee’s Anthony Thornton and Terry Stinson forced a fumble on a punt return. R.E. Lee’s Marcus Hollis returned the loose ball 28 yards for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead. Washington-Wilkes was on top 16-14 at halftime, and Woodward’s field goal was the only scoring in the second half. R.E. Lee played its first football game in 1905. The school closed in 1992 in a merger with Upson County to form Upson-Lee. Two of R.E. Lee’s starting defensive linemen, Steve DeVoursney and Tommy Parks, became successful GHSA head coaches. There had been two previous last-minute field goals to win state championships, but those broke ties in the era when a tie still gave a team a state championship. Woodward’s kick for R.E. Lee was the first field goal in a last-minute do-or-die situation.

Line: LaGrange -6 (70% chance of winning). Trailing 19-7 entering the fourth quarter, LaGrange launched a comeback and a dynasty. Blake Mitchell’s 4-yard TD pass to Patrick Higgins with 26 seconds left was the game-winner. Skyler Thornton scored on a 4-yard run early in the quarter. Thornton, who would play at Florida, was held to 54 yards rushing. Mitchell, who would play at South Carolina, was 19-of-33 passing for 210 yards. The 2001 LaGrange team (15-0) is one of only five in state finals history to rally from a 12-point deficit to win and one of 11 to score the winning points in the final minute of regulation. (LaGrange’s 1991 champion won similarly in the final minute.) Under GACA Hall of Fame coach Steve Pardue, LaGrange also would win state titles in 2003 and 2004, going 55-2 over four seasons.

Line: Buford -16 (87.6% chance of winning). For the third time in three seasons, Buford won a championship game after trailing in the fourth quarter. In this one at Center Parc Stadium, Buford trailed 14-0 in the second period, took the lead for the first time with 2:55 left on Ashton Daniels’ 34-yard pass to Tobi Olawole and won when Hughes missed a 35-yard field goal on the final play. It was the first field goal that Hughes had attempted all season, and it came after the Panthers had made haste with a 62-yard, nine-play drive. Hughes also missed an extra point on its final touchdown late in the third quarter, leaving the Panthers with a 20-14 lead. Buford began its winning drive with 5:49 left and went 75 yards on eight plays, hitting paydirt when Olawole made a diving catch of the long throw in the end zone. Each of Buford’s three championship rallies included a critical TD pass from Daniels. He’d sign with Stanford. This victory gave Buford (14-1) its 14th state title, 13th this century and third in a row. Bryant Appling became the first GHSA head coach to win state titles in each of his first three seasons. Had Hughes won, it would’ve been the second-biggest upset in finals history based on the Maxwell Ratings’ line of -16 points. Buford became just the 12th team to come back from a 14-point deficit to win a title game.

Line: ELCA -8 (71.2% chance of winning). This game holds the state finals record for the most lead changes and ties (eight). Eagle's Landing Christian, the defending champion, was 13-0 and ranked No. 1. Fellowship Christian was 13-0 and ranked No. 3. With 2:08 left in regulation, the underdogs led 24-21 after driving 80 yards on 13 plays in 6 minutes, 24 seconds. ELCA soon faced a fourth-and-9 at its 25 but converted on Brayden Rush’s 13-yard pass to Tre Douglas. ELCA went 77 yards to set up Alex Usry’s 30-yard field goal, sending the game into overtime. After both teams kicked field goals in the first overtime, ELCA took a lead on Josh Mays' 1-yard run and won when Fellowship's fourth-and-5 pass went incomplete. ELCA had won its third title in five seasons. The overtime game was the third in GHSA finals history. The historic scoring procession went 7-0, 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, 14-17, 21-17, 21-24, 24-24, 24-27, 27-27, 34-27.

Line: Avondale -13 (89% chance of winning). By the Maxwell Ratings’ metrics, this was the championship game upset of the 20th Century. Avondale was the defending champion, ranked No. 1 and riding a 22-game winning streak. No coastal Georgia team had won a state title, and Glynn Academy needed a near-miracle in the semifinals, when Tash Van Dora threw an 85-yard TD pass to Johnny Tullos in the final minute to secure the South Georgia championship. In the huddle before the play, Van Dora had quipped, “At least we don’t have to practice next week.” The state final was played at Brunswick’s Lanier Field, which had become a quagmire after days of rain. A crowd of 7,000 attended, including 17 busloads of Avondale students, according to the Atlanta Constitution’s Charlie Roberts. Glynn took the opening kickoff and drove 68 yards on 16 plays in the mud, with Van Dora going over from the 1. Avondale, led by future Georgia fullback Brad Johnson, controlled the game’s middle stages and led 12-7 entering the fourth quarter. Glynn then girded its loins and drove for two touchdowns, one each from Van Dora and Tullos on short runs. Avondale freshman QB Charlie Dudish rallied Avondale to a touchdown with 2:50 left, but Glynn got the ball back and ran out the clock. Avondale led in total yards 233-224, but Glynn led 3-0 in extra points made, all by Chickie George. Tullos rushed for 142 yards on 28 carries. Van Dora and Tullos would sign with Georgia Tech. According to the calculations of Loren Maxwell, who used scores of all games since 1948 to calculate projections margins of victory and odds, Glynn’s chance of winning – 11% – was the second-smallest of the GHSA’s 359 state champions all-time behind Milton’s 9.4% in 2018.

Line: Tossup. The first GHSA championship game took place in 1947, and it came down to the final seconds and a single play, the dreaded extra point. Lanier led 6-0 midway in the fourth quarter and punted out of bounds at the Richmond Academy 1-foot line. The coffin-corner kick had to feel like Richmond Academy’s death warrant – neither team completed a pass in the game, and Richmond’s home field was slick with mud – but the Musketeers delivered an implausible 99-yard drive. All-state back Johnny Cooper went 47 yards to the Lanier 13, and Richmond Academy quarterback Billy Beale sneaked over on the Musketeers’ third try from the 1-yard line with 21 seconds left. That made the score 6-6. Only 18 players for either team participated in this game, and until then, James Huguley was not one of them. He was Richmond Academy’s holder on extra points. “Huguley looked weird out there in a spanking clean white uniform against a background of players who had wallowed in the mud for nearly 48 minutes,” Macon News sports editor Hank Drane wrote. “He knelt down for the ball. The snap came, and the Richmond back, evidently nervous, mishandled the pigskin, and before he could get it placed for the attempted kick, a swarm of muddy-faced Maconites converged on him.” With that, Lanier won 6-6, or 7-6 as it went down officially. There were no overtimes then, just a single point awarded to the team that tallied the most non-scoring penetrations inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Lanier led the category 2-1, earning the final penetration on a blocked punt in the third quarter. Richmond Academy had gotten to the Lanier 22, two yards short of a penetration, on another regretful drive. By this same rule, the Maconites won their semifinal against Brown 7-6 the previous week. Richmond Academy’s 254-143 edge in total yards and 10-6 advantage in first downs didn’t count. The GHSA added those statistics for a best-of-three tiebreaker the next year. History should be gentle to James Huguley. Missed extra points in state finals occurred at a 31% rate through the 1960s. They’ve been the difference in 26 state championship games, including recent ones in 2022 (Benedictine vs. Cedartown) and 2021 (Buford vs. Hughes). In 1947, Lanier and Richmond Academy were two of Georgia’s biggest and best known schools. Some would define this game as Macon vs. Augusta, as these were the GHSA’s only football-playing high schools from those towns, although that ignores segregation and the outstanding teams and athletes playing in the African American schools at the time. Lanier, called the Poets, would successfully defend its GHSA title in 1948 but not win another in its history. The school closed in 1970. Richmond Academy won two in the 1950s. It’s now one of eight public high schools in Augusta.

Line: Thomasville -4 (63% chance of winning). In a battle between 14-0 teams, Thomasville quarterback Charles Bostock threw an 11-yard TD pass to Jerome Williams with 30 seconds left. The scoring play remains one of the five latest winning touchdowns in state finals history and was the first inside the final minute since Greenville’s Hail Mary beat Clinch County in 1980. Thomasville trailed 7-6 with 1:50 left. Stephens County hadn’t completed a pass but risked one to get a clinching first down, and Thomasville’s Leonard Christian intercepted it, giving the Bulldogs possession at the Indians’ 41. Bostick drove the Bulldogs home in eight plays. He’d fumbled four times in the first half, losing two, and was held to minus-5 yards rushing, but he bounced back in the second half with 98 yards on 14 carries. Thomasville held Stephens County to four first downs, 102 yards rushing and 0-for-6 passing with two interceptions.

Line: Northside -8 (73% chance of winning). Northside, ranked No. 1 in Class 5A and No. 7 nationally by Sports Illustrated, trailed 14-10 entering the fourth quarter at Ware County’s Memorial Stadium. The game turned on a trick play. Northside quarterback Marques Ivory moved over to wide receiver. Running back Tijuan Green took a direct snap from center, made a step forward, then dropped back and threw a 40-yard TD pass to Nick Bass with 5:23 left. Bass had been knocked out of the game minutes earlier after a hard tackle to the ribs kept him down on the field for several minutes. Ware County didn’t seriously threaten again. Future NFL defensive end Abry Jones forced a wobbly pass that Darius Ivey intercepted, setting up Devon Pike’s field goal for a 20-14 lead. Green rushed for 143 yards and caught a 6-yard TD pass in the first half. The victory was Northside’s 30th straight. The Eagles had won Class 4A the previous season.

Line: Cairo -6 (69% chance of winning). Coached by Columbus native Dell McGee, Carver won its first state title, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 1:02 left and completing a 15-0 season. Quarterback Deron Furr, who would sign with Auburn, scored on a 24-yard run, diving over the goal line after getting inside the 5 to finish off an 80-yard drive that began with his team trailing 13-9. Furr had scored the game-winner the previous week in the semifinals on a 3-yard run with 10 seconds left to beat Chamblee at the Georgia Dome. He also scored a game-winner against Carrollton in the quarterfinals. This time, the winning touchdown occurred in the title game at Cairo’s Syrup Bowl. Jarmon Fortson, who would play at Florida State, made a game-clinching sack and had six receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown. Carver was the first Columbus school to win a state title since 2000 Shaw. McGee would move on to the college ranks. He’s now Georgia’s running backs coach.

Line: Oconee County -3 (60.6% chance of winning). Playing its 40th season of football, Pierce County won its first state title in the 10th overtime game in GHSA finals history. The game also was the 10th GHSA final to enter the fourth quarter scoreless, the first since 1974. In this contest at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium, neither team advanced past the other’s 36-yard line until the final period. Oconee County broke through first, driving 41 yards for a touchdown after a short Pierce County punt. Pierce got even on a seven-play, 80-yard drive. Overtime lasted only two plays. On the first, Pierce County’s Daytin Baker intercepted a pass over the middle. On the second, sophomore running back D.J. Bell took a direct snap from center and scored on a 15-yard run, eluding two diving defenders as he broke toward the sideline. Bell finished with 208 all-purpose yards. Though Pierce County High opened in 1981, predecessor schools in the county had played football since 1919 without a championship. Pierce County entered the game ranked No. 6 under third-year coach Ryan Herring. Oconee County, seeking its first title since 1999, was ranked No. 2.

Line: Cairo -4 (65% chance of winning). This was the first GHSA final with four lead changes. It also featured a fumblerooski déjà vu. Worth County earned the first lead change when Robert Toomer, a junior who would rush for 101 yards in this game and break Herschel Walker’s career state rushing record the next season, scored on a 28-yard run and a 14-13 lead in the second quarter. Cairo got its first lead, 16-14, on a field goal. Worth moved back ahead on David Williams’ 73-yard interception return for a 28-24 lead with 11:40 left. Cairo got the last word on Herman Garland’s 9-yard run and Raymond Taylor’s clinching 15-yard TD. This game also was notable for Cairo’s fumblerooski in the first half. Guard Derek Edwards scored from 31 yards on the trick play in which the quarterback puts the ball on the ground and a sneaky lineman picks it up and runs with it. But it wasn’t the first fumblerooski TD in state finals history. In 1989, Marist pulled one off – also against Worth County. It was Cairo’s first state title since 1946, before the era of GHSA finals. Cairo coach Ralph Jones also had won with Bainbridge in 1982. Cairo had beaten Worth County 38-8 in September when Worth was ranked No. 1. Worth was the home team for both meetings.

Line: Northside -5 (66% chance of winning). With the game tied 10-10, Statesboro defenders John Knox and Josh McCook forced a fumble, which set up Josh Rich’s 29-yard field goal with 11.2 seconds left. The critical turnover occurred with about a minute to go. Northside completed a pass to Kevyn Cooper, who was hit almost instantly, calling into question whether he possessed the ball. Officials ruled he did, which gave Statesboro its chance. Rich’s kick is one of five last-minute game-winning field goals in state finals history and was the first since LaGrange’s Scott Simons beat Colquitt County with a 24-yarder in 1991. Northside entered ranked No. 1. Statesboro was No. 2. The game was played at Georgia Southern’s Paulson Stadium in Statesboro.

Line: St. Pius -10 (83% chance of winning). St. Pius won its first state title and completed the most dominant defensive performance in finals history. It might be compared to Don Larson’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. St. Pius didn’t allow a first down or any Gainesville drive to cross midfield. St. Pius scored on Joe Pelt’s 1-yard run with 4:37 left in the first half, missed the extra point and managed only 167 total yards itself. But St. Pius allowed just 20 total yards – 22 rushing, minus-2 passing. Gainesville had started the season 1-4 but lost to St. Pius only 14-13 in a non-region game Sept. 13, so there was reason to expect a close game, which it was, but St. Pius’ defense was too rich in talent. Linebackers Dave McCarty and Gary Tkac would sign with Georgia Tech along with defensive end Jim Arnette. Tom Caruso would sign with Auburn. St. Pius had lost in the playoffs to the eventual champion each of the past three seasons under coach George Maloof, a former Georgia Tech star player who started St. Pius football in 1958 and directed it until 1983.

Line: Washington County -2 (57.0% chance of winning). In a game matching No. 1 and No. 2 teams, second-ranked Calhoun scored the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter when Baylon Specter got the ball on an end-around reverse and threw a 40-yard pass to Carson Brown with 9:42 left. The turning point came a bit earlier, with the score 20-20 late in the third quarter. Calhoun linebacker Will Conley stopped a Washington County drive by forcing a fumble that Darius Tucker recovered at the Calhoun 19. It was the only turnover of the game, and Washington County, the highest-scoring team in state history to that point, didn't threaten again. Washington County quarterback A.J. Gray, who would be the AJC’s all-classification player of the year, had 266 yards of total offense and a team-leading five solo tackles. Gray appeared to have intercepted a pass deep in Calhoun territory on Calhoun’s winning drive, but the play was overturned, and Calhoun maintained possession. Calhoun won its third state title, first since 2011, and put a cherry on top of what might now be called a dynasty. The program had reached six state finals over the past 10 seasons while winning 130 games. Washington County lost in the finals for the second consecutive season, each time entering with an unbeaten record.

Line: Woodward Academy -3 (59% chance of winning). Woodward Academy overcame a 10-point deficit and held firm on a goal-line stand to avenge a regular-season defeat and won its second state title, first since 1970, both under coach Graham Hixon, who turned 55 the day of this game. Marist’s 10-0 lead, built by cashing Woodward turnovers, was gone midway in the third quarter when Woodward’s Mike Chance scored on a 3-yard run. The moment of truth came a bit later, when Marist had a first-and-goal at the Woodward 3. Working out of the wishbone, Marist ran it four times into Woodward’s line, which was anchored by junior Gerald Browner, the state’s first elite 300-pound defensive linemen and younger brother of Ross and Joey Browner. On Marist’s first charge, 1,500-yard rusher Mike Coveny ran to the 1 but suffered a hip pointer and didn’t return. Marist’s final charge was stopped six inches from the goal. Woodward took over at the 1 with 11:16 left. Marist never crossed Woodward’s 30 again and lost a state finals heartbreaker for the second straight season, having fallen to Redan 17-14 in 1979.

Line: Tossup. There had been 141 GHSA championship games played before this one. Only 14 field goals had been made, the first not until 1960. In 1979, Kevin Butler made 14 field goals in his sophomore season, hitting from 50 and 52 yards. He missed only three. The future College Football Hall of Famer and Chicago Bears Super Bowl champion was the state’s first prolific kicker. The one he made in the 1979 state championship game – a mere 20-yarder – wasn’t his most impressive, but it would stand as his most important of his high school career. It broke a 14-14 tie with 9:19 left. It was the first game-winning field goal in state finals history. The true turning point in this game occurred a few minutes earlier. Leading 14-7, Marist had a fourth-and-1 at the Redan 35 but was denied. On the next play, Kevin Benson ran 65 yards for a touchdown. Marist had a strong-legged kicker, too, Tom Braatz, son of the prominent Atlanta Falcons executive, but he missed attempts of 39, 42 and 50 yards, the last one with 18 seconds left when Marist was out of timeouts. Redan’s state title came in the DeKalb County school’s fourth season of existence.

Line: Parkview -9 (78.1% chance of winning). Trailing 12-7 with less than eight minutes left, Harrison faced a fourth-and-goal at the 7. Duke-bound quarterback Brian Greene threw a swing pass to future Stanford running back Jason Evans, who appeared to have a path to the goal, but Parkview linebacker Todd Stewart pulled him down at the 1, preserving the lead. On the next play, Sean Dawkins went 99 yards for a touchdown. Also starring was Parkview CB/WR Jeff Francoeur, who intercepted two passes (his 14th and 15th of the season) and caught a 69-yard TD pass from Clint Sammons early in the fourth quarter. Francoeur and Sammons would play in the major leagues, each for a time with the Braves. The championship was the first of three straight for Parkview under coach Cecil Flowe. Though 14-0, Parkview entered ranked only No. 4, but the finals victory was the 15th on the way to a state-record 46 straight. Harrison, coached by the late Bruce Cobleigh, was 12-2 and ranked No. 10. The two teams had played in the opener with Parkview winning 8-7 by penetration in overtime.

Line: Thomson -29 (99% chance of winning). Ray Guy, the Pro Football Hall of Fame punter, scored Thomson’s touchdown on a 1-yard run, made the extra point, intercepted a pass and blocked a field-goal attempt. And it wasn’t his, nor Thomson’s, best effort. Carrollton – a 29-point underdog, according to the Maxwell Ratings’ retroactive projected margins – lined up for a 40-yard field goal with about three minutes left with a chance at the biggest upset in state history. Thomson had won 25 straight games and hadn’t lost on its home field in more than four years. History didn’t look favorably on kickers in those days. To that point, only four successful field goals had been made in the 22-year history of state finals, none longer than 34 yards. Still, Carrollton coach Charlie Grisham believed Johnny Fletcher could do it. (Guy had missed a 40-yarder earlier in the game.) Fletcher’s kick was long and high enough, but it hit the goal post and bounced back. Thomson’s Tim Gilmore, who had blocked Fletcher’s extra-point try in the second quarter, joined Guy among the heroes. Guy had got a hand on a previous Fletcher FG attempt. Thomson entered averaging 39.4 points per game, an astronomical number for a team of the 1960s. But Carrollton seemed to know Thomson’s plays. Both teams ran the Notre Dame box offense.

Line: Lincoln County -2 (56% chance of winning). Anthony McNeil kicked a 36-yard field goal just inside the left upright to break an 8-8 tie with 4:20 left, and Clinch County ended Lincoln County’s state-record 44-game winning streak. McNeil’s field goal was the longest fourth-quarter game-winner in history until North Gwinnett’s Cameron Clark beat Colquitt County with 38-yard field goal in 2017. McNeil also rushed for 124 yards in a game that Clinch County dominated in total yards 286-150. Donnell Grady rushed for 109 yards. Lincoln County’s touchdown came on Gabriel Elam’s 32-yard interception return. It was the only pass that Clinch County attempted. Elam, also Lincoln County’s quarterback, was intercepted three times, all by Jamie Bass, the second one setting up McNeil’s field goal. The loss was Lincoln County’s first in a state final in Lincolnton. Five previous championship games had been won at the Red Devils’ Buddy Bufford Field.

Line: Valdosta -8 (78% chance of winning). Herbert Lowe, the backup kicker until a midseason injury knocked out the starter, made a 24-yard field goal to break a 7-7 tie with 37 seconds left, giving Valdosta its first outright state title since 1971. Valdosta had tied Griffin for a championship in 1978. Those two titles came under coach Nick Hyder, who was hired in 1973. “Valdosta is Valdosta again,” Hyder said after this one. It would start the next wave of Valdosta dominance as Hyder’s Wildcats would win in 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990 and 1992. Valdosta scored its touchdown on an 18-yard pass from Ted West to Rob Mitchell on a fourth-and-10, while Peachtree had scoreless drives to Valdosta’s 23, 14 and 15. Peachtree coach T. McFerrin called three timeouts to freeze Lowe, whose only other field goal had beaten Thomasville 10-7 for the region title. This marked the first time in the highest classification that a field goal in the final minute won a championship game.

Line: Valdosta -10 (83% chance of winning). “Nobody Expected The Final Result” was the Valdosta Daily Times headline. A better one might’ve been “Valdosta Loses 7-7.” The Wildcats were 14-0 and ranked No. 1 while Griffin was 12-2 and unranked entering the playoffs. Valdosta had won 14 state titles since Griffin’s most recent in 1942. The game was played in Valdosta before 11,500 fans. John Lastinger, a quarterback who would lead Georgia to a Cotton Bowl victory five years later, was out with an injury, leaving the position to John Bond, who achieved stardom of his own at Mississippi State. But Griffin’s quick defense, led by future Georgia star Freddie Gilbert, harassed Bond into two lost fumbles and two interceptions in the first half. Valdosta still led 7-0 at the break on Bond’s 1-yard TD run. Valdosta didn’t threaten again except on a 62-yard punt return called back for clipping. Griffin began its tying drive late in the third quarter after a punt to near midfield. Quarterback Jeff Ector scored on a 7-yard run with 11:19 left. Griffin’s Wally Weatherbee, a grandson of Wally Butts, blocked a punt in the closing seconds, but Griffin had time only for a 50-yard field goal try, which Weatherbee missed. Many Griffin fans chanted,  “We’re No. 1,” while Valdosta fans filed out mostly silent.

Line: Thomasville -11 (85% chance of winning). This was the highest-scoring GHSA championship game of the 20th Century. The 75 points stood as the record for 37 years. The game, played at DeKalb County’s Memorial Stadium (now called Hallford Stadium), featured the state’s premier power running backs – Thomasville’s William Andrews and Wheeler’s Ed Guthrie. Andrews, who would go on to fame at Auburn and with the Atlanta Falcons, outrushed Guthrie 139-111. Guthrie signed with Penn State and transferred to Georgia, doing little at either stop, but he was the only back to break 100 against Thomasville that year. Outshining both on the scoreboard, however, was Thomasville’s Al Fann, who rushed for 112 yards and scored four touchdowns, tying the finals record. Thomasville never trailed, but Wheeler never gave up, scoring two touchdowns in the final five minutes falling behind 40-21. Thomasville had allowed only three touchdowns in winning all 12 games before the final. Thomasville credited Wheeler quarterback Mike Dross, a master at changing plays at the line. Wheeler didn’t huddle over the eight plays of its final scoring drive. Wheeler’s innovative coach was a man known now for the season-opening football event named for him, Corky Kell, played since 1992. This was probably Thomasville’s greatest team, although the 1974 squad in Andrews’ senior season, won a national title despite one loss.

Line: Dalton -12 (88% chance of winning). Carver was the first all-African American team to reach a GHSA championship game. It came a season after the GHSA opened its membership to historically African American schools. Dalton, led by Ricky Lake (Georgia) and Bill McManus (Auburn), was solidly favored, having beaten West Rome 33-0, avenging its only loss, and taken out No. 1 St. Pius 21-7. Carver, ranked in the back half of the top 10 after the regular season, squeaked by Murphy 9-8 and Dublin 6-3 in the playoffs. But playing at Atlanta’s Grady Stadium, Carver took the fight to the Catamounts, driving to the 2-yard line after Donald Person’s kickoff return to midfield. Dalton’s Danny Dantzler, who would play at Georgia, stopped Person on fourth-and-goal run to the 2. Missed opportunities would be Carver’s ruin. Dalton went up 7-0 on Steve Norris’s 6-yard pass to Ricky Faith. Person then returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. The teams swapped touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but Dalton made its extra points, and Carver didn’t. One was blocked; the other went wide after a high snap. Carver got to Dalton’s 19-yard line in the final three minutes but no farther. Dalton coach Bill Chappell would retire after the 1996 season with a 317-74-9 record. This was his, and Dalton’s, only state title.

Line: Lanier -8 (80% chance of winning). Lanier was 11-0 and ranked No. 1, having allowed only 31 points. Its vaunted backfield featured Theron Sapp (Georgia, where his number is retired), Billy Kitchens (Auburn) and Johnny Stallings (South Carolina). Grady, ranked No. 7 after the regular season, featured its coach, Erskine Russell, a 27-year-old fitness nut who had a way of revving up players for the big game. Grady took the opening kickoff and drove 55 yards to score. Lanier answered with an 80-yard drive that consumed much of the first and second quarters but missed the extra point. It began to rain, and the slippery field at Macon’s Porter Stadium made the game a defensive slog. Grady’s Wilbur Lofton averaged 36 yards on eight punts, with three of them sliding to a muddy halt inside the Lanier 10. Pat Green and McDevitt would throw down Kitchens for a safety in the third quarter for a 9-6 lead, and Lanier never got past Grady’s 40-yard line in the second half. Lanier led in total offense 161-131 and first downs 10-7, but Grady had its first state title. Lofton would become a longtime Georgia high school coach. Russell became an iconic defensive coordinator at Georgia, where he won a national title, and the program-starter at Georgia Southern, where he won three.

Line: Woodward Academy -1 (55% chance of winning). In winning its first state title, Woodward Academy became the second state winner to rally from a 14-point deficit and the second to score the winning touchdown in the final minute. Dykes took a 14-0 lead in the first half and was poised to go up 21-7 at the break when Woodward’s Stan Thomas intercepted a pass in the end zone in the closing seconds. Thomas then intercepted Dykes’ first pass of the second half. Woodward’s Keith Harris, who would set the single-season tackles record at Georgia four years later, also intercepted a pass but more importantly tied the game with a 3-yard run in the third quarter and won it with a 4-yard run with 45 seconds left. The only other state champion that had scored a winning touchdown (or field goal) in the final minute was Valdosta in 1960. Eleven have done it since, most recently 2022 Sandy Creek. Ten teams since Woodward have rallied to win after trailing by 14, most recently Buford in 2021. The first was Calhoun in 1952.

Line: Tossup. Avondale trailed 19-7 in the first half but took the lead on the opening drive of the second when Mike Broadnax scored on a 22-yard run on a fourth-and-inches. In the fourth quarter, Woodward had a first-and-goal at the 4 but was forced to try a field goal, which Avondale’s Jerry Geiger blocked with two hands. Avondale’s Chris McDaniel blocked an extra point in the first half that also proved critical. Avondale’s Cliff Austin rushed for 104 yards on 14 carries. He would sign with Clemson and become the leading rusher on the 1981 national championship team. This was the last of Avondale’s three state championships. From 1952 through 1976, Avondale was 183-25-6 (.869). The program declined sharply in the 1990s, and the DeKalb County school closed in 2011. Woodward could’ve had three state titles in an 11-year stretch (won in 1970 and 1980) under Hall of Fame coach Graham Hixon but lost this one for failing to convert two extra points.

Line: Valdosta -18 (94% chance of winning). Valdosta entered 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in USA Today. Clarke Central was 12-2 with a history of frustrating Valdosta (1977, 1969, 1955). Playing before 12,000 fans at Valdosta’s Cleveland Field, Clarke took a 14-7 lead on Doug Davenport’s 1-yard run with 3:51 left in the third quarter, but Valdosta scored twice in the fourth quarter to pull it out. The tying score came on an 80-yard drive, and Valdosta took the lead with 6:22 left after Tony Anderson returned a punt to the Clarke 3. Anderson scored all three Valdosta touchdowns. Clarke then drove to the Valdosta 45 but was stopped on a fourth-and-2. The national title was Valdosta’s fourth (1962, 1968, 1971), but this was the first USA Today champion from Georgia. The national newspaper that helped popularize high school national rankings and champions was founded in 1982.

Line: Athens -16 (94% chance of winning). Fran Tarkenton returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, and the lead changed hands three times in the first half. The fact a clipping penalty wiped out Tarkenton’s return, or that the NFL’s future all-time passing leader didn’t attempt a single pass in the game, makes the game all the more fascinating. Athens rushed for 399 yards behind George Guisler (18 carries, 224 yards, two touchdowns) and Billy Slaughter (12-148-2). After retaking the lead twice in the first half to go up 21-13 at halftime, Athens put the game away with a 20-point third quarter. Guisler and Slaughter, both 1,000-yard rushers, and Tarkenton, along with Bobby Towns, Carlton James and Sonny Dillard, would play at Georgia, four of them on the Bulldogs’ 1959 SEC championship team. Athens finished 13-0, beating 12 of 13 opponents by 19 points or better, playing only Richmond Academy close, at 14-7.

Line: Brookwood -11 (79% chance of winning). Perhaps no game signaled the start of a new, more explosive era in Georgia football than this one. The 90 points were the most in a GHSA final to that point. Despite its 5-5 regular-season record, Colquitt County was on the verge of something big under spread-offense guru Rush Propst, hired three years earlier from Alabama’s Hoover, where the coach starred in the MTV reality series “Two-A-Days.” The Packers set state finals records with 38 first downs and 606 total yards – with a 354-yard passer (Tyler Brown) and a 205-yard rusher (Tevin King) – and still lost. Brookwood took a 14-7 lead in the first quarter and never trailed again. Special teams favored the Broncos. One Brookwood touchdown came shortly after Colquitt had a bad snap, another when Andre Sims returned the second-half kickoff 87 yards for a 35-21 lead. Brookwood’s Nick Tompkins rushed for 144 yards and two touchdowns, and Jamaal Cole scored three touchdowns. Brookwood (14-1) won its second state title overall and first since 1996. Propst’s Colquitt County teams would reach five state finals, winning two, in his 11 seasons, sporting a more progressive offense than those that dominated the high class the previous decade.

Line: Bainbridge -3 (63% chance of winning). A great game isn’t always pretty or well-played. In fact, this one was great for its ugliness. Played in a steady rain on an impossibly muddy field at Gainesville’s City Park Stadium, Bainbridge won a game of 18 fumbles, eight that were lost. There were two interceptions, one each. There was no score until the third quarter. Still, this remains one of the more memorable finals if not the most well-executed. For one, it was Bainbridge’s first state title. For another, Bainbridge’s signal caller was Bobby Walden II, the son of a former Georgia and NFL punter, Bobby Walden. Gainesville’s quarterback was Cris Carpenter, a future Georgia punter and major league pitcher. Neither shined in these difficult conditions. It appeared Bainbridge was going to end the standoff in the third quarter when it achieved a first down at the Gainesville 4. On fourth down from the 1, Bainbridge tailback Calvin Close dived into the end zone, but he didn’t have the ball. It came loose inside the 1, where Gainesville recovered. But Gainesville lost a fumble on the next play at the 5. And a play later, Bainbridge fullback Scott Carroll scored for a 7-0 lead with 5:44 left in the period. Walden, the holder, had trouble with the snap, but Mark Willis kicked a line drive just over the cross bar. Willis would have more to say later. In the fourth quarter, Bainbridge coach Ralph Jones punted on third down to be safe, but it wasn’t. Gainesville’s Olaffie Hester fielded it, went straight for the right sideline and scored from 48 yards out with 6:28 left. Gainesville played for a point, then two. Carpenter was the holder. The slippery ball got away from him, and kicker Joe Derose had no choice but to grab it and run. With three Bearcats converging on him at the 3, Derose lateraled to Carpenter, also a star basketball player and the team’s (if not the state’s) best athlete. Carpenter made it to the 1, where he was tackled by Willis – the guy who kicked Bainbridge’s extra point. Gainesville didn’t threaten again and fell to 0-5 in championship games.

Line: Mitchell-Baker -8 (78% chance of winning). This Mitchell-Baker team was famous for its pioneering quarterback, Al Pinkins, a 6-foot-6 junior who in this game would become the state’s first player to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season (3,090). The Eagles also were known for their comebacks. They trailed in nine of their 14 victories. They trailed by 10 points or more before scoring in each of their last four playoff games. Mitchell-Baker entered 13-1, a solid favorite to win its first title since 1982. Greene-Taliaferro was a mere 7-7 but had won five straight elimination games and became first team to reach a GHSA final with more than five losses. As its custom, Mitchell-Baker got down 14-0 late in the first half on TD runs by Greene’s Rodney Gresham, who would rush for 151 yards, and Chris Moore. Pinkins struggled but managed a 36-yard pass to all-state receiver Daron Hodges to set up a score before halftime. Greene’s lead, now 14-8, lasted until the fourth quarter. Greene punted from its end zone, and Mitchell-Baker started at the Greene 33. Pinkins scored on a 20-yard run with 9:47 left. Greene didn’t pass midfield again from there. Mitchell-Baker became the fifth team in state finals history to rally from a 14-point deficit to win, the first since Model in 1979. Pinkins would go on to set the state’s career passing record, but his favorite sport was basketball. He led his Mitchell-Baker hoops teams to 1990 and 1991 state titles and played at N.C. State and then overseas before launching a coaching career. He’s now on Texas Tech’s basketball coaching staff. And as trivia would have it, Greene-Taliaferro and Mitchell-Baker are now Greene County and Mitchell County, as they were in the 1970s. Their partner counties for most of the 1980s went their own way.

Line: Cordele -1 (55.4% chance of winning). Cordele rallied from a 13-2 halftime deficit to defeat a team on a 23-game winning streak and claim the only state championship in Crisp County history. The comeback is the second-most-unlikely GHSA finals victory of its kind, according to retroactive Maxwell Ratings. Based on each team’s strength and scoring patterns in 1952, Maxwell set Cordele’s odds of winning at halftime at 8%. West Point hadn’t allowed more than two touchdowns in a game in more than two years, much less three in a single half. Maxwell actually favored Cordele at kickoff, but only slightly, and the newspapers of the time heavily favored West Point, the defending champion. Both small-town teams were undefeated, but West Point had won state titles in 1948 and 1950. Its four-year record was 48-1, its only loss a one-point decision two years earlier against Newnan. Its star player, halfback Ray Anderson, was the Class C Back of the Year. He would sign with Georgia Tech (and become more famous as a millionaire in the flooring industry). But Cordele had some good players, too. Quarterback Robert Smith, master of the split-T offense, would play at Florida, and he directed a dominant second half. Don Woodward, whose 50-yard punt to the 1 led to Cordele’s first-half safety, scored on runs of 22 and 30 yards in the second half to give Cordele a 15-13 lead. Walter Bartee's 3-yard run later in the fourth quarter clinched it. Cordele finished with 248 rushing yards. According to Maxwell, the only team to win a state final with longer halftime odds was 1948 Fitzgerald, which came from 13-0 down to beat Decatur 20-13 in 1948. Through more than 75 years of GHSA finals, only seven teams have won titles after trailing by 10 or more points at halftime.

Line: Carrollton -4 (63% chance of winning). In a game between 14-0 teams, Sandy Creek took a 14-7 halftime lead and turned back four Carrollton drives into Patriots territory in the second half. On one, Carrollton had a fourth-and-2 from the 9-yard line but threw incomplete. On the last one, Carrollton had a second-and-goal at the Sandy Creek 5. Telvin Brown ran to the 1 and stretched for the goal line, but linebacker Jamal Ware made a jarring hit and forced a fumble that Sandy Creek's Quinteze Williams recovered at the 9 with 1:59 left. Sandy Creek then drove to the Carrollton 1 and took a knee, clinching its 29th consecutive victory and successful state-title defense. Sandy Creek had won 4A the previous season. Ware, who would sign with Appalachian State, finished with 15 tackles. Sandy Creek’s Derrick Alexander rushed for 131 yards. Mike Hilton, now a Cincinnati Bengal playing his eighth NFL season, intercepted two passes.

Line: Hughes -16 (86.9% chance of winning). Hughes won its first state title after a heartbreaking runner-up finish in 2021 and set a state record for points in a season with 792 and became the first team in history to score 35 points or more in every game. The Panthers scored two quick-strike touchdowns in the final minute of the first half to take a 23-6 lead, weathered Gainesville’s three second-half touchdowns and sealed the victory by running off the final 3 minutes, 59 seconds on the clock. Junior QB Prentiss Air Noland, the Class 6A offensive player of the year and future Ohio State pledge, passed for 263 yards. Jaden Barnes had eight catches for 152 yards. Hughes had lost to Buford 21-20 for the title the previous season after missing a 35-yard field goal on the final play. The 2022 Panthers finished 15-0 and made the top 20 of eight national rankings. Gainesville, only 5-5 the previous season, finished 14-1 under first-year coach Josh Niblett.

Line: Northside -1 (53.3% chance of winning). In a game between Class 4A’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams, both undefeated, Northside trailed 12-7 midway in the fourth quarter, but Chansi Stuckey had the War Eagles on the move, gashing Parkview with runs of 24 and 12 yards, pushing his game total to 135. Halfback George Washington also ran for 12 yards. Then Stuckey scrambled inside the Parkview 30-yard line when in mid-play a bank of lights went out at McConnell-Talbert Stadium, which was filled with 15,000 fans. When play resumed 15 minutes later, the momentum was gone. Stuckey pitched out to Washington, who failed to handle it, and Parkview’s Kyle McKee recovered with 3:58 left. Northside would’ve had one more chance but lost a fumble on a fair catch with some in the Northside camp believing Parkview interfered. Parkview ran out the clock and secured its 30th consecutive straight victory and third state title in five years, and Northside was denied its first. Parkview’s Cecil Flowe would win four state titles and 197 games as a head coach and often called this victory his most memorable and Stuckey the scariest opposing player he’d faced. Stuckey would go on to play in the NFL as a wide receiver. He’s now the wide receivers coach at Notre Dame. This was the final football game played by Parkview’s Jeff Francoeur, who opted for baseball and played 13 major league seasons. Francoeur also counted this game as his favorite. And as a matter of trivia, Parkview kicker Greg Johnson in the first quarter became the first player in finals history to make a 50-yard field goal.

Line: Bowdon -4 (58.8% chance of winning). This is one of 10 state finals in history in which both teams scored more than 30 points and one of six with four lead changes. Neither team punted. Bowdon, winning its first state title in 30 years, scored touchdowns on its first six full possessions and used its final possession to ice the game with a four-minute, nine-second drive to the Schley County 17 in the final seconds. On the game's first drive, Bowdon's JaMichael Jones intercepted a pass that proved to be a pivotal and rare stop for either team. Bowdon’s T.J. Harvison, who signed with Pitt, rushed for 212 yards and had four solo tackles in the secondary. Bowdon QB/DB Robert McNeal, another two-way player and a four-year starter who signed with East Tennessee State, had two touchdowns rushing and two passing, made three solo tackles and returned a kickoff 30 yards. This was the first season of the GHSA’s Class A Division II, which lowered the ceiling for the smallest classification to about 450 students. A title would’ve been the first for Schley County, which began football in 2000.

Line: Fitzgerald -3 (55.5% chance of winning). Jontavis Curry, a 5-8, 170-pound speedster, rushed for 243 yards and scored four touchdowns, three on runs of more than 50 yards. His 61-yarder gave Thomson the lead for good, 26-21, with 8:21 left, and his 86-yarder put the game away with a minute to go. Fitzgerald, the defending Class 2A champion, scored on the game’s final play to get within five points. Thomson survived two lost fumbles in the second half and made two big stops in its territory in the fourth quarter. With 8:43 left, Fitzgerald had a fourth-and-3 at the Thomson 43 when Marcellus Brigham made a stop behind the line. With 4:28 left, Fitzgerald had a first down at the Thomson 35, but Quinterrion Hunt’s 5-yard tackle for loss and Cervuntes Felts’ 10-yard sack ruined the bid. Unranked in preseason, Thomson finished 14-1 and won its first state title since 2002 while ending Fitzgerald’s 20-game winning streak. Curry became the second player in state finals history to score on three runs longer than 50 yards. (Brooks County’s Omari Arnold was the first in 2021.) Curry scored 16 of his 29 touchdowns that season in the playoffs.

Line: Tossup. The game wasn’t close, but it was historic for Gainesville’s sake and memorable for showcasing one of the greatest players and seasons in state history. Gainesville won its first state title in history, and future NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson broke the state record for career passing yardage and became the third player to pass for 4,000 yards in a season and second to throw 50 TD passes in a season. Watson, a junior who remained underrated as a prospect to that point, was 27-of-36 passing for 317 yards and three touchdowns in this rout and rushed for 85 yards and two scores, giving him 5,465 yards (4,024 passing; 1,441 rushing) with 74 combined touchdowns. Gainesville, which played its first recorded game in 1905, had lost in six previous finals, five of them by seven points or less, almost all of them in heart-breaking or exasperating circumstances. The state title was coach Bruce Miller’s first in his 26th season as a Georgia coach, the longest wait of its kind in state history. Gainesville became the first team since 1967 Marietta to win a state title after losing its final two regular-season games.

Line: Monticello -2 (59.1% chance of winning). This game between schools with fewer than 150 students was played in Griffin, a neutral site more than 30 miles from either participant. The teams had played six weeks earlier and tied 14-14, but the temperature for the rematch was near freezing, and only 300 fans showed up, according to the Macon Telegraph’s Sam Glassman. The 300 had something to talk about on the drive home. In the final minute, Stone Mountain had a fourth down at the Monticello 16. The Pirates had already failed on fourth down twice inside Monticello’s 10-yard line, once just minutes earlier. On this third and final deep drive, Phil Ashe, who would become Fran Tarkenton’s center at Georgia, was moved into the backfield and called on to pass. He threw for the end zone, and the speedy Horace Reeves came down with it. “One official signaled touchdown,” wrote the Atlanta Constitution’s Mickey Logue, “but another ruled Reeves was out of the end zone. The latter’s ruling stood.” Jim Minter’s story the next day in The Atlanta Journal read, “In Stone Mountain, the gloom was so thick you couldn’t see the big rock.” All the scoring occurred in the first half, and each touchdown had fun sprinkled on it. Monticello’s John McIntyre, who would play at Navy and become a doctor, recovered a Stone Mountain fumble at the 12 and two plays later threw a fullback pass 8 yards to Tommy Dooley for a 6-0 lead. With less than two minutes left in the half, Tommy Dooley’s brother, Harold, blocked a punt – his second of the game and eighth of the season – and the future Midshipman was opportunistic again. “McIntyre took it on the run and lit out for the Land of Milk and Honey some 45 yards away,” Logue wrote. Monticello led 13-0. Stone Mountain’s 148-pound quarterback, Eddie Gouge, then made two nifty plays in the final seconds of the half. The first avoided a sack and went 30 yards. “He bobbed, weaved and danced through everybody but the Monticello cheerleaders down to the 20 and then [on the next play] pitched one to Horace Reeves for the six-pointer,” Minter wrote. Stone Mountain controlled the second half but rued the missed chances. Monticello’s championship was the first for a program that had been playing football since 1926. Monticello would win it again in 1956. From the 1954 midseason to the 1957 semifinals, the Hurricanes played 40 games without a losing, going 37-0-3.

Line: Calhoun -3 (59% chance of winning). Buford’s 32-game winning streak ended in an early season upset to Lovett, creating the illusion of vulnerability for the two-time champions. Calhoun entered 14-0, having just beaten Lovett in the semifinals, and was ranked No. 1 for this Georgia Dome rematch of the 2008 title game. Calhoun also boasted transfer wide receiver Da’Rick Rogers, the state’s consensus No. 1 recruit, a five-star prospect committed to Tennessee. Rogers reportedly needed 75 receiving yards to break the single-season state record. But pedigree and a 5-foot-9 cornerback named Ryan Dillard prevailed. Rogers had 10 receptions but for 81 yards. His 5-yard TD run after a Buford fumble got Calhoun within 13-10 with 5:06 left, but Buford ran out the clock, driving from one 20 to the other on eight plays. Dillard, now on offense, completed a halfback pass for 35 yards on one third-and-5. It was Buford’s sixth title of the century. Calhoun, left to regret four turnovers, was still searching for its first title since 1952. Rogers went ahead of Habersham Central’s Tavarres King in the records books with 1,647 yards, though Buford and some media had Rogers with a lower total for the game and season. Years later, it was rediscovered that Mike Kemp of Tallulah Falls was credited with 1,843 receiving yards in just 10 games in 1968. Dillard walked on at Southern Cal and is now the San Francisco 49ers’ prep coordinator.

Line: Fitzgerald -12 (81.5% chance of winning). Callaway won its first state title in any sport with a victory that the Maxwell Ratings rank as the 19th-biggest upset in state finals history. Fitzgerald was 13-0 and ranked No. 1, poised to claim its first state championship since 1948. Callaway, a perennial contender under coach Pete Wiggins, was 11-1 but lost a late region game to Haralson County and was ranked No. 8. The underdog Cavaliers never trailed in this championship at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium as Charlie Dixon, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound bruiser who was injured much of the season, rushed for 229 yards and broke the game open with a 69-yard dash down the left sideline for a 22-10 lead with 2:11 left. Fitzgerald got within 22-17, then had one more possession and reached the Callaway 42 with one second left, but Jalin Shephard intercepted a Hail Mary pass to end it. Callaway’s playoff run included victories over the No. 1 (Fitzgerald), No. 2 (Rabun County), No. 3 (Thomasville) and No. 4 (Lovett) teams.

Line: Irwin County -6 (66.4% chance of winning). These south Georgia region rivals entered this game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium ranked No. 1 and No. 2. Irwin County had beaten Clinch County 21-3 on Sept. 14 and led this one 13-10 entering the fourth quarter, but Clinch County seized the day after Zack Robbins' 40-yard field goal tied the game and Irwin County failed to recover the ensuing kickoff. Tyler Morehead fell on the loose ball at the Irwin 20, then threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Johnson for a 20-13 lead. With 3:03 left, Morehead threw a 59-yard TD pass to Johnson on third-and-22 for a 27-13 advantage. The pass was essentially a 25-yard jump-ball lob to the Irwin 35. Johnson, a four-star recruit who stood 6 feet, 7 inches, came down with it and raced to the end zone. Irwin got within 27-20 but never got the ball back after Clinch recovered an onside kick. Clinch County won its eighth state title, the fifth under coach Jim Dickerson, who would retire in the offseason. Irwin County became the second team in history, first since Adairsville (1969-72), to lose four finals in five years. Three came against Clinch County, each time after Irwin had beaten Clinch in the regular season.

Line: Lincoln County -10 (82% chance of winning). Lincoln County has won 11 state titles. This one required its most clutch fourth-quarter drive. Coach Larry Campbell’s Red Devils carried a 25-game winning streak into the final but struggled from the start against a Columbus private school making its first state finals appearance. Brookstone forced a fumble on the kickoff and scored 32 seconds into the game at Buddy Bufford Field. Lincoln County scored its only first-half touchdown on Quincy Brown’s 67-yard punt return. Bernard Hearst fielded the punt and handed to Brown reversing field. Hearst, an older cousin of sophomore Garrison Hearst, would score on a 28-yard run in the third quarter, but Brookstone forged ahead 14-13 with 4:19 left when Brookstone’s Mack Strong caught a 9-yard TD pass from Randy Cowart on fourth-and-8. Lincoln County needed a drive and got it, traveling 70 yards and scoring on Greg Leverette’s 21-yard run with 1:23 remaining. The seven-play sequence had some controversy, however. With the Red Devils facing a second-and-17 at their 23-yard line, Leverett threw a 22-yard pass to Andreas Gresham, who appeared to drop the ball and fall on it. Officials ruled it a catch. Instead of third and 17, it was first and 10 near midfield. Leverett’s 21-yard TD run became the seventh-latest winning touchdown to that point in state finals history and remains among the 15 latest all-time. Brookstone’s Strong went on to play 10 years in the NFL. When asked the best player his teams ever faced, Campbell has most commonly mentioned Strong.

Line: Valdosta -24 (98% chance of winning). It was a great game only in that it showcased a great team, maybe Georgia’s greatest ever, playing its finest game. Valdosta finished 13-0, beating every opponent by 21 points or more, and claimed the school’s third national title. Stan Rome, a 6-foot-5 sophomore tight end, had 1,573 yards receiving, a staggering total for that time. He would play basketball at Clemson and for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. Quarterback Stan Bounds, who would sign with Ole Miss, threw five TD passes, a state-finals record that stood until Prince Avenue Christian’s Aaron Philo threw six in 2022. Some game stories gave Bounds only four TD passes, but one occurred on a pass reception that was lateraled to Cliff Bradley, who ran the remaining three yards for Bounds’ fifth. Avondale scored on an 86-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter that even Valdosta fans cheered on out of pity. The 62 points set a state record tied in 2020 by Warner Robins. Valdosta coach Wright Bazemore retired after the game. His record in 28 seasons was 268-51-7 with 14 state titles. Stan Rome was the second-highest voter-getter behind Herschel Walker among the 2022 inaugural inductees into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame.

Line: St. Pius -10 (85% chance of winning). In a remarkable upset and playoff run, West Rome became the first and still only team to win a state title after a sub-.500 regular season. The two finalists had played varsity football for eight seasons each without winning a region title. St. Pius appeared far more ready to reach the promised land. The Lions, coached by former Georgia Tech standout George Maloof, was 11-0-1. They had beaten No. 1 Thomasville 7-6 on the road in the semifinals. They had a star running back, John Griffin, who would play at Georgia. West Rome’s Chieftains were only 4-5-1 in the regular season. They upset No. 2 Dalton in a region-title game, then No. 5 Chamblee in the semifinals. For the championship, West Rome took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on Mike Souder’s 34-yard pass to Ronnie Parker. In the fourth quarter, St. Pius would reach the red zone three times. First, the Lions lost a fumble at the 6. Then, they threw incomplete on fourth down from the 3. On the final threatening drive, with 0:01 left, they lined up at the 15 but threw incomplete in the end zone. According to Maxwell’s calculations, this upset at Atlanta’s Grady Stadium was the fifth-largest to that point in GHSA finals. It remains among the top 12 all-time. West Rome’s regular season remains the worst of any champion, although those of 1992 Thomas County Central and 2018 Bainbridge (each 5-5) bore striking resemblances.

Line: Northside -3 (58.2% chance of winning). Mays, coached by an Atlanta Public Schools alumnus, Corey Jarvis, was bidding to become the first APS school to win a championship since Southwest Atlanta in 1973. The Raiders held an 18-7 halftime lead, but Northside came back as Tobias Oliver threw a 70-yard TD pass to Nate Greene in the third quarter and scored the game-winner on a 47-yard run with 8:31 left. Mays got into Northside territory twice in the final four minutes but missed a 23-yard field goal attempt and turned the ball over on downs at the Northside 39. This was one of only seven GHSA finals in which the winning team trailed by 10 or more points at halftime. It was Northside’s third state title in eight seasons, first since 2007. This title was Northside’s first championship under alumnus Kevin Kinsler, whose record was 60-6 at this point, making him the third-fastest in GHSA history to 60 victories.

Line: Valdosta -13 (85% chance of winning). Brookwood scored one of the biggest upsets in state finals history and launched a Gwinnett County dynasty in the highest classification. The Broncos had lost to Valdosta only 31-28 in the opener, but that was in the Georgia Dome. Few favored Brookwood in the rematch, played at Valdosta, where the home team hadn’t lost in a championship game since 1952. Brookwood had fallen out of the top 10 while Valdosta had avenged its only loss, blowing out Colquitt County in the quarterfinals, and was ranked No. 3. Brookwood took a 21-0 lead when lineman Philip Jones (who is Brookwood’s coach today) returned a fumble 37 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. Valdosta got within 21-17 at halftime on a TD run and a TD pass by Dusty Bonner. Brookwood scored 24 unanswered points in the second half and won the game without completing a pass (0-for-3). Paul Freeman rushed for 213 yards and a finals record-tying four touchdowns behind a mauling offensive line. Brookwood became the first Gwinnett County Schools team to win a state title. Gwinnett teams now have won or shared 15 of the 27 championships in Georgia’s highest class since 1996, most recently Mill Creek in 2022.

Line: Griffin -5 (65.2% chance of winning). Griffin quarterback Jaquez Parks put on one of the finest individual efforts in state finals history in what stood as the highest-scoring championship game until 2022. Parks, who would become the AJC’s all-classification player of the year, passed for 338 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 216 yards and a touchdown. The 544 combined yards set a state finals record. Carrollton led 14-0, 21-7 and 24-14 in the first half, but it didn't deter Griffin, which committed two turnovers but never punted. The game's key moment came with 2:59 left in the first half, with Carrollton trailing 28-24 with a first-and-goal at the 3. Griffin's Ryan Cochran returned a fumble 90 yards for a touchdown. Griffin won its first state title since 1978. Griffin scored the third-most points in a state final behind 1971 Valdosta (62) and 1983 Tift County (59). The 91 points for both teams broke the record set in 2010 when Brookwood beat Colquitt County 52-38. It was broken in Mill Creek’s 70-35 victory over Carrollton last year. Griffin coach Steve DeVoursney became one of fewer than 10 men to win Georgia state titles as a head coach and player (1988 R.E. Lee).

Line: Irwin County -28 (96.6% chance of winning). A championship game doesn’t have to be suspenseful to be unforgettable. Irwin County coach Buddy Nobles had received a grave cancer diagnosis in the summer. He coached the championship from a wooden stand built for him by the school’s agriculture department. Defensive coordinator Casey Soliday performed Nobles’ sideline duties. Marion County lingered for a half, but two long scoring plays by Jamorri Colson in the third quarter brought on a rout, and the fourth quarter was played under a running clock. Gabriel Benyard had 200 all-purpose yards. D.J. Lundy, a 225-pound linebacker/running back who would go on to play at Florida State, had three tackles for losses, one a sack, forced a fumble and rushed for 174 yards. It was Irwin County’s first state title since 1975 and ended a five-game losing streak in championships. “If there is a better Class A team in the history of Georgia high school football, I want to see them,” Nobles said. He finished his emotional post-game interview with GPB Sports’ Jon Nelson with a most memorable line, “Party at the red light!” – a call for Indians fans to meet back in downtown Ocilla to continue the celebration. Nobles passed away 37 days later on Jan. 22, 2020. He was 53. Nobles’ poignant final run remains vivid in the minds of Georgia high school football fans in large part because of GPB coverage on the game and his journey, but it was not unique to GHSA finals history. In 1960, Buddy Bufford coached his final season ill with terminal cancer and led Lincolnton to a 30-0 victory over Dade County for the 1960 Class C championship. Bufford passed away at age 32 on Feb. 24, 1961. Lincoln County’s field is named for Buddy Bufford. The 2019 Irwin County and 1960 Lincolnton teams also had in common undefeated teams.

Line: Dublin -4 (62.4% chance of winning). Dublin, led by wing-T coaching guru Roger Holmes, won its first state title since 2006 without completing a pass, just as the team had done in the semifinals. In this game – which tied a GHSA finals record with four lead changes – Dublin ran 73 times for 437 yards, with fullback JaQues Evans getting 40 of those carries for 185 yards. Brooks County got within 35-32 with 7:30 left, and Dublin countered with a 62-yard drive on nine running plays to rebuild the lead. J.T. Wright then intercepted a pass, effectively clinching the victory. Dublin recovered from a disastrous third-quarter play when Brooks returned a questionable fumble 96 yards for a touchdown and a 20-15 lead. Dublin answered with touchdowns on its next four possessions. The championship was Dublin’s first in any sport since 2009. The football title was Dublin’s fifth overall. Brooks County sophomore Omari Arnold scored three touchdowns. Only two previous state finals featured four lead changes (1991 LaGrange vs. Colquitt County and 1990 Cairo vs. Worth County). In this game, Brooks County took leads of 7-6 and 20-15 while Dublin took leads of 15-14 and 21-20.

Line: Marist -4 (60.5% chance of winning). This was the first, and remains the only, all-Catholic school final in state history, and Blessed Trinity came away with its first state title, avenging a 25-24 regular-season loss to Marist, which came in 14-0. Because of a snowstorm, the GHSA moved the game from Mercedes-Benz Stadium to Marist’s Hughes Spalding Stadium, which seated only 4,000. Blessed Trinity coach Tim McFarlin bemoaned the development as “sad” since his fans had bought 6,000 tickets for the larger venue. The Titans handled the disappointment quite well, though. Jake Smith threw a 9-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to give them the lead for good, and their defense made it hold up. They led 14-0 after Steele Chambers' 3-yard touchdown run with 9:22 to play. Marist cut the lead to 14-7 on a 7-yard run by Charlie Addicks with 3:27 remaining and got the ball back at the Marist 7 with 1:33 left, but a three-man gang tackled quarterback Chase Abshier for a safety for the game's final points. Marist came into the game averaging 228.5 yards rushing but was held to 63. Smith, who played the second half with a broken thumb, completed his first eight passes and finished 11-for-12 for 111 yards. Marist was ranked No. 2. Blessed Trinity took care of No. 1 Cartersville in the second round, ending the Canes’ 41-game winning streak and the high school career of Trevor Lawrence. McFarlin became the 15th coach in GHSA history to win state titles at two schools. He won a championship at Roswell in 2006.

Line: Colquitt County -13 (81.7% chance of winning). No. 1-ranked Colquitt County won its first state title in 20 years and completed a 15-0 season, but Archer, a 5-year-old Gwinnett County school, made it a struggle at the Georgia Dome. Coach Andy Dyer’s underdog Tigers, ranked No. 3 in preseason but written off after an 0-3 start, took a 17-14 lead early in the second quarter on Cole Fisher’s 47-yard field goal. Colquitt County went ahead for good on Sahiem King’s 1-yard run with 45 seconds left in the half. That marked the third lead change of the game, but it would be the last, though the game would remain close. Archer got within 28-24 with 4:48 left on future Duke Blue Devil Dylan Singleton’s third touchdown, a 22-yard run. Colquitt got the ball back at its 19, and King, a 2,000-yard rusher, ran nine straight times to run out the clock. King would play at Kentucky. In 2017, GHSF Daily named King the best player in Colquitt County football history. He rushed for 125 yards and scored two touchdowns in this his final high school game. It was the sixth state title as a coach for Alabama native Rush Propst, the first in Georgia.

Line: Savannah Christian -4 (62% chance of winning). Led by future Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall, Wilcox County won its first state title, overcoming a 21-14 deficit with two touchdowns in the final eight minutes. Marshall, then a junior, was 14-of-23 passing for 244 yards and rushed for 87 yards on 13 carries. He ran for two touchdowns, passed for one, and completed three successful two-point conversions. His 5-yard TD run and conversion pass gave Wilcox County a 22-21 lead with 7:58 left. He threw a 5-yard TD pass to Marcus Griffin with 36 seconds left and then to Johnathan “Bug” Howard for the two-pointer and the final margin. This game helped propel Marshall into becoming a top-300 national recruit, although he signed with Georgia as a defensive back with hopes also of playing college basketball. He transferred to Auburn and is perhaps best known in college as the quarterback whose Hail Mary pass beat Georgia in 2013. He and Howard would play briefly in the NFL. Both remain active, Marshall in the CFL and Howard in the USFL.

Line: Brooks County -2 (57.3% chance of winning). Omari Arnold broke Herschel Walker’s state finals rushing record with 320 yards on 21 carries and tied a scoring record with five touchdowns, leading Brooks County to its first state title since 1994 with a victory over the two-time defending champions. Irwin County had beaten Brooks County 21-13 in the regular season and entered ranked No. 1. Arnold, a 5-foot-9, 175-pounder who would sign with Georgia Southern, scored on a 69-yard yard run on the second play from scrimmage and on an 86-yard run after Irwin County had pulled within 35-28 in the fourth quarter. Brooks County scored on seven of its eight drives, three lasting just one play, another lasting two. QB Jamal Sanders’ 23-yard run immediately after an Irwin County fumble made it 21-0 in the first quarter. Irwin got within 28-21 at halftime and 35-28 in the fourth quarter but couldn't solve Arnold. His five touchdowns tied the state finals record set by Creekside’s Dexter Knox in 2013. His nine career touchdowns in his three state finals also set a state record. Arnold finished with 6,558 career rushing yards, good for 12th all-time in Georgia. Brooks County had lost to Irwin County in the regular season and in the 2020 title game, each time by eight points. Brooks County’s 1994 and 2021 titles came under coach Maurice Freeman, an alumnus.

Line: Benedictine -9 (76.7% chance of winning). Holden Geriner, a top-250 national recruit, passed for 397 yards and four touchdowns covering 61, 58, 80 and 23 yards, giving Benedictine its third title since 2014, each under coach Danny Britt. The game’s pivotal moment took place with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter and Benedictine leading 21-14. Carver’s Jaiden Credle, a 2,000-yard rusher, was running inside Benedictine’s 8-yard line but lost control of the ball, and Benedictine’s Michael Smith recovered it in the end zone. On the next play, Geriner threw an 80-yard TD pass, hitting Kameron Edge in stride about 40 yards downfield, for a 28-14 lead. Carver got back within 28-22 but never had the ball again with a chance to tie or take the lead. Benedictine took a knee on Carver’s 7 to end the game. The Cadets finished on a 13-game winning streak after starting 0-2 against out-of-state opponents. Geriner finished with 3,377 yards passing for the season, 7,560 for his career. He’s now a redshirt freshman at Auburn.

Line: Hawkinsville -2 (60% chance of winning). The average points scored in a GHSA game in the 1950s was 14.5, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. That’s both teams combined. In 1959, the average reached a GHSA-era (1947-present) low of 13.3. Perhaps no championship game better symbolizes this era than this one, a Class C battle between schools of fewer than 200 students. Hawkinsville was No. 1 in The Atlanta Journal’s poll. North Cobb was No. 1 in The Atlanta Constitution’s poll. Both were undefeated against Class C opponents. They played scoreless until four minutes left, when Hawkinsville fullback Ben Wilkes scored on a 4-yard run. North Cobb responded with its only serious drive of the game and made it inside Hawkinsville’s 2-yard line, where Hawkinsville co-captains Jimmy Moore and Herby Herrington made a fourth-down stop with 15 seconds left. Hawkinsville allowed only two touchdowns against Class C teams that year. Its winning drive in this game took place after star quarterback Johnny Gatlin was knocked out of the game in the third quarter with a broken collar bone. Backup Billy Grinstead led the Red Devils 40 yards over 11 plays, with Wilkes getting the ball on nine of them. Grinstead chipped in a critical 7-yard gain to the 9. The state title was Hawkinsville’s third in seven seasons. “Maybe we’ve had better personnel at Hawkinsville,’’ coach Bobby Gentry said, “but never a team with more desire and scrap.”

Line: Dublin -5 (66% chance of winning). This was the first of two ties within hours of each other on Dec. 17, the night that forever ended ties in GHSA finals. Later that evening, Peachtree Ridge and Roswell would tie 14-14 in the Class 5A final. The GHSA abandoned ties after that and called for overtime in future championship games. This game, played in Dublin, was contested between unbeaten teams, with Charlton County ranked No. 1 and Dublin No. 3. Charlton claimed its third consecutive title, Dublin its first since 1963. Dublin led 13-0, and Charlton County scored touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters to tie. Charlton County missed an extra point (deflected by Dublin’s Brandon Edmond) after Dwight Dasher threw a 28-yard TD pass to D.J. Donley with 7:30 left. Dublin had a fourth-and-2 near midfield with 1:05 left but elected to punt, drawing some boos in the crowd. Neither team got in scoring position again. This was the eighth tie in GHSA finals history. It’s not likely it would’ve been enough to persuade the GHSA to ban ties, but coupled with the Peachtree Ridge-Roswell deadlock in the highest classification, change was inevitable. Since 2006, overtimes have decided 10 GHSA finals.

Line: Buford -1 (53.5% chance of winning). With a promising sophomore quarterback, Cartersville won its first title since 1999 and denied Buford a fourth consecutive championship, which would’ve matched the state record. Trevor Lawrence, the future No. 1 NFL Draft pick, was only 11-of-23 passing for 141 yards, but Cartersville forced four turnovers and became the first team to shut out Buford in the playoffs since Washington-Wilkes in 1999, a streak of 75 games. Cartersville had lost to Buford 27-3 the 2014 semifinals. In this game, Cartersville took a 10-0 lead with 1:35 left in the first half after turning a Buford fumble (forced by Brandon Wade, recovered by Tiamon Pennymon) into a 10-yard TD drive. Lawrence hooked up on a 5-yard pass to 6-foot-5 tight end Miller Forristall, who would play at Alabama and precede Lawrence into the NFL. Cartersville effectively clinched the victory with linebacker Tyler Reed's interception at the Cartersville 1 with 3:40 left. The 10 points made for the lowest-scoring GHSA final since 2000.