Cedar Grove's controversial loss in the 2022 Class 3A final ultimately led to the adoption of instant replay in championship games. Now the Saints are back in the finals and will get another shot at a title when they meet Savannah Christian at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In Class 2A, Pierce County seeks its second title in four years when in faces Rockmart at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Creekside and Coffee will meet in the Class 5A final Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the only championship game this year between No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams. Coffee is ranked No. 1 this season for the first time. There will be a first-time champion in Class 4A, where Stockbridge and Perry will be making their first appearances in the state finals.

Class 7A Walton of Cobb County and Milton of Fulton will battle at Mercedes-Benz Stadium next Wednesday in the first championship game in the highest classification without a Gwinnett County or South Georgia team since 1985. In Class 6A on Tuesday, Woodward Academy and Thomas County Central are both seeking their first state tiles in more than 20 seasons.

The 16 head coaches in the state finals have won 993 games in Georgia, lost only 347, and have a winning percentage of .741. But most are new to the finals, at least as head coaches. Only Prince Avenue’s Greg Vandagriff, Cedar Grove’s John Adams and Pierce County’s Ryan Herring have won state titles. Others have won as assistants, and Coffee’s Mike Coe has won five in another state.

The state football finals are returning to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will host championship games in all eight classifications and the flag football finals in three divisions on Dec. 11-13. Here’s a recap of last week’s 16 semifinals and the significance of the results for both the winning and losing teams.

Here are the scores from the fourth week of the playoffs. If you have corrections, please contact us. Check out our Scores & Schedules page for all scores from the 2023 season and a schedule of the GHSA championship games.

The longest winning streak in state history and the longest active streak in the country came to end Thursday night when Valwood defeated John Milledge Academy 42-21 in the GIAA Class 3A championship game at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium in Macon. John Milledge (12-1) had won 62 consecutive games and four straight state championships.

GHSA executive director Robin Hines announced Wednesday that he will retire Aug. 1. Hines shared the news at the end of an executive committee meeting in which the GHSA ratified reclassification for 2024-26 and adopted a playoff format and rankings formula for classes 3A to A Division I. Also approved at the Thomaston meeting were four schools’ appeals to move down in classification for the 2024-26 academic years.

The two highest-ranked teams in Class 3A - No. 1 Calvary Day and No. 2 Cedar Grove - will battle for a spot in the state final when they meet Friday night at Buck Godfrey Stadium in Decatur. The winner will face Savannah Christian or Carver of Columbus for the championship at 1 p.m. on Dec. 13 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In the Class 2A semifinals, Fitzgerald will travel to Pierce County and Cook will play at Rockmart.

The Class 5A playoffs have played out according to form as the top four ranked teams - Coffee, Creekside, Jefferson and Cartersville - survived the first three rounds to reach the semifinals. In Class 4A, Stockbridge will try to take down two-time defending champion Benedictine this week, and Perry will face Starr’s Mill for a shot at the state final.

Four teams ranked in the national top 25 of both USA Today and MaxPreps failed to get out of Georgia’s quarterfinals last week. Upended were Mill Creek, Buford, Colquitt County and Carrollton. Their conquerors were Camden County, Grayson, Milton and Walton. Bryan County and Telfair County from Class A also made headlines, advancing to the semifinals for the first time.

Call it the elite eight, but Georgia high school football’s playoff quarterfinals are truly the round of champions. Sharpened by two playoff victories, region winners can meet for the first time Friday night. Fifteen of the 32 quarterfinals are champion-on-champion. Twenty-two match top-10 teams. All 32 feature at least one ranked team.

Benedictine and North Oconee, the top two teams in the Class 4A rankings since the beginning of the season, will face off Friday night as the GHSA playoffs hit the quarterfinal round. Class 5A will move on without defending champion Ware County, which lost to Warner Robins on a last-second field goal in the second round.

Rome, Warner Robins and Toombs County eliminated defending state champions in the second round of the playoffs last week while Lumpkin County and Bryan County reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their histories. Douglas County and Cass also broke long quarterfinal droughts while Jenkins, despite its 3-7 regular season, kept its unlikely run going with another one-point victory as a No. 4 seed.

Defending champions will be on hot seats tonight when the football playoffs resume with 64 second-round games. Reigning Class 6A champion Hughes plays at No. 6 Rome. Both are 10-1. Each has an outstanding senior quarterback. Hughes’ Air Noland surpassed 10,000 passing yards for his career last week. Rome’s Reece Fountain has thrown for more than 8,500 yards.

Three games between ranked teams headline the second week of the postseason in classes 7A and 6A. No. 8 Westlake travels to No. 3 in Class 7A, while the Class 6A games include No. 9 Houston County at No. 10 Woodward Academy and No. 4 Hughes at No. 6 Rome. Collins Hill and Camden County will try to keep the momentum going after upsets last week.

The past two champions of Class 5A will face off in the second round of the playoffs when Ware County travels to Warner Robins. The teams have played each other each of the past four seasons, with each team winning twice. Two-time defending state champion Benedictine will host LaGrange in a Class 4A game.

Football teams placed higher on the playoff bracket will play at home when same-seeded opponents meet in the quarterfinals next week, the Georgia High School Association determined Monday with a universal coin toss.

Unranked Collins Hill, Camden County, Cass, Dalton and Monroe Area defeated top-10 teams, reigning champion Sandy Creek lost, and Bryan County and Lumpkin County won their first playoff games in history in the first round of the GHSA playoffs. Cass, Jenkins, Gilmer and Lovejoy beat No. 1 seeds, and Savannah Christian won in four overtimes, the last one with controversy.