Three games this week will match teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in their classifications, and one will be in Class A Division I, where Toombs County visits Dublin for a trip to the championship game against Fitzgerald or Northeast. Burke County takes on Rockmart and Appling County faces Carver of Columbus in Class 2A semifinals.

Four region champions will go head to head in the Class 4A semifinals Friday night. Top-ranked Marist will be at home to face Creekside, while Blessed Trinity will travel to North Oconee. In Class 3A, the top two ranked teams have been eliminated, and the teams that beat them (LaGrange and Calhoun) are still alive.

North Cobb Christian and Calhoun upset No. 1-ranked opponents in the quarterfinals last week, and North Cobb Christian made further news as one of four teams making the semifinals for the first time. The other first-time semifinalists are Toombs County and Northeast in Class A Division I and Hebron Christian in 3A-A private.

The Georgia high school football playoffs are down to 64 teams playing for eight state championships. The quarterfinals were the round of wreckage a year ago, when Mill Creek, Buford, Colquitt County and Carrollton – all ranked in the top 25 of USA Today’s and MaxPreps’ national polls at the time – were taken out.

The only game in any classification between undefeated teams, a game between a defending champion and a No. 1-ranked opponent, and a rematch of longtime rivals headline this weekend's quarterfinal schedule in classes 4A, 3A and 2A. Sixty-four teams remain in the GHSA playoffs, each with an eye on the state championships Dec. 16-18 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Cambridge and Cherokee Bluff made history by reaching the football quarterfinals for the first time, and Sprayberry, Jenkins County and Southeast Bulloch are back in a final eight after absences of more than 40 years. Unranked teams LaGrange, Stephens County and Aquinas victimized Sandy Creek, Callaway and Athens Academy, respectively, in the second round’s biggest upsets.

As far as upsets go, last week’s first round of the football playoffs was just a warmup for most of the state’s best teams. It’s about to get dicey Friday night, when the round of 16 arrives with 64 games on the weekend schedule, 16 that match top-10 teams.