Colquitt County and Camden County will duke it out for Georgia 1-AAAAAA supremacy in the nation's top game of the week.
Photos by Cecil Copeland/Graphic by Ryan Escobar
Our weekly look inside the nation's Top 10 high school football games begins in Georgia. On Friday night, the championship of the state's toughest region will be decided when Colquitt County travels to Camden County.
The winner gains the undisputed Region 1-AAAAAA regular-season crown and will get many votes as the team to beat when the state playoffs kick off next week. It's no wonder why. One of Region 1-AAAAAA's current members has won Georgia's largest classification state crown 18 times in the last 25 seasons.
The rest of this week's rundown includes just two games that involve teams ranked in the latest
MaxPreps Xcellent 25. No. 7 Central (Miami) will close out the regular season with its first meeting against former Xcellent 25 squad University (Fort Lauderdale) in school history. Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, No. 16 Folsom and its high-powered passing attack has a date with Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove). At stake for the Bulldogs is a league championship and a chance to finish the regular season undefeated for the second-straight time.
Stephen Spiewak regained sole possession of first place in our season-long prediction contest after correctly picking eight out of 10 winners last week. Spiewak's 78-31-1 cumulative record is one game better than Jamie DeMoney in second place and two picks ahead of Leland Gordon in third.
Here's a look at this week's Top 10 games along with predictions by MaxPreps staff writers and contributors Mitch Stephens, Stephen Spiewak, Kevin Askeland, Leland Gordon, Colin Ward-Henninger and Jamie DeMoney.
MaxPreps Top 10 Football Games of the Week
Colquitt County (Moultrie, Ga.) at Camden County (Kingsland, Ga.)What to watch: The de-facto championship game of Georgia's rugged Region 1-AAAAAA. Both teams lost early-season games to nationally ranked opponents, but have gone unbeaten in region play. Colquitt County (8-1) has seven straight wins since a Week 2 loss at Hoover (Ala.). The Packers boast a member of the MaxPreps Class of 2016 Top 50 Watch List in
Kiel Pollard. The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder has a team-high 429 yards and five touchdowns receiving. Camden County has piled up eight consecutive wins since losing (34-14) to North Gwinnett in the season-opener. Alabama commits
Kalvaraz Bessent and
Chris Williams are key performers in the Wildcats' vaunted Wing-T offensive attack. Both have five rushing touchdowns and average more than seven yards per carry this season.
Just the facts: This is only the second year these teams – which are more than 150 miles apart -- have been aligned in the same region. In the last decade, they've played each other once in a regular-season game and three times in the playoffs. They split those four games. The last two – both won by Colquitt County -- were decided by only one point. … Camden County has three state titles in school history, which were achieved in 2003, 2008 and 2009. Colquitt County won its only state title in 1994.
Mitch Stephens: Camden County 21, Colquitt County 20
Kevin Askeland: Colquitt County 20, Camden County 14
Jamie DeMoney: Colquitt County 17, Camden County 13
Stephen Spiewak: Colquitt County 28, Camden County 10
Leland Gordon: Colquitt County 34, Camden County 28
Colin Ward-Henninger: Camden County 24, Colquitt County 21
