No. 1 Buford won, No. 1 Lincoln County lost, and unranked North Paulding, Howard and Treutlen beat Top 10 opponents on a football Friday night of few upsets.
Buford defeated Grayson 23-13 in Class 7A. Grayson entered 2-2 and unranked but is the only Georgia team that can match the Wolves in high-end talent in a game with 27 players pegged as 3-star prospects or higher on the 247Sports Composite.
Grayson’s outnumbered Buford’s 15-12, but Buford — ranked No. 2 in two national polls — earned another quality victory in its bid to repeat as state and consensus national champion.
Lincoln County of Class A lost to South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, 33-20. Strom Thurmond is its state’s reigning 2A champion and hasn’t lost since Sept. 29, 2025, against Lincoln County.
North Paulding beat No. 10 Marietta 35-28 in Class 7A. The victory is North Paulding’s first over a Top 10 team since defeating No. 10 South Paulding in 2022. Marietta moved into the rankings two weeks ago after beating a Top 10 opponent, McEachern.
Howard of Macon beat No. 9 Baldwin 49-43 in Class 4A. The victory was Howard’s first over a Top 10 team in 11 years and second in history. Howard had been 1-25-1 in Top 10 games, beating only No. 4 Lamar County of Class 2A in 2015.
Treutlen beat No. 8 Montgomery County 21-7 in a Class A game between unbeaten southeast Georgia teams whose counties border each other. This was the latest the rivals have played in a season when both were unbeaten.
Three Top 10 teams won as favorites but against previously unbeaten teams. No. 7 Roswell of 6A beat Class 7A Archer, 37-21; No. 4 Benedictine beat Statesboro 42-21 in 5A; and No. 7 Cass beat Villa Rica 31-21, also in 5A.
Marist, the No. 3 team in Class 5A, won their 800th game in program history with a 53-0 victory over Campbell. Only Valdosta (975), LaGrange (827) and Gainesville (804) in Georgia have more victories, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
A few Top 10 teams lost to bigger or higher-ranked teams.
- No. 4 Newton of 7A beat No. 10 Thomson of 3A, 49-0
- No. 2 Troup beat No. 10 Spalding 60-14 in Class 4A
- Unranked East Coweta of 7A beat No. 8 Lithonia of 5A, 31-14
- Unranked Flowery Branch of 5A beat No. 8 North Hall of 4A, 42-35
- No. 2 Fitzgerald of 2A beat No. 6 Worth County of 3A, 25-20
- Savannah Country Day, a GIAA team, beat No. 10 Savannah Christian of 4A-2A Private, 21-10
- No. 4 Hart County of 2A beat No. 6 Hebron Christian of 4A-2A Private, 24-17.
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