Elephants inch closer to No. 1 in Class AAA poll

ATLANTA - The Gainesville High football team inched closer to the No. 1 spot in Class AAA picking up two first place votes.

The Elephants (6-0) remained No. 2 in the latest Associated Press Georgia high school football poll. They sit 16 points behind No. 1 Screven County.

Gainesville is coming off a 49-7 win over Gilmer.

Screven (7-0) beat Liberty County 46-32 to hold the top spot in the Class AAA poll with 16 first-place votes. Following its 17-14 loss to Villa Rica, Cedartown (6-1) fell from No. 3 to No. 7. LaGrange (5-1) beat then-No. 6 Cartersville and moved up one spot to No. 3, while Cartersville (6-1) fell to No. 9. North Hall received 11 votes, three behind No. 10 Stephens County.

Buford (6-0) held the top spot in the Class AA poll after its 39-10 win over Union County. Buford received 17 first-place votes, the most of any team in any class.

Lincoln County (7-0) rolled over Aquinas 46-3 to protect its No. 1 ranking in the Class A list. Commerce (4-2) is ninth after being as high as third earlier in the year.

In Class AAAAA, No. 6 Lovejoy remained undefeated with a 28-17 win over No. 10 East Coweta. Lovejoy was the only team in the top 10 to play another ranked AAAAA team last week.

Because the top five AAAAA teams also won last week, Lovejoy (7-0) did not move up in this week's poll. Still ranked sixth, the Wildcats will have another chance to impress the state's voters when they again play the No. 10 team Newnan (8-0), which moved into the poll this week as East Coweta fell out.

With a devastating 57-0 rout of Brunswick, Camden County strengthened its hold on the top spot in the AAAAA poll. Camden County (6-0) did not allow a first down until the last play of the game, and it received 14 of the 18 first-place votes from the state's prep writers.

Parkview (6-1) received two first-place votes and remained in second place, followed by South Gwinnett (6-0), which remained No. 3 two weeks after its big upset of then-No. 1 Brookwood, and Northside (6-0).

Walton, No. 8 in the poll, received the other first-place vote.

In the closest race for first place, Thomas County Central (6-0) leads No. 2 Marist (7-0) by 11 points in the Class AAAA poll. Thomas County Central received 12 first-place votes and fared no lower than second place in the other six ballots. Marist has five first-place votes and is followed in the top five by Shaw (7-0), Tucker (6-1) and Ware County (5-1).

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)