Week 5 of high school football was, well let's just say interesting.
Here are five things we learned from Week 5:
1. LAKEVIEW IS LEGIT
Lakeview hadn't beaten George Walton ever. It looked like that streak would continue after GWA scored with under two minutes to go. That's when Kyari Burch took over, leading his team down the field and scoring the game winning touchdown with just six seconds left. The Lions are now 5-0 on the season and have an off week before a matchup with cross town rival Riverside. Should the Lions get through that one, a big game looms against Bethlehem Christian, and boy should it be a good one.
2. REGION 6-3A GETS MUDDIER
Lumpkin County blew a 13-0 halftime lead as they struggled to move the football in the second half against GAC in a 19-13 loss Friday night. North Hall won their rivalry game over Chestatee in a game that seemed much closer than the score finished, and White County, while sluggish out of the gates, ended up taking care of Pickens rather easily. One could look at this and say GAC might run away with the region crown, but with North Hall and White County set to play this week, we might have a new contender emerge after Week 6.
3. GAINESVILLE & JEFFERSON STRUGGLE OFFENSIVELY
A lot of this has to do with the opponents faced. Gainesville didn't get it going most of the night in a 45-16 loss at Carrollton, while North Oconee had their way with Jefferson in a 35-0 matchup. We don't think that this trend will continue, but it will be interesting to see how both teams respond. Gainesville has their first home game of the year and opens region play, while the Dragons have an off week to figure things out before they open region play.
4. NORTH FORSYTH IS READY TO CONTEND
The Raiders have really found their identity in the running game with Darron Parry going crazy the last couple of weeks. And he continued that trend in a big rivalry win over South Forsyth Friday night to open Region 6-6A play. There's still a long way to go in the season, but that running game, coupled with excellent defense shown all year, might be the recipe for winning the region, something the Raiders have knocked on the door of doing multiple times in recent years but haven't walked through.
5. UNION COUNTY MIGHT BE JUST FINE
A lot of question marks were around the Union County program after losing projected starting quarterback Cade Dockery to a season-ending injury just before the opening week of play. The Panthers, though, may have figured some things out in the last two weeks as they started region play. Freshman quarterback Kamden Kendrick has grown up a lot in the first four games of his career and has kept the Panthers competititve in their first two region games, winning one of them and hanging around with ninth-ranked Rockmart most of the night. With half the season to go, we think Kendrick will continue to grow and make the Panthers a sneaky pick to shock some teams down the stretch.
