Preview: Georgia high school football Region 4-7A
You’re not going to find a region in the state of Georgia with more storylines heading into the final week of the regular season than the ones in Region 4-7A.
On paper, this region heading into the season was one of the best the state of Georgia had to offer, and rightfully so.
Region 4-7A featured Grayson and Parkview, two teams with state title aspirations, a Newton squad always equipped with Power 5 talent, an on-the-rise Archer squad that has been steadily improving for the past couple of years, and South Gwinnett, which has been one of the more consistent teams in the state over the last decade.
The only team not expected to do much in 2023 was Brookwood, which entered the season with a depleted roster. And their season has gone as expected. The Broncos are one loss away from going winless in region play for the first time in program history.
Grayson, Archer and Parkview are three teams vying for the heavily competitive Region 4-7A title, which will be decided Friday on the final evening of the Georgia high school football regular season.
Photos by Colin Hubbard
Despite being the heavy favorites entering the season, neither Grayson nor Parkview were in a position to win the region just two weeks ago.
Through the first two weeks of region play, it was Newton and Archer which found themselves in a position to win the region after both jumped out to 2-0 starts.
Newton opened up their region play by stunning Grayson on the road with a 21-point fourth quarter to down the Rams, 31-27. They then followed that up by blasting Brookwood, 44-17, to move to 2-0.
Archer also started off 2-0 in region play and did so by beating up on Brookwood, 34-6, and then stunning Parkview, 28-27, on the road in their second game.
With three region games remaining, Newton and Archer controlled their own destinies while Grayson and Parkview were on the outside looking in with 1-1 records.
The next two weeks of region play, however, turned everything upside down.
Archer moved to 3-0 in region play after defeating South Gwinnett (0-3) on the road, 22-12, and Newton, which hadn’t lost a game all season and was off to their best start in program history, was upset at home by Parkview 28-21.
Meanwhile, Grayson improved to 2-1 in region play after crushing Brookwood, 57-10, which for the moment, gave Archer sole possession of first place in the region while Grayson (2-1), Parkview (2-1) and Newton (2-1) were in a three-way tie for second.
That set up a potential region championship clincher for Archer last Friday night when they played host to Grayson at home. A win for the Tigers would give them the Region 4-7A title in what would have been a complete shocker heading into the season.
But the Tigers’ hopes of celebrating with the trophy in front of their home crowd were rudely interrupted by a 41-14 drubbing handed out by the Rams, who with the win, gave themselves the best odds to win the region heading into the final week.
Grayson’s win made the folks at Parkview happy after they were able to avoid a scare against rival Brookwood to move to 3-1 in region play, which also gave them a path to win the region championship.
But what about Newton? The team that controlled its own destiny just seven days prior? The Rams saw their hopes of winning a region go up in smoke last Thursday night at home when they were beaten by South Gwinnett, 31-28, in a stunner.
So, with one region game remaining for all six teams, where do we stand?
Three teams still have region championship aspirations: Grayson, Archer and Parkview, who are all tied atop the region with a 3-1 record.
Grayson has the simplest path to a region championship. If they beat Parkview on the road, they will be your Region 4-7A champions for a second consecutive season. If they lose, the region championship would go to either Archer or Parkview.
Despite missing an opportunity to win the region championship last week, Archer’s path to a region championship is still relatively simple. They will need to beat Newton at home, and have Parkview beat Grayson.
That would give the Tigers the tie-breaker over the Panthers after they beat them, 28-27, in early October.
But if Archer loses to Newton and Parkview beats Grayson, it would be the Panthers celebrating with the Region 4-7A title. That scenario would give the Panthers a 4-1 record in the region, while Grayson and Archer would both finish at 3-2.
But that’s not all!
The final storyline doesn’t involve who will win the region, but who might potentially miss the playoffs entirely.
Newton, which had such a promising start to its season, would miss the playoffs if they lose on the raod at Archer and South Gwinnett beats Brookwood, which could very well happen.
But how?
South Gwinnett’s win against Newton last Thursday night gave them their first region win of the season, as well as the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Rams.
Both teams would finish with a 2-3 record in region play with a Newton loss and a South Gwinnett win, and the tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot out of Region 4-7A would go to the Comets.
For a program that has had terrible luck finishing out regular seasons in recent memory, Newton could soon find themselves sitting on the couch come playoff time after starting off their season 7-0 and 2-0 in region play.
But wait, there’s more! To make things even crazier, Newton could still finish as high as second in the region, and that would give them a home playoff game in the first round of the state playoffs.
Newton’s path to a No. 2 seed would match up with Parkview’s path to winning the region with Parkview beating Grayson and Newton beating Archer.
That would create a three-way tie with Newton, Grayson and Archer at 3-2, and Newton would win the tiebreaker over both of those teams with wins against the Rams and Tigers.
Grayson would be awarded the No. 3 seed, and Archer would fall all the way down to the fourth and final spot.
In the state’s largest classification, playoff seeding is everything, and that will be almost equally as fun to see play out on Friday night. Grayson, Archer and Parkview could all go from first to third depending on certain scenarios, and that would make a deep playoff run that much harder.
It will be fascinating to see how the final night plays out in Region 4-7A to say the least.
