Georgia High School Football Daily Spotlight: The most surprising scores from Week 5

Here are some Week 5 results that the Georgia High School Football Daily staff found of interest:

Marist 32, Tucker 7: The best rivalries are those that are most difficult to predict game to game. The lower-ranked team has won each of the past three meetings. Keys to victory were the play of new starting quarterback Andy Perez and a bunch of long touchdown runs, which was supposed to be Tucker’s calling card. Perez rushed for 108 yards and triggered a wishbone offense that sprung Sam McNearney for TD runs of 81 and 52 yards.

Avondale 14, Blessed Trinity 7: Through 1989, the school’s last winning season, Avondale was a state power. In the past few years, some alumni primarily from the 1960s and 1970s have adopted the modern football program, which was not only losing on the field but had no money to raise itself up. The efforts are beginning to pay off, apparently. This is an upset that no one could fathom in preseason. Blessed Trinity was one of only two teams to come within 21 points of beating Buford during the Wolves’ 32-game winning streak. The Blessed Trinity team that lost to Buford 14-10 last year also beat Avondale 62-13. In last week’s game, Avondale got the break it has needed for a couple of decades when, leading 6-0, Blessed Trinity was charged with a safety when a snap went out of the end zone. Joshua Bowen returned the ensuing free kick 70 yards for a touchdown for a 14-0 lead. Avondale is 3-1 for the first time since 1989.

Kennesaw Mountain 17, Harrison 14: A week ago, GHSF Daily used the Maxwell Ratings to compute that Kennesaw Mountain had fallen off more than any team in the state this season. That needs to be revised. “I know the kids didn’t like being 0-4, and they were determined to get that first win,” Kennesaw Mountain coach Scott Jones told the Marietta Daily Journal. Devon Jones scored on a 3-yard run late in the game to win it against the Mustangs’ top rival. Diamond Stewart rushed for 167 yards for Kennesaw Mountain.

Darlington 23, Bowdon 20: If Darlington wasn’t written off after quarterback Nash Nance (Vanderbilt commit) transferred to Calhoun, then it was the 0-3 start as Darlington was outscored 103-7. What was overlooked was the possibility of quick improvement. Darlington upset the No. 6 team in Class A when Nance’s replacement, freshman Brad Butler, hit Tev’n Hamilton with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 44 seconds left. “The kid gets better and better every week,” coach Tommy Atha said of Butler in the Rome News-Tribune. “The sky is the limit for him.”

Twiggs County 48, Wilcox County 14: Twiggs returned 17 of 22 starters and figured to be a Top 10 team, and this victory over the preseason No. 2 team validated those visions. Twiggs has some high-end talent in Ernest Butts (a 1,000-yard rusher the past two seasons) and Darqueze Dennard (more than 60 catches last year, first-team all-state). Twiggs is most improved on defense, though. Wilcox won this game 63-34 last year.

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