The Starr’s Mill Panthers continued their recent upswing in Region 2-AAAA play with a decisive 21-0 win over the McIntosh Chiefs Friday night at McIntosh.

Six local schools competed in cross-country over the weekend, running in two separate meets.

The Fayette County Tigers finished first in the 4A-5A division of the Spalding Invitational cross-country meet in Griffin over the weekend, while the Lady Tigers came in second. Sandy Creek was third in the boys’ half of the 1A-3A division and second on the girls’ side.

When it comes to playoff drama, perhaps none could top the Whitewater-McIntosh duel in the first round of tournament play Monday afternoon.

“Friday Night Lights,” the television show premiered on Tuesday night on NBC. If you’d like to see the real thing, drop by one of the games played by the local teams tonight. There will be plenty of drama to go around as teams are looking for region wins that could lead to a spot in the state playoffs.

The region schedule for region 2-AAAA is over and Northgate’s Lady Vikings ran the table. They got a 6-0 win over Starr’s Mill on Tuesday to wrap-up the top seed in next week’s region tournament and guarantee them a spot in the Class AAAA state tournament. Kelsey Floyd got the win, striking out nine batters and driving in two runs herself. Others driving in runs in the win were Jacklyn Simpson, Chelsea Sparks and Rachelle Adkins.

The Starr’s Mill Touchdown Club will sponsor the second annual Panther Prowl 5K/Fun Run on Saturday, Nov. 18.

The 5K will start and finish in the school’s stadium while the majority of the walk/run will be held on the beautiful South Campus.

The latest GaSports.com volleyball coaches poll was released on Tuesday and four local teams are still ranked. In fact, Landmark Christian is now ranked sixth in Class AA/A, which is a move up since the last poll where they were ranked eighth. Sandy Creek is still ranked third in Class AAA, Starr’s Mill is still ranked second in Class AAAA, but McIntosh dropped from third to fourth in that classification.

The Prudential BlazeTennis Run/Roll Challenge, a regional wheelchair tennis tournament sponsored by Prudential and presented by BlazeSports America in collaboration with the USTA Southern Section, will be played Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Peachtree City Tennis Center. Play begins at 9 a.m. The public is invited and there is no admission charge.

• The editors at National Youth Baseball have named Peachtree City’s Jack Berry of the 12U East Cobb Astros to the 2006 12U All American Team in recognition of his outstanding play this past season.

Landmark (2-2) @ Bowdon (4-1)
Landmark is going to have a tough time with Bowdon. I have to pick this one straight off the record, it’s BOWDEN.

For some of the local high school football teams, last Friday was a chance to get back on track and they made the most of it. Whitewater bounced back from a loss to Creekside to get a huge win over Westlake, while Starr’s Mill snapped their two game losing streak and handed Banneker a loss. Things didn’t go as well for Fayette County, Landmark Christian, Our Lady of Mercy or Sandy Creek.

Region tournaments start Saturday for region 5-A, Monday for region 2-AAAA and Tuesday for region 6-AAA. This week is the last chance for a team to pick up an extra region win and perhaps enhance their seeding in next week’s tournaments.

In local high school volleyball action last week, Fayette County (4-16, 3-5 region) lost to Starr’s Mill (25-14, 25-10) but picked up a region win over Creekside (25-10, 25-13) before getting a non-region win over Ola on Thursday.

Landmark Christian and Whitewater participated in the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational at the Georgia International Horse Park on Saturday.

The Peachtree City Running Club announced that there are only two weeks left to register for the Classic Road Race. There are already over 1,500 runners and walkers registered. When the limits are met, no applications will be accepted, so if you want to run or walk the Classic, get your application in soon.

FCHS Touchdown Club golf tournament, Oct. 7
The Fayette County High School Touchdown Club will hold their annual golf tournament at the Rivers Edge Golf Course on Saturday, Oct.

Each week, a number of players who got their starts on the local football fields continue their careers representing their college and university. This is a review of how some of them performed this past weekend.

• Miles Head of Fayetteville, playing with the Georgia Roadrunners, was named to the 15U All American Team. In 2005,

Things didn’t go very well for the football teams from Fayette County last week and while East Coweta picked up a region win and Our Lady of Mercy snapped a 13 game losing streak, Northgate faced a non-region opponent and lost. Everybody is hoping for a good result tonight and some momentum heading into the final half of the season.

There are still four local teams ranked within the top 10 of their respective classifications in a GaSports.com poll and as the season nears an end, these teams are looking to gain some experience and momentum for post-season play.

The Annual Georgia BikeFest has partnered with the Newnan Coweta Habitat for Humanity for one day of their September 28 – Oct. 1 ride.

For the 13th year in a row the Georgia Team won the Gold Divison of the USTA Bullfrog Southern Team Championship Cup. Each of the nine states in the southern section sent a team to Chattanooga to compete. Each team had nine girls and nine boys, three from each age group. Each player played four singles matches and four doubles matches. The Georgia Team only lost nine matches the entire weekend, giving them the best finish for a team in the competition’s history.

Friday night was a good night for one local team - the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats - while it was a bad night for the rest of the local teams playing.

In the boys varsity, class A-AAA race of the Starr’s Mill-LaGrange Invitational, Landmark Christian placed first. Their top five runners were:

Oct. 3 marks the end of the regular season for most of the local softball teams and region tournaments are set to begin the week after. There are precious few games to move up in the region standings and if moving up isn’t possible, coaches at least want to see their team playing their best ball as they enter the post season.

Steve Brown’s Picks (26-7):

Fayette Co. (1-3) @ Northgate (1-2)
Most of us knew Fayette County was going to have a difficult time with Woodward last week. With the losing record there are now accusations flying around that potential Fayette County players are going to Starr’s Mill and Whitewater. These two teams pair-up well. I’m giving NORTHGATE the edge.

• Deante Battle, a Starr’s Mill graduate, had seven solo tackles, one tackle for a loss and one pass break up for Northwestern University in their 31-21 loss to Nevada.

Our Lady of Mercy wanted this one badly and they got it. The Bobcats scored the first two touchdowns of the game, had an extra point blocked and a two point conversion stopped to earn 12 points. They gave up a huge touchdown reception and a two point conversion right before the half and then stopped Towns County from adding anything else in the second half to secure the win.

No local game will be getting television coverage this week, but the matches are still very important for most teams and their region standings.