The final day of the region 5-AAAA tournament was a good day for McIntosh and not so good for Fayette County’s boys and girls.

Sandy Creek’s football team advanced to the state quarterfinals for the first time in school history with a 17-14 win over the defending state champion Tucker Tigers. Click

Sandy Creek has moved on to the second round of the state playoffs with a 37-19 win over Loganville, while Starr’s Mill lost a heartbreaker to Apalachee, 27-24 in double overtime. In other games, Newnan beat Valdosta 28-9, Lowndes defeated East Coweta 52-14 and Commerce beat Landmark Christian 29-19.

Sandy Creek won their second straight region title with a 21-9 win over Banneker. Starr’s Mill will return to the state playoffs as the third seed from the region after a win over Villa Rica.

Marist may have knocked several Whitewater teams out of contention for state titles in the past (soccer, baseball, softball) but the Lady Wildcat volleyball team came out strong and outlasted Marist the in the second and third games in their best of five series to capture the AAAA state title on Saturday afternoon.

In the final week of the regular season, a week before teams from the two sub-regions meet, the games were not close. Whitewater beat McIntosh 45-10, Starr’s Mill shutout Fayette County 34-0 and Sandy Creek deafeated Northgate 37-3.

Sandy Creek got two touchdowns from Rajion Neal in their 31-13 win over Starr's Mil at Panther Stadium. Devon Hughes and Jarrett Davis each had touchdown catches for Sandy Creek and Zach Lopez added a field goal. Justin Smith and Zach Laskey both scored for the Panthers.

Patriots and Panthers win, Tigers lose

Sandy Creek continued their dominant play. The Patriots improved to 5-1 (2-0 region) with a 48-9 win over the McIntosh Chiefs (3-3, 0-2 region). Rajion Neal scored three first half touchdowns and didn’t play in the second half. More details on this game to come.

As sub-region play started for region 5-A AAAA, the county teams wanted to win and set the pace to make a run for a state playoff bid. The mission was accomplished for several teams.

The local teams of region 5-AAAA all had last week off. Good thing to because the region schedule starts this Friday and the games are huge.

Only one of the Fayette County schools eligible to improve to 2-0 this week accomplished their goal, while a few others put their first wins of the season on the board.

3:15
David Norman got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and Kevin Koziol drove in two more with a single, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Vikings.

The Our Lady of Mercy boys won their third straight state cross country title in Class A on Saturday, while the Our Lady of Mercy girls cross country team picked up their first.

Whitewater secured a playoff spot Friday night in a manhandling of the Mays Raiders 35-7.

The Wildcats controlled the ball in the driving rain, eating 10 minutes off the clock before scoring on their first drive. Josh Clemons punched his way in from the 1 to go up 7-0. But it wouldn't be until the second quarter when Whitewater began to pour it on.

The steady downpour of rain led to two early Villa Rica turnovers and that led to some early Patriot points as Sandy Creek improved to 10-0, won the region 5-AAAA title and nailed down a number one seed and home games for the first two rounds of the state playoffs.

Sandy Creek stayed perfect on the season with a hard-fought 7-0 win over Northgate last Friday. The Patriots’ lone touchdown came on a 35 yard run by Rajion Neal (16 carries, 73 yards) in the first half, but it was Sandy creek’s defense that imposed their will on the game and preserved the win. Sandy Creek outgained the Vikings 246 yards to 123. Northgate quarterback Jake Copeland was sacked twice - once by Matt Solomon and once by James Hervey, and picked off once by Isaiah Johnson. Russell Bonner also added three key pass breakups in the second half that kept Northgate from generating any momentum. Solomon finished the night with 12 total tackles, while Mike Spaulding added 11 and Avery Walls added nine.

Although Marist had bested Sandy Creek twice during the regular season, the Lady Patriots had the last laugh on Saturday in the Class AAAA state final at Marietta High School.

Sandy Creek - 7 Northgate - 0

Starr's Mill - 30 Fayette County - 6

East Coweta - 41 Riverdale - 34

Our Lady of Mercy - 6 Holy Innocents - 41

The Sandy Creek Lady Patriots varsity volleyball team has made the AAAA final.
Sandy Creek faced Whitewater’s Lady Wildcats in the state semi-final and their best 3 out of 5 match went the distance.

Our Lady of Mercy’s Bobcats opened up their game against Mt. Pisgah last Friday with a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, but turnovers (three in all) would doom the team to another region loss as Mt. Pisgah left Fairburn with a 44-14 win.

OLM’s boys placed third in the Class A-AA division of the Last Chance Invitational at Carrollton on Saturday.

The top five runners for the boys were:

Sandy Creek made the AAAA final four on Thursday and then waited all weekend to see who they would be seeing there. It turns out, they will meet some familiar faces in the state semifinals.

By Nick Bray
Special to The Citizen

The Viking football team has clinched at least a third place finish in side A of the Region 5. This means Northgate now has a legitimate chance at making the state playoffs.

By Jen Johnson
Special to The Citizen

Tension. Such a simple word could be used to describe the atmosphere as inter-county rivals, Fayette County High and Whitewater High, battled each other last Friday night

Sandy Creek has one more game before the region playoffs start and they remain unbeaten and ranked third in Class AAAA.

Sandy Creek 24,Starr's Mill 7

Whitewater 21, Fayette Co. 6

Northgate 35, McIntosh 14

Mt. Pisgah 44, Our L

Sandy Creek’s volleyball team has made the Class AAAA final four. The lady Patriots went 3-0 on the first day of the state tournament.

Whitewater’s softball team won their first two matches of the Elite Eight on Thursday. The Lady Wildcats beat Hardaway 2-0 and defeated Sandy Creek 8-0 to set up a game with Marist scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m.

On this week's episode of The Citizen Sports Blitz, Mike Boylan recaps the latest sports news, makes his picks for this Friday’s games and talk to Sandy Creek DE coach Howard Flanagan, Rio Johnson and Brandon Putnam and Our Lady of Mercy quarterback William Pearl.