HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK: Albany-area teams knocked out of GISA football playoffs

Friday night was not kind to area GISA teams, as all of them exited the playoffs with quarterfinal losses.

Deerfield-Windsor saw its season end at Gatewood for the second year in a row in the Class 3A playoffs. The Knights (7-5) fell to the unbeaten Gators 31-7.

Also in Class 3A, Southland lost for just the second time this season, finishing with a 10-2 record following a 35-0 loss at Trinity Christian-Sharpsburg. Trinity Christian dominated the yardage battle, racking up 387 yards of total offense to Southland’s 128.

This Friday’s Class 3A semifinals: Trinity Christian at Gatewood and Valwood (a 42-7 winner over John Milledge) at Frederica.

Southwest Georgia’s remaining Class 2A teams also fell Friday. Terrell Academy lost 63-35 at Briarwood, while Brentwood defeated Southwest Georgia 14-6.

Briarwood hosts Memorial Day and Robert Toombs hosts Brentwood in the Class 2A semifinals.

No luck for Westover

Westover’s longshot bid at a GHSA Class 4A playoff berth ended Friday with a 28-14 home loss to Northside-Columbus.

The Patriots (4-6, 2-5 Region 1-4A) needed to beat Northside and have three other results go their way in order to qualify for the postseason. Only one of those three results went Westover’s direction, so the Patriots still would have missed, even with a victory over Northside.

Carver-Columbus and Hardaway finished tied for fourth in Region 1-4A, with Carver advancing based on its Oct. 27 win over Hardaway.

Hitting the road

Monroe had a shot at giving the Dougherty County School District its first home playoff game in four years, but a 36-23 loss Friday at Cook puts the Tornadoes on the road.

Both Monroe and Dougherty qualified for the playoffs out of GHSA Region 1-3A. Monroe will travel to Pierce County, while Dougherty will go to Region 2-3A champion Liberty County.

GHSA cross country

The GHSA conducted its cross country championships Friday and Saturday in Carrollton, with Furlow Charter’s Maya Wynn finishing third in Class 1A-public with a time of 22 minutes, 24.17 seconds.

Baconton Charter’s Tabitha Boyer finished 36th in the same race, completing the 5,000-meter course in 26:40.05. Teammate Holland Lee came in 46th in 27:29.41, with their team finishing ninth.

Also among the top 50 individuals and top 20 teams in their respective classifications:

Class 1A-public: Baconton Charter’s boys took third, with two runners in the top 15. Jaquez Jones finished 11th in 19:24.60, while Mason Watson came in 13th in 19:52.96. Terrell County’s Trimyrn Williams was 17th in 20:01.84, with teammate Lavonte Johnson 20th in 20:08.69 as part of the team’s ninth-place performance. Three other Baconton Charter runners finished in the top 50: Gregory Manning in 27th (20:33.56), Ashton Donahue in 36th (21:04.78) and Blake Carter in 49th (21:44.54).

Class 3A: Dougherty’s boys finished 20th, with Daniel Stewart Jr. coming in 31st in 18:22.65. Worth County’s girls finished 20th.

Class 4A: Westover’s Henry Plowden came in 49th among the boys, finishing in 18:27.72. Westover’s girls finished 19th.

Class 6A: Lee County’s girls finished 19th.