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Six things I’m taking away from Week 10’s results:
Mother Nature’s still unbeaten: Weather was the big story on Friday, as storms rolled through the area, causing many games to be delayed or halted in progress, and some abandoned altogether. A handful were moved to Saturday, while others were cancelled outright. You hate it for the seniors involved in some of those cancellations, especially if it might be the last time they play on their home fields. Weather-wise, 2020 hasn’t been awful since Week 2. But the law of averages caught up in Week 10.
Week 11 shapes up to be a wild one: Several winner-take-all games are in the offering for the final week of the regular season, with unbeaten Creek Wood visiting Springfield for the Region 5-4A title being among them. Some others include Hendersonville at Mt. Juliet, Gordonsville at Monterey, Pearl-Cohn at Giles County, Fairview at Stewart County, Oakland at Warren County, are also region title deciders as well. On the other end of the playoff spectrum, a couple of elimination games between area teams — Rossview at Lebanon and Greenbrier at White House — promise to provide plenty of drama in the final Friday of October.
BlueCross Bowl preview?: The first BlueCross Bowl championship game this year will decide the Division II-Class AA title, since the order is swapped this season. If the first meeting between Lipscomb Academy and CPA was any indication, the championship weekend could get off to a fun start if these two get to Cookeville. The Mustangs held on in the fourth for a 20-14 win and the Lions had some uncharacteristic mistakes in the loss, but they’re assured to be on opposite sides of the playoff bracket and it’ll make a rematch at Tennessee Tech possible.
Hold the celebration: Brentwood’s game with Independence was moved from Friday to Saturday with the storms rolling through. Any celebration of a region title for the Bruins was delayed even further when the Eagles left with a 26-20 victory to take first place in Region 6-6A. Now, Independence only needs to defeat Ravenwood to take the region title for their own, while Brentwood would win it if the Raptors prevail. Cane Ridge will visit that region winner in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs.
Change of fortunes: Rossview would have put itself in a great spot to win the Region 4-6A title with a win at Hendersonville on Friday. However, the Hawks were doubled up in their road loss to the Commandos, sending them to fight for their playoff lives next week at Lebanon in an elimination game. Now, it’s Hendersonville and Mt. Juliet (again!) for the region title in Week 11, and the Golden Bears remember last season’s 41-14 loss at Hendersonville. This series has a way of producing some high-scoring games, and don’t be surprised if another shootout happens this time around.
Streakbusters: Week 10 was kind to a couple of programs who have fallen on hard times as both Antioch and Red Boiling Springs got into the win column for the first time in a while. For the Bears, it had been 33 games — the state’s longest active streak entering the game — since they opened the 2017 season with a win over Station Camp. In the Bulldogs’ case, they defeated Pickett County for the second straight season, ending an eight-game skid, but you have to go back 26 games to find a win over anyone else on the field (RBS had a forfeit win over Cannon County in 2018). Red Boiling Springs defeated RePublic — which shut down its football program prior to the beginning of this season — in 2017. Hamilton has the longest active streak now at 30 games, but they — along with the rest of Memphis public schools — aren’t playing this season. Cumberland County has the next longest active streak at 25 games, while Station Camp has the next longest, at 23.
