By JOE LITSCH
Thomasville and Southeast Bulloch both ended the 1973 season where they started out — No. 1.
Both won state championships Saturday night, Thomasville in AAA and Southeast Bulloch in B. It was the second state title straight for Southeast, which now has a 26-game winning streak.
It was Thomasville’s second state trophy. The Bulldogs tied with Avondale in 1958 for the AA title.
The other two classifications, AA and A, were shuffled quite a bit as the result of three weeks of playoffs. Southwest DeKalb, the preseason pick to repeat as the AA champion was knocked off the first week, and Commerce survived until the final Class A game before falling to Mt. de Sales of Macon.
Another Southwest, the Atlanta variety, emerged as No. 1 in AA, after spending the season ranked behind Swainsboro and Southwest DeKalb.
After the regular season AA had five teams with perfect 10-0 records, and four of them were in the same half. North Springs knocked off Southwest DeKalb for the 4-AA title, then Swainsboro in turn knocked off North Springs.
Americus, winner of 1-AA, played an undefeated team each week in the playoffs and whipped the first two. Southwest-Atlanta got away, 21-7, in the finals.
Carrollton, the preseason choice to win A and thus add a third straight state championship, got as far as Commerce. It was here a year ago that the Trojans humiliated Commerce, 42-6.
Not this time.
Commerce soundly beat Carrollton and seemed on the brink of its first state title. Then, along came Mt. de Sales.
It was the third state title in four years for Mike Garvin and his Macon team. They won the Class C title in 1970 and 1971. Class C was then merged with Class B.
Behind Thomasville in AAA comes Wheeler, which came closer to Thomasville than any team had all season, 40-35, and in the No. 3 slot is Central-Macon, which bowed to Thomasville, 6-0.
Warner Robins, which lost in the first round, 14-13, to Central is fourth, followed by Columbus, a 10-8 loser to Warner Robins in regular season play.
Henderson, which lost out in the North Georgia finals, came in No. 6 with LaGrange, an 8-7 loser to Henderson in the first round No. 7.
Lakeside, which won the whole thing a year ago, but lost out in 8-AAA play to Henderson finished No. 8, perennial contender Valdosta, also an 8-0 loser to Thomasville, finished No. 9, and Tompkins, the surprise entry from Savannah and a 41-7 loser to Thomasville, ranked No. 10.
Southwest Atlanta heads AA followed by Americus, Swainsboro, North Springs, Southwest DeKalb, and Central-Thomasville, the preseason pick to win the AA title. Central lost out to Americus in 1-AA play.
Woodward, Druid Hills, East Rome and Peach County complete the AA top ten.
Commerce, ranked No. 1 since Carrollton lost to Roswell the second week of the season, dropped to No. 2 behind Mt. de Sales with Seminole County, Carrollton and Putnam County rounding out the top five.
Briarwood, North Georgia runnerup, finished sixth; Roswell, seventh; St. Pius X, eighth; Rockmart, ninth; and Cartersville, 10th.
Class B was changed less than any of the other three. Southeast Bulloch held onto its No. 1 spot with Duluth and Adairsville coming in second and third.
West Point and Patterson swapped places with Patterson coming in No. 4, and West Point dropping to No. 5. Bremen finished No. 6; Trion, No. 7; Savannah Country Day, No. 8; Union County, No. 9; and Brookstone of Columbus, No. 10.
