5 Takeaways from Week 3 of Georgia high school football

North Gwinnett shuts down Colquitt County; Marist impresses and more

Head coach Eric Godfree has the North Gwinnett football program off to a 3-0 start after a big win over Colquitt County on Friday. / North Gwinnett Athletics

Week 3 of the Georgia High School football season is in the books and boy were we treated to some big-time wins and some feel-good stories. 

Of the big-time wins that were scored on Friday night, arguably none was more impressive than what North Gwinnett did to Colquitt County on the road. And another team in the running for the most impressive win of the night was Marist, which beat Woodward Academy way worse than both Carrollton and Collins Hill did. 

Let's take a look at five thing we learned from Week 3 of the regular season below. 

North Gwinnett football is the real deal 

When Eric Godfree jumped at the opportunity to leave Parkview after the 2022 season, a team he had served as the head coach for nine years, it came as a surprise to many, but just two years into his tenure at North Gwinnett, his reason to leave has become quite apparent. 

After earning a quality win over McEachern in their season-opener inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Godfree and the Bulldogs traveled down south and handed Colquitt County its worst loss since 2016. 

The Bulldogs led 14-3 at the half and that was all the scoring they needed to win the game by that same score after pitching a shutout in the second half. 

Entering Week 3 of the regular season ranked 10th in the state, the Bulldogs have absolutely earned their Top 10 ranking and will now have a chance to further solidify it when they travel to face Mill Creek, another Top 10 team, next Friday night. 

Gainesville passes the eye test and then some 

All of our questions have been answered when it comes to the Gainesville Red Elephants in 2024. Under the direction of Josh Niblett, they don’t rebuild, they reload.  

The Red Elephants crushed Mareitta in their season-opener 41-3, and then found themselves matched up with Westlake in their second game of the season, a team that entered with relatively high expectations that were immediately dashed by a beatdown they took by Langston Hughes in Week 1. 

Gainesville entered Friday night’s matchup against Westlake as the favorites, and boy were they ever. Sophomore quarterback Kharim Hughley couldn’t be stopped on his way to tossing four touchdown passes. They went on to route the Lions 41-7 for another very impressive victory to start the season for the Red Elephants. 

Where did this Collins Hill team come from? 

You won’t find a soul outside of the Collins Hill locker room and home fan base that would have predicted a 3-0 start that included a win on the road against Grayson, and home wins against Woodward Academy and Cedar Grove.

But that’s exactly what the Eagles have done to start 2024. 

In just his second year as a head coach, Drew Swick is doing everything he can to prove that their 2020 and 2021 season’t weren’t just a blip on the radar. The Eagles went 12-3 in 2020 and lost in the Class 7A state championship game before following that up with a 15-0 record, and a Class 7A state championship in 2021.

The Eagles might not have the household names on offense that they had in 2020 and 2021, but the defense is more than making up for that. Led by four-star defensive lineman Deuce Geralds, they’ve held Grayson, Woodward Academy, and now Cedar Grove to just 46 points. 

Seckinger is getting its first taste of success 

When a new school starts playing football, the road is usually difficult for the first few years, especially in the state of Georgia. 

And that was true for Seckinger in its first two seasons. It went 0-7 in Year 1 and 3-7 in Year 2. But for a program that pulled kids from Gwinnett County powerhouses Mill Creek and Buford to build its team, it was only a matter of time before they found their stride. 

Heading into Year 3, the Jaguars have found that stride and then some. After beating West Hall 34-10 to open up the season, they scored their first signature win as a program, beating Class 7A’s Archer 34-27 on the road. 

And there was no letdown this week after the big win. Facing off against another Gwinnett County foe in Mountain View, the Jaguars looked terrific again and scored a 45-10 blowout to improve to 3-0 on the season. 

Marist might be the new favorite in Class 4A 

The War Eagles’ Week 1 win at home against Jefferson looked great. They won the game in dominant fashion 23-7, and that win has only looked better considering how good the Dragons have played in their two games that have followed. 

But that win wasn’t even close to being as impressive as what they did to the poor Woodward Academy War Eagles Friday night, a team that has been a punching bag to start the year. 

In an absolutely dominant effort from start to finish, Marist dismantled Woodward Academy 38-0 to improve to 2-0 on the season.  

Not only did we learn that you shouldn’t give Marist two weeks to prepare for a team or bad things will happen, but we also learned that they just might be the front-runners to win the Class 4A state championship. 

They lost in last year’s Class 6A semifinals to the eventual state champs, Thomas County Central 13-7. Playing down a classification this year, any team that faces off against the War Eagles is going to have an extremely tough time trying to slow them down.