We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
Athens Is Rolling: Clarke Central Rides Six Straight Wins Into the Season’s Final Stretch
The hottest team in Athens is not playing on Saturdays. It is the Clarke Central girls flag football team, and the Gladiators are peaking at exactly the right time.
Clarke Central has won six straight games to improve to 11-2, according to MaxPreps, and the Gladiators’ latest outing was a statement. On Oct. 26, they blanked Jackson County 33-0 and beat Mountain View 26-6 in a region doubleheader, running their October surge through another pair of opponents.
The streak started building earlier this month. The Gladiators shut out M.L. King 13-0 and Elbert County 33-0 on Oct. 15, then went on the road Oct. 19 and beat Loganville 12-7 and Apalachee 27-6. Add in a 13-7 win over Valdosta and a 33-0 rout of Brookwood from earlier in the season, and a pattern emerges: this defense does not break, and this team does not beat itself.
Clarke Central’s only losses came against Greenbrier, 12-0 on Sept. 23, and against Grayson, 32-8 on Oct. 8 — two of the strongest programs in the state. Since the Grayson loss, nobody has slowed the Gladiators down.
The closing stretch is busy. Clarke Central hosts Madison County and Cedar Shoals on Nov. 2, travels to Evans on Nov. 7, and finishes with Walnut Grove, Habersham Central, Monroe Area and Oconee County before the GHSA state tournament opens Nov. 18.
Championship runs are built in October, and the Gladiators have spent the month stacking shutouts and road wins. Athens has a contender — and the rest of the bracket has been put on notice.
The Skipps Twins Deliver Alaska’s Title, and Dimond’s Run Ends One Game Short
Marana Makes Its Statement: A 17-0 Shutout of No. 2 Salpointe Catholic
Four Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the Chase
Vestavia Hills Takes a 15-4 Record and a First-Round Bye Into the AHSAA 6A Playoffs
GameDay in Bloomington: No. 4 Indiana Hosts a Minnesota Team Built to Frustrate
No. 2 Ohio State Heads to the Coliseum Without Its Quarterback as USC Plays Spoiler
Trap Game in Chapel Hill: No. 1 Miami Visits a North Carolina Team That Owns This Series
Eastmark’s Star Trio Is Chasing the 4A Title That Got Away
We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
The Skipps Twins Deliver Alaska’s Title, and Dimond’s Run Ends One Game Short
Alaska’s girls flag football championship ran through a pair of twin sisters.
Taimane and Jade Skipps combined to score all four of North Pole’s touchdowns as the Patriots beat Colony 27-21 on Oct. 10 at Wasilla High School to win the ASAA First National Bowl state championship. Both twins were named to the all-tournament team. North Pole finished 19-2 and claimed its second state title in three years, having won Alaska’s inaugural tournament in 2024.
The Patriots’ semifinal was the weekend’s most lopsided statement: a 32-0 shutout of Anchorage power Dimond. Colony reached the final by upsetting defending champion South Anchorage 13-0 in the other semifinal, after opening its tournament with a 53-6 rout of Service.
Dimond, pictured above in its Sept. 29 meeting with South, had authored its own memorable fall — a 46-6 rout of Wasilla and a 6-0 overtime win over South among the highlights the Lynx posted this season. The semifinal shutout ended the run one game short of the final, but Dimond remains one of the programs setting the standard in the Cook Inlet Conference, where Anchorage’s schools have driven the sport’s growth.
That growth is the bigger Alaska story. A state tournament that did not exist three years ago now produces a final four of North Pole, Colony, Dimond and South Anchorage — programs from the Fairbanks area, the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage trading shutouts and one-score games in October weather that would cancel games almost anywhere else.
North Pole owns the trophy again, and the Skipps twins own the story. But the field chasing them is getting deeper every year, and Dimond’s fall is proof the Patriots will not hold the top spot unchallenged for long.
Marana Makes Its Statement: A 17-0 Shutout of No. 2 Salpointe CatholicFour Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the ChaseVestavia Hills Takes a 15-4 Record and a First-Round Bye Into the AHSAA 6A PlayoffsEastmark’s Star Trio Is Chasing the 4A Title That Got AwayGameDay in Bloomington: No. 4 Indiana Hosts a Minnesota Team Built to FrustrateNo. 2 Ohio State Heads to the Coliseum Without Its Quarterback as USC Plays SpoilerTrap Game in Chapel Hill: No. 1 Miami Visits a North Carolina Team That Owns This Series
Cocktail Party Moves Indoors: No. 3 Georgia, No. 17 Florida Meet in Atlanta With SEC Stakes-
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