Griffin High Telly Sloan (14) and Nhigel Phillips (75) turn back Spalding High running back Brandon “Cornbread” Thomas (14) during a game on Nov. 2 at Memorial Stadium.
As the calendar turned from October to November, area prep football took center stage.
On Nov. 2, the Griffin High and Spalding High football teams met in a crosstown rival grudge match. Griffin’s dominance in the series continued with a 42-0 victory. It was Griffin’s fifth victory in a row in a series it leads 6-3 and has outscored Spalding by a combined margin of 85-0 the last three years and 189-23 since the series resumed in 2008 after a 56-year hiatus.
The day before, the Spalding High track boys and girls track team each qualified for state with second-place finishes in the region meet hosted by SHS.
On Nov. 8, the Spalding High football team closed out a 2-7-1 season by racing out to a 42-0 halftime lead on the way to a 42-22 victory over winless Forest Park at Tara Stadium Jonesboro.
On Nov. 9, Griffin High opened the playoffs by hosting and defeating Eagle’s Landing 49-6 in a Region 4-AAAA play-in game to extend their school-record streak of consecutive state playoff appearances to 12.
On Nov. 14, the Griffin Christian basketball teams opened the season by sweeping The Weber School — the Lady Crusaders winning 48-26 and the 2012-state finalist Crusaders winning 57-43 behind a 30-point night by Jonathan Hammond. The same day, Spalding High golf standout Carson Willis signed a National Letter of Intent to play next season at NCAA Div. II Wingate University in Wingate, N.C.
On Nov. 16, No. 5-state ranked Griffin was upset 33-17 by visiting and unranked Monroe in the opening round of the state Class AAAA state football playoffs. The loss ended Griffin’s school-record streak of first-round state playoff victories at four as Griffin ended its season with a 9-2 record.
On Nov. 17, the Spalding High girls basketball team got the coach Chad Hubbard era off to a good start with a 58-24 win over Coretta Scott King High School.
On Nov. 18, the local Marine Corps League detachment played taps and provided a 21-gun salute during the halftime of the Atlanta Falcons-Arizona Cardinals game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
On Nov. 19 and 20, the Griffin High boys basketball team defeated Lowndes 74-58 and Valdosta 71-67, respectively, to open the season by winning the Charles Cooper Memorial Thanksgiving Tournament in Valdosta.
On Nov. 24, the Spalding High boys basketball team used balance scoring and to give first-year head coach Kemo Spear his first victory 58-24 in a game played at Jackson. The Lady Jags won the early game 59-39.
On Nov. 27, the Spalding High girls basketball team won its third straight, topping Locust Grove 53-35. In the late game, the Spalding boys won 69-28 over winless Locust Grove.
The same night, the Griffin High boys basketball team won its home opener 50-22 against Woodland-Stockbidge to jump out to a 3-0 start — their best start since the 2004-05 season.
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