Dublin and West Laurens opened region play with victories, while East Laurens and Trinity fell to longtime rivals on a 2-for-4 Friday night for Laurens County in week 6.
The Crusaders plated a season-high 10 runs in Thursday's eight-hit effort, but couldn't catch the Bucs after their early lead got away in the back-and-forth affair.
The Irish and Royals meet in one of Friday's multiple high-stakes region openers across the Heart of Georgia, and a handful of ranked-on-ranked games statewide.
The school is one of 64 statewide that are being honored for their emphasis on sportsmanship during the past school year.
The Vikings stayed perfect in one of Friday's lone defense-dominated games. Scoring went wild most everywhere else as multiple Heart of Georgia teams lit up the week 5 scoreboard.
Friday's non-region finale was the step forward the Raiders were looking for from their young team, but not quite the leap ahead they needed to come up with a second win against a fourth-straight ranked team.
The Falcons scored three touchdowns in the game's last 10 minutes, plus overtime, to pull off a galvanizing first victory in The Jungle.
All things considered, the Falcons performed quite well in a first-ever regular season game that, win or lose, was going to be a positive learning experience.
The Falcons came from behind to pull off a badly-needed confidence-booster, and the Raiders came up a bit short against a fourth-straight top 10 opponent in Laurens County's week 5 high school football action.
The Falcons and Raiders, both in need of a win, will have the Laurens County spotlight to themselves in non-region finales Friday, while Johnson and Wilcox counties and Treutlen and Montgomery County meet to renew longtime grudge matches in the area's other top games.
