Area teams went 3-3 Friday night as the GHSA football playoffs began, with Region 7-A Division I rivals Trion and Dade County rolling to big wins and Dalton pulling off what most would consider an upset in Class AAAAA at Greater Atlanta Christian.
Ringgold and Gordon Lee were defeated on the road in Class AAA, while Christian Heritage lost at home in the Class A Division II first round.
Three area teams have first-round games Saturday: Heritage plays at Westminster and Northwest Whitfield travels to Stephenson in Class AAAA, while North Murray hosts South Atlanta in Class AA.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area prep football games)
Dade County 49, Mount Pisgah Christian 7: The Wolverines (6-5) earned their first playoff win since 2010 and only the third postseason victory in school history as they battled through some adversity in Trenton.
Despite sickness that hindered some players, Dade County used another big game from Landon Williams on the ground, an opportunistic passing game and a solid defensive performance against the pass-happy visitors to advance.
Williams had a pair of touchdown runs and Bryson Shrader had two touchdown passes to Demetrius Walker in the dominant win against the Patriots (4-7).
"We bullied them in the run game, but Bryson Shrader made some huge throws to Demetrius Walker, Caleb Massey and Braden Jones when we needed to get out from behind the sticks," Dade coach Jeff Poston said. "Defensively, Mount Pisgah only ran the ball twice. They tried to spread it all over the field, but our defense only had one breakdown and consistently got them off the field."
The Wolverines will play at Commerce (10-1), a 58-10 winner over Jasper County, in next week's second round.
Trion 49, St. Francis 0: The Bulldogs (11-0) ran out to a 35-0 lead after one quarter and never looked back in avenging last year's playoff loss to St. Francis (1-8).
Trion's starters played only in the first half, with quarterback Kade Smith going 7-for-8 passing for 150 yards and three touchdowns, two going to Ethan Willingham, who had three catches for 67 yards. Toby Maddux, GHSF Daily's state player of the week for his performance in the regular-season finale, added 182 yards and three touchdowns on 11 carries.
Trion will host Elbert County (9-2), a 34-27 winner over Oglethorpe County, in the Class A Division I second round.
Dalton 39, GAC 17: The Catamounts (8-3), the No. 3 seed from Region 7-AAAAA, overcame a rough start to win going away against the Spartans (9-2), the runners-up in Region 6.
After fumbling the opening kickoff and quickly going down 7-0, Dalton scored the next 24 points to take control in rolling up 480 total yards on the road. Ethan Long passed for 217 yards and three touchdowns, with Bubba Tanner getting seven catches and two touchdowns while also throwing for a score.
The ground game was also strong, with Adriel Hernandez rushing for 172 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries and Andy Atangana adding 63 yards and a score. The Catamounts have now won consecutive first-round playoff games for the first time since 2015-16.
"The offense picked up where we left off in the first half of the Cartersville game," coach Kit Carpenter said, referring to a 21-7 lead over the state's top-ranked Class AAAAA team two weeks ago in what turned into a 42-21 loss. "The offensive line continued to protect our quarterback and opened up some big holes."
Region 7 swept in the first round, with Cartersville, Hiram and Cass joining the Cats in advancing.
Dalton's second-round game is against Region 5 champ Creekside (10-1), a 63-6 winner over Flowery Branch on Friday.
Wesleyan 35, Ringgold 14: The host Wolves (8-3) ran out to a 28-7 halftime lead to end Ringgold's season at 6-5.
Lumpkin County 52, Gordon Lee 6: The 11-0 hosts had a running clock in the second half to eliminate the Trojans (6-5).
Macon County 30, Christian Heritage 7: The Lions saw their season end at 5-6 as Macon County (9-2) scored the game's final 23 points. Carter Triplett had a 3-yard run for Christian Heritage's touchdown.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.