LAGRANGE – It’ll be one vs. eight.

As has been the case throughout the season, the Cartersville Purple Hurricanes are ranked first in the Associated Press Class AAAA poll.

The team that’s ranked eighth, the Troup Tigers, will play Cartersville on Friday in a showdown for the Region 5-AAAA championship.

The Purple Hurricanes began the season as a unanimous number one pick, and nothing has changed in the nine games since.

Cartersville, which returned the bulk of the starters from last year’s team that went 15-0, is 9-0, and most of those wins have come in blowout fashion.

While Cartersville was number one from day one, Troup was nowhere near the rankings when the season began.

As the Tigers began to accumulate wins, though, they began receiving votes, and two weeks ago after a big home victory over Cedartown, they broke through and made their poll debut at the number nine position.

This week, Troup has moved up a spot to number eight after beating Central-Carroll 41-0.

Like Cartersville, Callaway has been a fixture in the rankings all season.

Callaway, which improved to 9-0 with last week’s Region 5-AA-clinching win over Spencer, is fourth in Class AA, a spot it has occupied for about a month now.

The three teams ahead of Callaway in Class AA, Benedictine (9-0), Fitzgerald (8-1) and Jefferson County (9-0), continue to win.

In the state’s largest classification, Class AAAAAAA, Mill Creek is ranked first, and Dalton is a few points ahead of Valdosta in the Class AAAAAA rankings.

It’s Stockbridge just ahead of Buford in Class AAAAA, Greater Atlanta Christian is first in Class AAA, and Eagle’s Landing Christian is tops in Class A.

Here are this week’s rankings:

CLASS AAAAAAA

1 – Mill Creek

2 – Roswell

3 – Grayson

4 – Norcross

5 – McEachern

6 – Colquitt County

7 – North Cobb

8 – Lowndes

9 – Mountain View

10 – West Forysth

CLASS AAAAAA

1 – Dalton

2 – Valdosta

3 – Tucker

4 – Glynn Academy

5 – Harrison

6 – Mays

7 – Northside-Warner Robins

8 – Northgate

9 – Alexander

10 – Lee County

CLASS AAAAA

1 – Stockbridge

2 – Buford

3 – Grady

4 – Carrollton

5 – Rome

6 – Kell

7 – Griffin

8 – Woodland-Stockbridge

9 – Arabia Mountain

10 – Ware County

CLASS AAAA

1 – Cartersville

2 – Thomson

3 – Woodward Academy

4 – Blessed Trinity

5 – Cairo

6 – Cairo

7 – Mary Persons

8 – Troup

9 – Ridgeland

10 – Burke County

CLASS AAA

1 – Greater Atlanta Christian

2 – Peach County

3 – Westminster

4 – Crisp County

5 – Liberty County

6 – Cedar Grove

7 – Calhoun

8 – Dawson County

9 – Lovett

10 – Jenkins-Savannah

CLASS AA

1 – Benedictine

2 – Fitzgerald

3 – Jefferson County

4 – Callaway

5 – Rabun County

6 – Pepperell

7 – Vidalia

8 – Screven County

9 – Washington County

10 – Dublin

10 – Elbert County

CLASS A

1 – Eagle’s Landing Christian

2 – Prince Avenue Christian

3 – Emanuel County Institute

4 – Clinch County

5 – Landmark Christian

6 – Fellowship Christian

7 – Calvary Day

8 – Manchester

9 – Wesleyan

10 – Macon County

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports