In South Pittsburg, when you lose 18 of 22 starters, you don’t think about rebuilding its next man up. The 2023 Pirates won the TSSAA state championship but only returned four starters. They were on the road on Friday night against their region rival, Whitwell Tigers. Both teams entered the contest ranked in the top 10 in the state and unbeaten in Region 3-1A play.

South Pittsburg used their physical ground game and swarming defense to dominate the Tigers 49-7 to win the Region 3-1A football championship.

The Pirates (8-2, 5-0) will host Region 4’s Red Boiling Springs (2-8) next week in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs, while Whitwell (7-3, 4-1) will host Jo Byrns (3-7).

Sequatchie County won its first region championship in 8 years on Friday by defeating Giles County 30-10.

Sophomore Kason Hicks had a great night at linebacker, and he scored two touchdowns on offense.

Fourth-ranked Sequatchie County (9-1, 4-0) will host McMinn Central in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs next Friday.

On Thursday night, in pouring rain, the Marion County Warriors didn’t let that dampen their plans to dominate the Cascade Champions. For the Warriors, touchdown after touchdown was the order of the day as they eased their way to a 76-7 win and the Region 4-2A championship.

Marion County will host 2-8 Smith County on Friday.

On Thursday night, Bledsoe County 27 defeated Oneida 0. This Friday, the Warriors will play host to 6-4 Eagleton.

On Friday night, Grundy County shut out Pickett County 40-0. The 4-6 Yellow Jackets will travel to 8-2 Meigs Co. for the first round of the playoffs.

The North Jackson Chiefs will head to the Alabama playoffs after finishing the regular season 8-2. They knocked off Kate Duncan Smith DAR 41-21.