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Football: What we learned from Week 10
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Photo by Lily McGregor Photography for the Forsyth County News

There are enough outcomes to make anyone's head spin. 

Denmark, South Forsyth, West Forsyth and Lambert have each locked up a playoff spot, but the order in which they will finish is still anybody's guess. Here's what we learned from Week 10.

How Denmark wins the region championship

For Denmark, it's very simple. Just win.

If the Danes beat West Forsyth on Friday, they will finish 5-1 in Region 6-7A play and head into the Class 7A playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

Denmark had a chance to clinch last week but was stunned by a scrappy Gainesville team that saved its best performance for when they needed it most, piling up more than 400 total yards against one of the top defenses in Class 7A.

If Denmark loses to West Forsyth, Forsyth Central would have to beat South Forsyth for the Danes to still win the region championship.

Current Region 6-7A Standings:

^Denmark 4-1

^South Forsyth 4-1

^West Forsyth 3-2

^Lambert 3-3

Gainesville 2-3

North Forsyth 2-3

Forsyth Central 0-5

^Clinched playoff berth

How South Forsyth wins the region championship

Just win, then root for West.

At 4-1 in Region 6-7A play, South is eyeing its first region championship since 2017. For that to happen, South would need to beat Forsyth Central and receive some help from their rivals across Ga. 400, West Forsyth.

Barring a three-way tie between Denmark, South and West, the lowest the War Eagles can finish is No. 2, meaning South will likely host a first-round playoff game. 

Central might be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but the Bulldogs can still play spoiler. Central and South split the past two meetings, with Central winning 26-21 in 2018 and South winning 21-14 in 2019 — the two teams did not play in 2020. 

How West Forsyth wins the region championship

If West beats Denmark and Central beats South, that will set up a three-way tie for first place.

In that case, the tiebreaker would be point differential in Region 6-7A play. South holds the edge at plus-37, while West follows with plus-30 and Denmark is plus-15. Point differential is capped at 13 points, which means, statistically, the most ground any team could make up is 26 points.

So, if West does beat Denmark and Central does beat South, the Wolverines would also have some ground to cover in point differential.

If any teams remain tied after the point differential tiebreaker, the second tiebreaker would be points given up among tied teams amongst each other. After that, it comes down to a coin flip.

What happens after that

How about another three-way tie? 

If Denmark beats West and North beats Gainesville, that would trigger a three-way tie leaving one team out of the playoffs. 

In that case, Lambert, North and West would each be 3-3 in Region 6-7A play. 

At plus-30, West is guaranteed a playoff spot — the point differential is simply too great for any team to make up — leaving either Lambert or North as the potential No. 4 seed. Lambert closed its regular season last week and finishes with a plus-6 point differential in region play. North is minus-13, which means even in the event of a North win over Gainesville, the Raiders will be at least eight points shy of a playoff berth.

Gainesville is in a similar situation; if the Red Elephants beat North by 13 or more points, they would be three points shy of a playoff berth, though West and Lambert hold tiebreakers over Gainesville.