By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

Through five weeks of the football season, teams have gone a long way toward establishing their identities on both the offensive and the defensive side of the ball. While there is much, much more that goes into judging the efficiency and validity of a team than just how many points they are scoring or giving up, overall points per game and points given up per game is one of the benchmarks used to evaluate teams’ performances. There are two Shelby County schools among the state leaders in points per game at this point in the season, and a number of county schools rank toward the top of their individual classifications as well.

Chelsea is 26^th overall in the state through the first five weeks in points scored per game with 42.2, while Montevallo is 45^th overall in the state with 38.3 points per game. The Hornets are also second overall in the 6A class in that category, trailing only Minor, who has scored 52.2 points per game through five games. Montevallo is also eighth overall in the 3A class in points per game, and one of the teams ahead of the Bulldogs in that category is region opponent Oakman, which has scored 46.3 points per game to this point in the year.

Shelby County is scoring 33 points per game through four games this season, which is good enough for 13^th in the 5A class to this point in the year. The Wildcats started out hot at 2-0 but have lost two in a row and currently boast a 1-2 region record. With a non-region game this week against Springville, the Wildcats will return to region play next week at Fairfield. Calera, averaging 31.4 points per game, is 16^th in the 5A class in the category as well.

Briarwood is giving up 15.8 points per game to this point in the season, which gives the Lions the best scoring defense in the county among AHSAA teams and the second-best in the county behind Evangel (11.5 points per game). That mark is also the 15^th-best in the 5A class.

Helena is giving up 17 points per game at this point in the season, which is the 15^th-best mark in the 6A class and the fourth-best mark in the county.

After back-to-back weeks of scoring at least 30 points, Oak Mountain is now averaging 25.8 points per game and has won two games in a row to move to 2-3 (2-1). That 25.8 mark is the 13^th-best mark in the 7A class.

Thompson is giving up 16.8 points per game, which is the seventh-best mark in the 7A class, while Spain Park is giving up 19.6 points per game, good enough for 12^th-best in the class. Both Spain Park and Thompson are riding two-game losing streaks and are both 1-2 in 7A Region 3.