For both Northwest Whitfield and Sequoyah, tonight’s game at Bruin Stadium isn’t just another Region 7-4A meeting.
A lot more is at stake after both teams have surprisingly opened the season without a victory. Three weeks into the schedule, any dreams of making the playoffs could fly out the window with another loss this early.
Both programs have higher expectations than that, and both hope the wakeup call comes tonight.
“They are a team that could easily be 2-0 right now,” Northwest coach Mike Falleur said of the Chiefs. “They have lost two games late, and they are an 0-2 football team that is still very, very good.”
In other area games, Christian Heritage is at East Atlanta, Dalton is at Gilmer, Murray County hosts Heritage-Catoosa, North Murray welcomes Coosa and Southeast Whitfield travels to Allatoona. All of tonight’s kickoffs are at 7:30 p.m.
Sequoyah coach James Teter was equally complimentary of the Bruins, who have yet to score a point this season and have already given up six points on three safeties, something that has flabbergasted Falleur.
“I’m not going to take away anything from the two teams that we have played, especially Lambert,” Falleur said. “Lambert beat us, and we did some things that helped Creekview out. Either way, we are 0-2, but we absolutely killed ourselves against Creekview. We had every opportunity to win that game and killed ourselves. Jumping offsides, dropped passes, mistakes in the kicking game — just dumb mistakes.
“We are sitting here 0-2 and not feeling real good about where we are, but we’ve just come back out to keep working. You give credit to the other teams, but a lot of it is our help.”
If they need extra motivation, the Chiefs are also seeking revenge for last year’s 14-3 Bruin victory that seriously hampered Sequoyah’s playoff aspirations. But it’s also that familiarity with the Chiefs — Northwest had never played either Lambert or Creekview before — that Falleur hopes will focus his team.
“Our kids played hard on Friday, and I can’t question the effort that we have given all year. It isn’t a question of ability or effort,” he said. “If we can’t get ready for this game, we will be in trouble.”
Christian Heritage at East Atlanta
In four previous meetings with East Atlanta, which is made up of home-schooled players from Rockdale, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Newton and Walton counties, Christian Heritage has barely broken a sweat while dominating the Mustangs.
“They always seem to have two or three good players, but don’t always use them to the best of their abilities,” said Christian Heritage coach Mike Vaden, whose Lions open their Glory For Christ Football League schedule tonight at Earl O’Neal Sports Complex in Conyers. “We’ve been good athletically and we’ve come out ahead because our kids play better together as a team.”
Way ahead. The Lions, who defeated two former league foes to open the season — Crown Athletics, 21-14, and Dominion Christian, 30-8 — have outscored East Atlanta (1-1, 1-0) 164-12, with two shutouts in the series.
“I’d rate them in the top four of our league along with us, Georgia Force and the North Georgia Falcons,” Vaden said. “They’re playing at home and we have to prepare mentally and physically to take the challenge.”
A week ago, the Lions sputtered in the first quarter before unleashing a 21-point second quarter on the Knights, who scored the game’s first touchdown but never sniffed the end zone again over the final 2 1/2 quarters. Once the Lions get on track, they can be dominant on offense, where they’ve averaged 329 yards per game, with 241 of that on the ground.
Joe Blount, the Mustangs’ first-year coach who works at AT&T — all East Atlanta coaches are volunteers — watched last season’s game against Christian Heritage and recalls the Lions being a “well-coached team that executes very well.”
“About half our starters have never played before and don’t have a clue and never will,” Blount said. “That’s why I say I make my money with AT&T and lose my hair coaching.”
Dalton at Gilmer
New week, new test for the Dalton Catamounts.
As the Cats head to Ellijay for their first meeting with the Gilmer Bobcats in more than 50 years, coach Matt Land said his team must counter a different style of play for the third time in as many Fridays to start the season.
“Calhoun was skill- and speed-based. Murray County was based on discipline and being fundamentally sound,” Land said. “This team is kind of a mirror of us, because they do a lot of the things we like to do.
“They’re a wing-T based team and they’ll try to run the ball down your throat. Defensively, they play assignment football and everyone’s got a job to do. They will not blitz as much, unlike what we’ve seen the first two games.”
But the Bobcats will have their third new face this year at quarterback as they welcome the Cats, Gilmer coach Wesley Tankersley said. Projected starter Marlen Hensley suffered a broken collarbone a week before the season started and Ryan Lowery was moved back to receiver after a one-game experiment with him under center in the season opener.
Things went smoothly with junior Hunter Barnes in charge last week, though, as he rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another in a 35-0 win against Dawson County. Barnes was moved from linebacker to play quarterback, a position he hadn’t held in several years.
“If we can get him two or three games before we start sub-region play, we feel like it will be better for us running and throwing the ball,” Tankersley said.
Heritage at Murray
Heritage’s progress has become evident to those outside the program after the Generals opened this season with wins against North Murray and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe.
“When we started out we had seven or eight freshmen on each side of the ball,” Heritage coach Tim James said. “Now, we’re able to physically stand toe to toe with people.”
Murray County coach John Zeigler said he has seen improvement in the Generals, not only from season to season, but game to game.
“It looked like they improved a heck of a lot from the first week to the second week,” Zeigler said. “They beat North Murray, but when they played Lakeview, they seemed to execute even better.”
Even though the Indians have lost their first two games, James still sees potential threats from the Murray County offense.
“They scare me to death because they’ve got a lot of weapons,” he said. “Their quarterback (Taylor Patterson) has solid fundamentals. They have four good receivers and their tailback (Dustin Anderson) is pretty good. From an offensive standpoint, they have more weapons than anybody we’ve played.”
Murray County, which lost 55-0 to Dalton last week, gave up 230 yards to Catamounts running back Tre Beck.
“That kid’s a good runner,” Zeigler said. “But it was a combination of him being a good runner and us being poor tacklers.”
Stopping the run will be key this week, Zeigler said.
“They run an option offense with their combo veer/wing-T,” Zeigler said. “They have some dangerous players in the backfield. They definitely believe in what they’re doing.”
Coosa at North Murray
Coosa coach Chad Perry knows his Eagles have one thing in common with their hosts at Mountaineer Stadium — an 0-2 start — and he believes they might share something else, too.
“I guess the thing I was most impressed with on film,” Perry said, “is it seems like each week they got tougher and are making improvements and making less mistakes.”
Perry is optimistic that could be the case for his team, another Region 7-2A squad, after showing better effort and attitude during last week’s 34-19 loss to Gordon Central than during a 41-0 loss to Class 4A’s Starr’s Mill to open the season.
“We had to raise our level of competition, because I don’t feel like our boys gave themselves a chance against Starr’s Mill because of who we were playing,” Perry said. “We did make a step in the right direction as far as being competitive against Gordon Central.”
North Murray coach Larry Cornelius said the fact that his team has some players in new positions this season — and none who have ever had any legitimate varsity playing time before — adjusting throughout the game on Friday nights is something they’ve not yet mastered.
“They’re getting coached up and everything,” Cornelius said. “But if teams are coming out and giving us a different front or a shade, the kids aren’t used to that because of their lack of experience on varsity. So that’s going to give them problems.”
Rockmart’s speed presented an extra challenge last week, but Cornelius expects more of a power game from the Eagles. And he remains optimistic despite any early frustrations.
“We’re close, it’s just a matter of having it all on the same plays,” he said. “It seems like we’re one block away on offense and one gap not filled away on defense.”
Southeast at Allatoona
Even though this is Allatoona’s first year of region competition, the Buccaneers have already caught the attention of the rest of the state with a win over Class 5A Kennesaw Mountain and last week’s shocking 17-14 win over Ridgeland, a fellow Region 7-3A school.
That victory definitely got the attention of Southeast Whitfield coach David Crane.
“They are certainly not your typical third-year program,” Crane said. “They are a very well-coached team and they play very sound football. They haven’t had a turnover all year and are certainly capable of playing with anyone in this region.”
While the win over Kennesaw Mountain was big for Allatoona, Crane knew the win over Ridgeland would have a bigger impact on his players.
“That win over Kennesaw Mountain was a great win, but our players don’t know anything about Kennesaw Mountain,” Crane said. “Ridgeland, they know. That caught my kids’ attention and opened their eyes that they will be in a dogfight this week.”
The Buccaneers have been led by running back Miles Jones, who has 260 yards and three touchdowns on 58 carries.
But it has been the play of the defense that has shined the brightest for Allatoona. Twice it stopped Ridgeland drives inside the 10, and against Kennesaw Mountain the Buccaneers forced four turnovers.
Southeast won its season opener for the first time in a decade, then had to sit around with an open week. However, Crane said it gave his team a chance to enjoy the win before focusing this week on the Buccaneers.
“We gave them the Monday after Murray County off,” Crane said, “but they came back out here on Tuesday and got back to business.”
— Drew Brantley, Larry Fleming and Marty Kirkland contributed to this story.
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