Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Local teams finish 3-1

Week 3 saw Dalton shutout Murray County, 48-0, at Harmon Field, Northwest Whitfield handle Woodland, 21-7, in Tunnel Hill and Southeast hold on against Heritage, 29-21, at Raider Stadium. It was the beginning of sub-region play for the three local teams.

Dalton

• THUMBS UP: Getting the shutout. The Catamounts forced five turnovers and held the Indians out of the red zone the entire game. Mitch Townsend led the way with two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception.

In the running game, Tre Beck rushed for a career high 243 yards for a touchdown. On several plays, Beck was creating space in the open field with good footwork, shifty moves and the ability to break tackles.

• THUMBS DOWN: Penalties. After the game, Dalton coach Adam Winegarden said he was more than disappointed at the Cats for racking up penalties. In all, Dalton was flagged nine times for a season-high 85 yards.

Penalties also cost the team three touchdowns, including a 51-yard punt return from Beck and a 40-yard interception return by Toombs Norman.

Murray County

• THUMBS UP: Tenacious “D” on Dalton’s first possession. On the Cats’ fourth play from scrimmage, Tyler Tims broke into Dalton’s backfield and sacked Stryker Brown for a 9-yard loss. On the very next play, the Indians again pressured Brown and forced him to throw a pass into heavy coverage, which Luke Mealer intercepted and returned to Dalton’s 35.

• THUMBS DOWN: To the coaching staff’s decision to go for a first down on fourth-and-5 at the Dalton 30. Just three plays removed from Mealer’s interception, the Indians had a chance to not only avoid a shutout, but take a 3-0 lead in the game. Indians kicker Rey Hernandez has proven he has the leg to boot what would have been a 47-yard field goal — he made a 45-yarder against East Hall in the season opener.

Instead, the Indians ran up the middle for a 2-yard gain and turned the ball over on downs, killing any momentum Murray County had created. Dalton took over possession and four plays later and just over a minute later, found the end zone.

Northwest Whitfield

• THUMBS UP: For getting backs to basics — running the ball well and playing smart, hard-hitting defense — the Bruins were rewarded by getting back to winning as sub-region play cranked up.

Three different players had at least nine carries and 65 yards toward a not-too-shabby total of 297 on the ground against Woodland-Bartow, and they were vaulted on several plays by a good push at the line. That group played well despite missing some starters due to illness and facing a Woodland defense that likes to keep offenses on their toes by stunting.

Senior end Nermin Delic does a lot of little things that don’t necessarily show up in the stats for the Bruins and he was part of the crew that cleared room for Lance Andrews, Jordan Darnell and Chad Keeter when Northwest loaded up its line to one side. On defense, he also gave the Wildcats’ quarterbacks trouble by stretching his 6-foot-4 frame in their path several times — and that was just part of a nice overall defensive effort as the Bruins avoided being misdirected against a crafty offense, recovered three fumbles and swarmed ball carriers all night to flirt with a shutout.

Northwest coaches made a couple bold play calls that stood out as well. Although the first didn’t work so well when Darnell’s halfback pass was intercepted on the night’s first play from scrimmage, it was a good time to be gutsy. The timing was also perfect when defensive back Luke Woodason sacked Woodland’s Tucker Weathers on a blindside blitz to force the Wildcats into third-and-20 as they tried to put together a comeback late in the game.

• THUMBS DOWN: Winning covers over a lot of mistakes at first glance, but there are things the Bruins will continue to work on as they prepare for this week’s sub-region matchup against visiting Murray County.

The most glaring shortcoming on Friday was a long drive in the second quarter that came away without any points because of penalties and an inability to make something happen in the passing game. Another five-minute drive in the third quarter ended at Woodland’s 34. While the game offered plenty of proof that ball control is no doubt a valid strategy for the Bruins going forward, they can’t come away from good scoring opportunities without points too many times before it shows up in a bigger way.

The Bruins were also called for a costly roughing the punter penalty early in the second half. Woodland’s offense looked uninspired after taking the third quarter kickoff and would have gone three-and-out then if not for the flag — instead, they held the ball for almost six minutes before being shut down at the Northwest 13 when Jay Motley recovered a fumble he forced via sack.

Southeast

• THUMBS UP: Winning the Region 6-AAA subregion opener sent the Southeast grads home happy from homecoming.

Coach David Crane was particularly pleased with te way that his Raiders "finished" the game. They staved off a second half rally from the Generals to win.

Running back Coty Burch paced perhaps Southeast's best infantry production of the seson with 169 yards on 19 carries. That included a 77-yard scoring dash by the sophomore.

The Raiders complemented the ground game with their customarily potent passing attack as Tanner McCutchen threw two touchdown passes while completing 16-of-32 passes for 168 yards. Jeremy Bishop, the area's top receiver, caught nine for 93 yards.

On defense, Kevin Southerland and Trey Parris had interceptions.

• THUMBS DOWN: Letting a 26-0 lead dwindle to 26-21 again showed "lack of a killer instinct." A 21-0 advantage evaporated into a loss the week prior against Sonoraville.

Southeast must protect the ball better. Two lost fumbles and two interceptions helped Heritage, a second-year program, almost pull off the upset.

Sports

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

Site Map

Contact Us