A big week for Dalton

Georgia’s high school football season is about to shift gears.

The regular season ends this Friday night, and that’s the finish line for Murray County, which lost 56-0 to Sequoyah on Friday, and Southeast, which lost 17-14 to Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe last Thursday.

While neither the Indians nor Raiders are headed for the state playoffs when they begin on Nov. 13, Dalton, which beat Northwest Whitfield 35-11 last week for the Sub-region 7A-4A title, has already locked up a host’s berth in the first round of the state bracket and welcomes 7B-4A champ Hiram to Harmon Field this Friday to play for the region crown.

Also on Friday, Northwest hosts Paulding County in a region playoff game that will determine one of the two remaining berths for the Class 4A state playoffs. It’s win or stay home for the postseason the Bruins.

But before we take that next — and for some the final — step of 2009, here’s a look back at the best and worst of last week’s prep football slate.

Dalton

• THUMBS UP: The Catamounts have controlled the ball at will against most of their opponents this season, and that’s a major reason they’re in position to play for the Region 7-4A title this Friday. It was a huge factor in the win at Northwest.

Dalton’s first touchdown drive took more than 7 minutes off the clock, while its second melted away 3. Although the Cats won the first-half time of possession battle by just a sliver — Northwest made up a lot of ground with a 5-minute possession of its own in the second quarter — their edge was better than 5 minutes by the end of the game. Key to that was a possession of 6:32 to start the second half that yielded no points, but gave the Bruins even less time to try and formulate a comeback.

And Dalton isn’t just grinding it out, either, because the Cats showed big-play ability in striking quickly on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives that put the game out of reach. Shaquon Moore’s night of 141 rushing yards put him at 1,019 for the season, giving the Cats two backs at four figures — Tre Beck is the other — in a single season. That’s impressive and a tribute to the blocking across the board as much as the skills of those two as runners.

Dalton quarterback Stryker Brown, meanwhile, had a game that left no doubt he’s an equal player in the team’s three-pronged rushing attack with Moore and Beck. The senior had four touchdown runs, and while three were short plunges into the end zone, one was a nifty 10-yard scamper outside; he also had several carries that went for 5 or more yards — including a 37-yarder that set up a 45-yard touchdown run by Moore — as he finished with more than 100 yards on the ground.

While his touchdown run was key, Moore’s most impressive run might have been a 34-yarder in the first quarter, when he appeared to be corralled after about 6 yards, but broke loose for the big gain. Beck had a nice punt return to set up Dalton’s first possession of the night. Trae Washington got his first interception of the season. And though he was helped by a stiff wind at times, kicker Jose Garcia’s leg seems to be getting stronger as the season progresses. He had four kickoffs go for touchbacks and sent two others inside the 15-yard line.

The offensive success was set in motion by what Dalton coach Adam Winegarden called the Cats’ best defensive performance of the season. If the Cats can continue their progress on that side of the ball, they’ll be even more dangerous when the playoffs arrive.

• THUMBS DOWN: This was as good an all-around performance Dalton has given this season, so the obvious low points are hard to find.

They did give up a couple big plays on defense, though they regrouped quickly and had an offensive response that made those miscues easily forgotten. The bigger concern might have been untimely penalties, including two 15-yarders that hurt them in the field position battle in the third quarter, when their advantage of the scoreboard became dangerously vulnerable for a short stretch.

The other thumbs down isn’t exactly the Cats’ fault, but more something they’ll have to deal with. Win or lose, Northwest has a reputation for playing physical and leaving a mark beyond that night, and Dalton’s no exception in that regard. Several players were hobbling after the game and they’ll have to handle any significant injuries wisely to be ready for what lies ahead.

Dalton is obviously one of the best teams in the region, but they haven’t relied on as many players as some in the league to accomplish what they have this year. They’ve been so healthy, they haven’t had to worry about that. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, this probably isn’t the time the Cats would like to start testing their depth.

Murray County

• THUMBS UP: Closing out the regular season Friday at home on senior night against Allatoona, Murray can focus on a winnable game. A second victory would double last year's output.

Fortunately the Indians' disaster against the Chiefs counts as only one defeat. There are no style points.

• THUMBS DOWN: Murray has played poorly over the past two weeks. That followed their best game against 7A-4A contender Northwest Whitfield in a close 18-10 setback.

A meager eight total yards continued the trend of anemic offensive production all season. Meanwhile, the lethal Chiefs' offense produced 382 yards in the mercy-shortened clash.

Northwest Whitfield

• THUMBS UP: Very few teams have limited Dalton running back Tre Beck this season — he had already posted more than 1,000 yards through eight games — but the Bruins were able to hold him to less than 50 yards on more than a dozen carries. And they did it largely by making good reads and containing well on the toss sweep, an obvious response to 2008, when Beck ran wild with that play all night against Northwest.

The Bruins also showed an ability to stay focused despite falling behind quickly (Dalton led 14-0 before the midway point of the second quarter), putting together a 5-minute drive that resulted in a field goal at the end of the first half to make sure they didn’t go into the locker room with nothing on the scoreboard. Then, they made a push to rally in the third quarter through a combination of a good defensive stop in their own territory, help from a long penalty against Dalton and a 27-yard touchdown run by Lance Andrews, who finished with 95 yards on the ground.

The score was of two runs of more than 20 yards by the senior running back, who had a big hole cleared his line on that play and a good stalk block by Keon Thomas on another dash on the earlier field goal drive. They also had some rushing success with Jordan Darnell on jet sweeps, and the undersized senior showed good second effort on several runs.

The defense made a nice stand late in the third quarter with Dalton pinned inside its own 20, giving the offense great field position with some help from a couple Dalton mistakes (a bobbled snap and another Cats penalty, the reason they were so far back to start the drive) and the wind that made punting from that end of the field extremely difficult.

• THUMBS DOWN: To beat this year’s edition of the Dalton Catamounts, you need not only a good defensive response, but control of the football as often and as long as possible, and the Bruins simply didn’t do that well enough to take away the Cats’ opportunities — particularly in the first and fourth quarters.

Northwest had a great opportunity to change the complexion of the game late in the third quarter, but drew an untimely penalty and didn’t muster the response needed in that situation. Allowing Dalton to score touchdowns on its next two possessions — with just five plays — gave back anything the Bruins had taken in the momentum department.

The Bruins weren’t without good moments on both sides of the ball, despite the lopsided score. But they didn’t have nearly enough and spread them too far apart for it to make a big difference.

Southeast

• THUMBS UP: Southeast entered this season with a goal of playing more aggressively on defense, where scheme changes were intended to help make that possible. As the Raiders near the end of their year, they’ve proven capable of doing that without being overly vulnerable to getting beaten by the big play and Thursday’s game against Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe offered plenty of proof.

Yes, it was a big play that got LFO’s offense in the end zone — the Warriors’ other 10 points came on special teams — as quarterback Cody Commons scored on a 48-yard run. But LFO, which entered the game having scored at least 28 points in six games, was mostly frustrated in the hunt for touchdowns and had just five plays that covered 10 or more yards. The Raiders stopped them on fourth down on the Southeast 32-, 22- and 1-yard lines and forced them three-and-out three times.

The aggressiveness was timely, too, as freshman defensive lineman Melvin Araiza came up with yet another big play — he already had a long interception return to his credit this year — with his fumble recovery late in the fourth quarter that gave the Raiders a legitimate chance to win or tie the game. Defensive coordinator Chad Brewer and his staff did an excellent job in preparation for the Warriors, who found the running tough in the middle and, without Commons’ touchdown run factored in, averaged just 2.8 yards per carry.

Other bright spots: Mickey Guerrero’s hustle to get downfield on a first-quarter punt resulted in a fumble recovery that set up the Raiders’ first touchdown, Trey Parris found the first-down marker on a fake punt to continue a fourth-quarter possession that led to a go-ahead touchdown — and the whole Southeast offense deserves an Academy Award for selling their dejection when they walked off the field from the huddle where the decision was made to “punt.”

• THUMBS DOWN: Southeast’s offense struggled mightily on the ground, finishing with just 66 rushing yards, and had no room to run in between the tackles all night. Third-quarter possessions yielded two turnovers and two four-and-outs, squandering a key chance to whittle away some clock and stretch the lead.

Allowing Burns to return a kickoff for a touchdown following a go-ahead score with eight minutes to play gave the foothold the Raiders had gained right back to the Warriors.

Raiders coach David Crane didn’t say he regretted going for the end zone with 36 seconds to play and his team trailing by a field goal, but that he was mistaken in not calling a pass play that would have given big sophomore receiver David Rayborn — and no one else — a chance to get the ball. But it’s hard not to wonder if staying conservative all the way and setting up for two shots at the field goal would have been the right choice with overtime available.

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