Friday Night Rewind: Winning hurts NW

Aside from getting a 31-11 victory over Heritage-Catoosa on Friday night, Northwest Whitfield coach Josh Robinson also liked how his team won despite injuries to its defense.

Robinson said his entire linebacker group — Tyler Clayton, Caleb Bowie and Jarrod Farmer — all came out of the game by the end of the second quarter. It was that kind of night for the Bruins, who also had a pair of safeties go against them.

In other prep action, Southeast Whitfield won for the first time this season after a 21-13 victory over LaFayette, Christian Heritage fell 20-7 to Gordon Lee, Gordon Central rolled over Coahulla Creek 46-0, Adairsville outlasted North Murray 70-55 and Dalton fell 48-21 to Ridgeland.

The linebackers weren’t the only injuries for the Northwest defense. They were joined by two-way player Andy Whisenant, who was injured in the first quarter on the Bruins’ first touchdown — a 7-yard pass from Silas Ledford to O’Shea Hill.

Whisenant had a “deep thigh bruise” from the play, Robinson said. Jamon Thorne came in for him at safety. Terel Russell also got some time in the secondary and made a second-half interception. Raekwon Watson, Blake Ownbey and Cyrus Addison were the substitutes at linebacker who played the entire second half.

“All our linebackers were out from the second quarter on,” he said. “We were playing four JV guys the whole game on defense. ... We have adversity in every single football game, and we had a lot tonight with our injuries.”

• CHRISTIAN HERITAGE: The Lions’ defense gave up 249 yards on the ground, something they can't do against Darlington this week and expect to come away with their fifth win. The running game was also fairly quiet, with top rusher Jake Stokes held to 49 yards on eight carries, with only one coming after the half, and fullback Austin Lowe gaining 65 yards on 14 carries.

Besides the two big plays resulting in scores against the Lions, Gordon Lee only called five pass plays for 42 yards. Harrison Kranzlein put the pressure on Trojans quarterback Garret McAllister, garnering two sacks.

Lions coach Preston Poag says his team still has a lot to work on, including staying away from costly turnovers moving forward.

“We just have to take care of our own business and get better,” Poag said. “Just work on stuff where...we keep making some of the same mistakes. We’ve got to coach them better to not make those mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Darlington’s a good team, they’re picked to win this region. This is our first year in it and we’ve got a lot to prove.”

• COAHULLA CREEK: One good thing the Colts can take away from the lopsided loss to Gordon Central was that the first-year school did a good job against the vaunted Warrior offense — for a quarter.

The two teams played to a scoreless tie going into the second quarter before Gordon Central exploded with 26 points in the second quarter on their way to the win.

Still, despite their second-straight loss, the Colts are in a three-way tie for fourth place in Region 5-3A, sitting at 1-2 in the region along with North Murray and Ringgold. Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe and Sonoraville are both winless in region play, but LFO has suffered its two losses at the hands of the the two teams with undefeated region marks — Cartersville and Gordon Central.

Coahulla Creek will play LFO on Oct. 12 after having a bye this week.

• DALTON: It’s difficult to win playing from behind. Playing from far behind is nigh on impossible.

Combine the last two games and Dalton has trailed at halftime, 62-7, including a 41-7 score in Friday's smack-down against potent Ridgeland. The Panthers scored 28 points in the second quarter alone and the Cats have failed to score that many points in three games this season, and matched it once.

Dalton hasn’t been able to slow down opposing offenses of late — foes are averaging 35.6 points — and opposing defenses have keyed in on running back Kelvis Rhodes, daring the Cats to win by throwing the football.

In his last four quarters, Rhodes has gained a mere 34 yards on 11 carries.

Ridgeland had four different plays — all touchdowns — longer than 34 yards.

• NORTH MURRAY: The Mountaineers’ shootout loss puts the team back in a crowded field in the Region 5-3A standings, but the team still controls its destiny as good as anyone else.

Gordon Central and Cartersville — who play Oct.19 after both teams get bye weeks — are at the top, undefeated after three region games. Only Adairsville is 2-1 and sits in third place.

The Mountaineers are 1-2 and are joined by Ringgold, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe and Coahulla Creek. Only Sonoraville is 0-3.

The region has four Class 3A state playoff berths, so the current four-way tie for fourth place could get interesting in the final five weeks. Fortunately for North Murray, it still plays all three teams it’s tied with. The Mountaineers are off this week before facing the Tigers Oct. 19 in Ringgold and LFO Oct. 26 in Chatsworth. A road trip to Varnell to take on the Colts Nov. 2 precedes the regular-season finale at home Nov. 9 against Gordon Central.

• SOUTHEAST WHITFIELD: Starting as a defensive end for the Raiders’ defense earlier this season, Jayro Perez was a thorn in the side of opposing offenses. Now that he has moved to linebacker, he is more like a barbed-wire fence strung across the field.

In two games behind the line of scrimmage, Perez has recorded 25 tackles. Against Heritage in the first win of the year for the Raiders and their first under new coach Sean Gray, Perez was seemingly in on every tackle. Also splitting time at fullback on the offensive side of the ball, Perez was certainly weary after Southeast’s win over the Generals, but he was happy.

“It feels great,” the senior said. “We came out fired up this week, and I just love the way both sides of the ball came together this week. We’ve worked hard all year, and coach Gray has told us how close we have been to putting it all together, and it feels great to finally do that.”

Perez and his defensive mates did a good job of containing LaFayette tailback Cody Dallas. Dallas had just 23 yards on 10 carries in the first half, and broke free just once — a 38-yard scoring run in the third quarter.

Sports

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

Friday Night Rewind: Winning hurts NW

Site Map

Contact Us