Giant wins, losses for area teams in Week 2 action

After being pegged as one of the contenders for the Region 7-4A title, the Northwest Bruins have been shut out in their first two games of the year in perhaps the most surprising start of the 2010 football season. For the second week in a row, the Bruins were unable to find the endzone, and perhaps even more strange is that the Bruins have been the victims of three safeties while not scoring their first touchdown.

Christian Heritage and Dalton were the area’s only winners on Friday night.

The Lions defeated Cobb County’s Dominion Christian 30-8, while the Catamounts rebounded from their season-opening loss to Calhoun with a 55-0 laugher over Murray County. North Murray fell to 0-2 as well with 43-3 loss to Rockmart. Northwest, meanwhile, fell 18-0 to Creekview down in Cherokee County. Southeast Whitfield was off.

Here are the ratings after Week 2.

Christian Heritage

• THUMBS UP: Necessary adjustments. Friday night Plan B’s don’t just happen. Offensive or defensive adjustments are born earlier in the week, perhaps even as far back as summer workouts.

Going into Friday’s game against visiting Dominion Christain, Lions coaches expected Dominion Christian to line up nine or 10 players within 5 yards of scrimmage and try to stop the Lions’ rushing attack. That’s exactly what the Knights did and they did it effectively, holding the Lions to 3 yards of offense in a scoreless first quarter.

Adjust. The Lions started to throw the ball. Daniel Pierce threw two touchdown passes to Mason Sikes in the second quarter and Christian Heritage built a 21-8 lead en route to a 30-8 victory. Pierce was highly effective, completing 6 of 9 passes for 87 yards. And the running game took off as well – 199 yards and a 4.0-yard average per carry.

With Dominion’s defense spread out more, the Lions got 166 of their rushing yards in the second half.

• THUMBS DOWN: Hey, wake up. Coach Mike Vaden wasn’t very happy about the Lions’ first-quarter performance – 3 yards of offense and three consecutive three-play series that ended in a blocked punt, a failed fake punt and a punt that gave Dominion possession near midfield.

Rest assured that aspect of the Lions’ effort in their second straight win to open the season will certainly be addressed at Monday’s 6 p.m. practice.

Dalton

• THUMBS UP: Pretty much everything. There isn’t a lot not to like after a 55-0 thrashing of your oldest rival.

The Catamount offense had its way all night, rolling up 414 yards of rushing offense, led by Tre Beck’s 230 yards on 19 carries with four touchdowns. The rest of the rushing attack was also very effective with Chris White and fullback Matt Cobb combining for 113 yards on 12 carries. Beck scored on runs of 21, 1, 14 and 48 yards.

That kind of production will carry the Dalton offense a long way in Region 7-3A. The Cats proved they could be methodical, rolling off long scoring drives, and proved they could be a quick-strike offense with several scoring drives that took seemingly no time at all. Dalton recorded 18 first downs and didn’t punt until the fourth quarter, which was a running clock.

On the defensive side of the ball, it’s all moonpies as Dalton recorded the shutout, holding Murray County to just over 100 yards rushing for the game. Murray County was able to move the ball effectively on the spread option with quarterback Taylor Patterson as the leading rusher for the Indians, but the Dalton defense was able to shut down the Indians when it mattered to preserve the shutout.

Another thumbs up goes to coach Matt Land, who recorded his first victory as a head coach.

• THUMBS DOWN: Penalties had to be the biggest concern for the Dalton coaches after seeing the Cats flagged seven times in the first half. Several long Beck runs were pulled back because of holding and illegal blocks. Whatever was said at the half was the right thing as the Cats had just one penalty in the second half.

Other than that, there were very few negatives. While Murray’s offense was able to gain yardage, the Cats stiffened when they had to, turning away fourth-down conversion attempts time after time. About the only other negative for Dalton was that an extra point was missed. However, after the season-opening loss to Calhoun, a big win was exactly what the Cats needed.

Murray County

• THUMBS UP: Taylor Patterson. Patterson lost his cool at the end of the season-opening loss to Southeast and was benched by the Murray County staff for the rest of the game. However, Patterson returned to the field against the Cats and showed the kind of play-making ability that had Murray fans excited before the beginning of the season.

In the first half, Patterson gouged Dalton’s defense with some great reads off of the spread option, rushing for 46 yards on six carries. He hurt the Cats even more through the air, hitting 7 of 14 passes for 93 yards in the first half. Those numbers dropped in the second half as Dalton adjusted and clamped down defensively.

Correcting mistakes was also a plus for the Indians despite the score. Against Southeast, Murray County had 10 penalties and four turnovers. Friday night, the Indians had cut that down to seven penalties and just one turnover on a fumble.

• THUMBS DOWN: No scoring and poor tackling. Daton’s Tre Beck is an all-state running back, but after Friday night he looked like he was ready for the SEC. That’s because he bounced off Murray tacklers all night long as the Indians repeatedly tackled him high and failed to wrap up.

The scoring problem was most confusing as the Indians moved the ball quite effectively in the first half, but could never punch through to the endzone when they got on Dalton’s half of the field.

North Murray

• THUMBS UP: Little things add up. Or, the Mountaineers certainly hope they will eventually.

There are obvious disadvantages for any first-year varsity program, especially one without a senior class, but North Murray coach Larry Cornelius said during the preseason he’s less concerned with adversity than how his players handle it. For the second week in a row, the Mountaineers’ effort was good all night, something perhaps best summed up by freshman receiver Nich Bartley laying out and taking a hit to catch a 24-yard pass from backup quarterback Trevor Brown as time expired in a fourth quarter where the outcome had long been all but decided.

Other little things: Izzy Hernandez, who supplied the team’s only points with a 35-yard field goal, has the potential to be an outstanding kicker; quarterback Brady Swilling made some good plays with his legs and arm, though he suffered from too many drops on the other end; and North Murray’s defense put some good pressure on Rockmart’s backfield a few times.

• THUMBS DOWN: It’s hard to rally without the ball. Rockmart’s time of possession in the quarter was a whopping 10:05.

North Murray’s defense needed to figure out a way to either stop the run up the middle — Rockmart’s weapon of choice in the period — force the Yellow Jackets or get some takeaways. Rockmart had three second-half fumbles, but lost none of them.

Again, little things are what the Mountaineers will have to take advantage of this year, and getting the ball back at every chance is one of them.

Northwest Whitfield

• THUMBS UP: Give me a “D!” The Northwest defense was strong all night. Wipe off a safety caused by a bad snap, a blocked punt for a touchdown and a late 65-yard scoring run against the second team Bruin defense, and the game is 3-0. The Creekview offense mustered 209 yards on the night. The Northwest defense was stout, holding the run-heavy Wing-T offense to several plays of zero or negative yards. The Bruin pass defense was equally strong, forcing Creekview into a mere 41 yards passing. Several Northwest defenders drew “oohs” from the crowd after delivering big hits at the line of scrimmage. But the defense can’t win games by itself. It needs help from the offense, which leads to …

• THUMBS DOWN: Slow down, you’re moving too much. Five yards here, five yards there, five yards over here. Total it up and the Bruin offense had 13 illegal motion penalties for 65 yards. Many of those penalties put the offense in first down and 15 holes. Head coach Mike Falleur wasn’t exactly sure what the problem was, since the team had not been so undisciplined through fall practice and its first game against Lambert. After the game, Falleur jokingly said the team should just work on one play in practice next week. The offense moved the ball well. The running game was especially strong with Alex Heard (11 carries, 103 yards) and Nathan Sis trunk (10 carries, 59 yards) leading the rushing attack. However, the twitches and jumps doomed the Northwest offense.

— Compiled by Larry Fleming, Jamie Jones, Marty Kirkland and Chris Whitfield.

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