CHATSWORTH — Coming off of last week’s loss to Calhoun in the season opener, the Dalton Catamounts wanted to deliver a message to the rest of Region 7-3A.
Don’t count the Cats out yet.
Junior running back Tre Beck sliced and diced his way to 230 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries, and the Dalton defense earned its Monday Moonpies with a resounding 55-0 victory over the Indians at Murray Field.
“Tonight was not about Murray County,” Dalton coach Matt Land said after recording his first win as a head coach. “This was about and for us. We had some personal benchmarks and some things that we needed to know about ourselves.”
The Catamounts realized that they can run the football, especially after being held to less than 160 yards of offense in their loss to Calhoun last week. Against Murray County, Dalton rolled up 414 yards of rushing offense and finished with 471 yards of total offense.
“We came out here tonight to let everyone know what this team is about,” Beck said. “I think that we will be fine. Our offensive line did well, and we should be pretty good this year.”
Dalton improves to 1-1 on the year with the win, while Murray County falls to 0-2. While the two teams are both members of Region 7-3A, they are in different sub-regions.
The game was told by the numbers. While Murray County was at times able to move the ball effectively between the 20s behind the passing and spread option attack steered by Indians quarterback Taylor Patterson, the Cat defense clamped down when they had to. Dalton turned away four fourth-down attempts in their own territory as Murray failed to get the break through play it needed, especially in the first half.
The Cats, however, were able to score almost at will and in infinite varieties. Dalton scored fast, scored on long, sustained drives and pretty much had its way against a Murray County defense that looked just a step slow most of the night. Dalton wasted little time, scoring on its first possession and went to score on seven out its next eight possessions. The only thing that stopped the Cats was halftime.
Beck scored on a 21-yard run with 8:40 left in the first half, and he was off to the races for the rest of the night. His other scoring runs came on a 1-yard plunge, a 14-yard burst and a 48-yard run that didn’t see an Indian within arms length the entire way. Dalton also proved it could pound the ball in addition to scoring in bursts. A 14-play, 75-yard drive that straddled the end of the first and beginning of the second quarters was followed by an 11-play drive that went 80 yards.
“People got to see tonight that we are going to be a physical team,” Land said. “One of the things that you look for in our defense is that bend but don’t break mentality. We don’t have a defense that is going to overpower a whole lot of people, but can they bend and not break.”
Big plays were the problem for the Dalton defense last week, and Land said that was a specific point of emphasis in practice this past week.
“That was my challenge to the defense tonight — eliminate the big plays,” he said. “If you take away two or three big plays from last week, it might have been a different game.”
Sports
Cats cross river with win
Beck rushes for 230 yards and four TDs
- Sports
-
-
NW’s Ramsey steps aside
Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen Northwest Whitfield catcher Bayli Cruse, right. talks with coach Shane Ramsey during a game in this file photo from last fall. Ramsey recently resigned as the school’s softball coach after three straight trips to the state playoffs and a fourth-place finish in 2011.
Northwest Whitfield’s softball team heads into next season with two of the most highly respected players in Georgia, and the Lady Bruins should be expected to contend for a state title.
Continued ...
But if they win the championship, it will be with a new coach. - Marty Kirkland: Smart decisions are part of Sams’ path to success
- Division by subtraction
- Lions pile up baseball honors
- Jamie Jones: Big news at TWA?
- May 24, 2012
- Former Raider holds scholarship in high regards
- May 23, 2012
- Lights, camera, play ball
- May 22, 2012
- Club soccer: Northwest Soccer Academy wins state, starts quest for next title
- Cook and Richards take first at local 5K
- May 21, 2012
- Middle School Roundup: Hawkins’ arm, heavy hitting add up to title
- Wire-to-wire, Noll cruises to victory
- What's Going On: Combo puts a sweet spin on running
- May 20, 2012
- Under construction
- $20,000 raised in contest for 2012 Special Olympics
- A championship pickle
-


