Warriors back on the road at Pepperell
The Gordon Central High School football team will be back on the road Friday night when they continue AA Region 7 activity against Pepperell.
The game features two teams that are winless in the league and badly in need of a victory to keep any playoff hopes they have alive with Pepperell sitting 0-2 and Gordon Central is 0-3.
The Warriors are coming off a 47-21 loss to Chattooga and are still trying to put together 48 minutes of football, but there is no question they are getting closer because for the last two weeks, they have been right there with first Fannin County and last week Chattooga before things got away from them.
Against the Rebels, they trailed just 7-0 midway through the second period before 21 points in the last 4 minutes of the half did them in. Against the Indians Friday, the game was 0-0 after the first quarter before the visitors had a 27-point second.
Take that 12-minute quarter away, and Gordon Central wins the other three periods 21-20. So head coach T.J. Hamilton and his staff and players are continuing to work to find consistency and avoid those bad and unlucky stretches that continue to haunt them.
It seems like every week the Warriors are facing an opponent with an outstanding running back and this week is no different with Pepperell maybe having the best of them all in sophomore DJ Rogers.
Rogers, who leads the region with 772 yards and nine touchdowns, has already been named one of the top sophomore running backs in the country and major colleges are watching him closely to get him to come play for them in three years.
While Rogers has been running over, around, and through other teams the first six weeks of the season, the Dragons downfall has been their defense.
They have struggled to hold the other teams down, having given up 190 points or over 30 a game thus far, including a 40-14 loss to Fannin County last Friday.
So if the Warriors can generate a few big running or passing plays out of their wing T offense oh, they have a chance to give the Dragons fits.
Senior running back D’Andre Macintosh and senior tight end Brison McGinnis have each made big plays offensively the past couple of weeks and if they, with the help of quarterback Peyton Wilson and that huge offensive line, can make a few Friday night, they can give themselves a lot to look forward to over the final month of the season.
Senior Sean Gray leads the Warriors in rushing, having picked up just under 300 yards on 71 carries or an average of 4 yards a pop.
Presently, Fannin County, which has an open date this week, looks to be on track towards winning its second consecutive region championship, standing 3-0, but Chattooga and Dade County are also perfect in league play with the Indians at 2-0 while the Trojans are 1-0.
Model sits all by themselves in that fourth and final playoff position at 1-1. After that, Pepperrell, Coosa,
and Gordon Central have yet to win a region game.
Besides the Warriors trip to Rome Friday night to play
Pepperell, other games in the region have Model at Dade County and Coosa at Chattooga.