Warriors' 2024 schedule has been released
The Gordon Central High School 2024 football schedule has been released. And it sure does look different than the one the Warriors have been playing for the past few years.
First, the Warriors are dropping down a division under the latest GHSA reclassification and will go from the seven-team Region 7-2A to the nine-team Region 7-1A Division One starting this summer and that means a lot of new opponents in their quest for success and the playoffs. It also means one less non-Region game, which will cause league contests to start earlier this fall than in the past.
And the move to the larger of the two divisions in Class A will also bring some teams back on the schedule that were members of Region 7-2A just two years ago before the GHSA's realignment at the end of 2021.
Only Fannin County is a member of current Region 7-2A that will move into the new D-1 Region 7-1A with Gordon Central, but now the Warriors will have Dade County, Coosa, and Chattooga back in the fold as those schools were all members of 7-2A just two years ago before they moved down a level.
Also the Warriors kept Coosa on their non-region schedule the past two years, but now, once again, the Eagles will be on the Region slate.
Also, head coach Lenny Gregory's team had to find a new first-week opponent with Armuchee, the team they have been playing right out the gate the last few years, now also a Region foe.
The schedule also appears to be very competitive for a program that has not won a game since the 2020 season. The Tribe faces just two teams that were .500 or better last year and also faces just four teams that made the playoffs in 2023. And only one of those teams — Dade County — won a playoff game.
They also play five teams that had three wins or less, including two in non-Region, where they are hoping
to find some success and take some positive momentum going into the Region schedule.
Gordon Central also has two open dates with their first one coming the first Friday in September after they finish their threegame non-Region schedule and the second coming in mid-October after they have played their fifth Region game.
The Warriors officially kickoff the 2024 schedule Friday, Aug. 16 on the road against Southeast Whitfield County at Raider Stadium in a rematch of maybe the team's most competitive game last year.
The Raiders were 1-9 last year with that one win a 19-16 victory over Gordon Central on a last-second field goal in Week Two. The teams were tied at 16 for most of the second half before Southeast Whitfield was able to kick the gamewinner late. The Raiders did not move in the latest reclassification as they were in Region 7-4A last year and will be for the next two years, starting this summer. But with the GHSA eliminating the 7A division, the league wlll resemble the current 7-5A with Cartersville, Cass, Woodland, and Dalton now part of it.
Then Warriors make their season debut at Ratner Stadium in Week Two when they host Butler High School out of Augusta, on Friday, Aug. 23. The Bulldogs were 3-7 last year and will be members of Region 4-2A this coming school year.
The Warriors then wrap up August and the non-Region portion of the schedule Friday, Aug. 30 when they go to Augusta to play Josey High School, which is in the same Region as Butler. The Josey Eagles were 1-9 in 2023 with a 2826 victory over Savannah to start the year and they lost to Butler, 44-0, in the final game of the season.
The team then has a week off to start preparing for the Division One Region 7-A schedule, which opens for them with a pair of home games at Ratner Stadium against first, a team they have not played for a couple of years, and another they had on both the non-Region and Region schedule the last couple of autumns.
They will host Chattooga Friday, Sept. 13 in the teams' first meeting since the 2021 season when they both resided in Region 7-2A. The Indians were 2-8 in 2023 and 1-5 in the D-1 Region 7-A that the Warriors will become members of. They beat Coahulla Creek, 17-14, in Week Three and then
Coosa, 16-10, the last week of the season for their two wins.
And Coosa is next on the schedule with the teams playing at Ratner Stadium Friday, Sept. 20. The Eagles were 3-7 last year and went 3-1 in non-Region before they went 0-6 in the league the Warriors will be joining. One of Coosa's three wins last year was a 33-6 win over Gordon Central in Week Three.
The blue-and-silver will finish play in September the following week on Friday, Sept. 27 with their first Area road trip as they travel to Fannin County, which is hoping to be as competitive in the new league as they have been the past few years in the 7-2A when the Rebels won it a couple of times.
Fannin County finished fourth in the 7-2A last year with a 3-3 record and were 5-6 on the season with a loss in the first round of the state playoffs.
That game will mark the halfway point of the season and the Warriors begin October and the second half of the schedule on Friday, Oct. 4 against a new opponent when they host Christian Heritage out of Dalton. The Lions were 5-6 last year and made the playoffs out of Division 2 Region 7-A but lost to Macon County, 30-7, in the first round.
The Warriors follow that with a trip to another new Region opponent, traveling to Gordon Lee on Friday, Oct. 11 in the team's last game before their second open date. The Trojans were the only team on this year's schedule above .500 in 2023, going 6-5 and 4-3 in the Region that Gordon Central is now joining. Lee lost to Lumpkin County, 52-6 in the first round of the Class A playoffs last year.
That gives them two weeks to prepare for their next game, which is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 25 against Armuchee at Ratner Stadium. For the past couple of seasons, these teams have played each other first so it should be interesting to see how it unfolds when they play so late in the year. The Indians were 4-6 in 2023 and 2-4 in this same D-1 Region 7-A and one of their wins was a 35-14 season opener over Gordon Central.
The Warriors end the season Friday, Nov. 1 at Dade County in their first matchup in three years after Dade County was a member of the 7-2A earlier this decade. The Wolverines were 6-6 last year and did win their first-round playoff game, whipping Mount Pigsah Christian, 45-7 in the first round before they were eliminated by Commerce, 34-14, in the second round.