Tigers roll up win Adairsville overcomes penalties to improve to 2-0

Woodland’s Emmanuel Jones (from left) and Brandon Allen chase after Adairsville running back Sidnee Johnson during the first quarter of a high school football game at Adairsville on Thursday.

ADAIRSVILLE — Ahead only 14-11 at halftime, Adairsville knew it had to make some changes on the football field when it left the locker room.

With the team finally seeing some of what Bartow County rival Woodland was throwing at them, the Tigers changed up their line and secondary and were able to get a 35-23 win in a rare Thursday night contest at home.

Senior running back Sidnee Johnson ran for 160 yards and four touchdowns on 14 carries, and Adairsville scored 21 unanswered points after the break to create a comfortable lead.

“We knew that we were going to see some stuff that wasn’t on that film. They were running two plays that we did not prepare for all week,” Adairsville head coach Eric Bishop said.

“We had to make adjustments, starting with the defensive line. Then we made adjustments in the secondary with our linebackers and

Jeremy Stewart /

Rome News-Tribune that’s when we found success.”

Woodland had gone ahead 11-7 after a 25-yard field goal from John Scifers with five minutes left in the second quarter, but the Tigers were able to answer back before the break. A lost Woodland fumble gave Adairsville the ball on the Wildcats’ 44, setting up balanced attack from the Tigers that saw them overcome two false start penalties to score on Johnson’s three-yard run with 1:40 on the clock.