First time’s a charm for Eagles, Indians
It was a night of new beginnings for two Floyd County football teams on Friday, in more ways than one. Both Armuchee and Coosa got their first wins of the season after both teams struggled to get wins last year.
Armuchee’s 13-7 win over Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe in the Indians’ second game of the season was their earliest victory since 2011 when they defeated Trion in the season opener.
Coosa had a big night as the Eagles overpowered Coahulla Creek 416 in their first game of the season, matching their win total from last season and giving them their biggest victory in two seasons.
In both instances, Friday’s game was the first time each team had ever faced the other.
The fact isn’t hard to understand when taking into account that Coahulla Creek has only had a full football program since 2012, but Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe — which admittedly is 53 miles north of Armuchee — has played football consistently since 1947.
Mother Nature frustrations
There was hardly anywhere football coaches, players and fans could escape the wrath of Mother Nature on Friday night as several contests in Northwest Georgia were affected by a string of pop-up storms.
In the most definitive examples, Pepperell canceled its seasonopening tilt with Ridgeland in the first quarter after back-to-back lightning delays, while Unity Christian was forced to do the same in its game against Shiloh Hills.
And while Pepperell and Ridgeland were tied 7-7 when the game was called, and Unity and Shiloh Hills were scoreless, the games are not likely to be made up and are declared as “no con- test” since they have no bearing on region or di- vision standings.
In the Dragons’ case, that means there will be at least one Floyd Coun- ty team this year with only nine regular season games.
The last time that oc- curred was 2014 when Rome’s non-region game against Newton was called due to lightning before the opening kickoff.
According to the Georgia High School Association by-laws, a game between teams in different classifications that is called before halftime will be declared a “no contest.” Once a game has reached the halfway point, the score at the time the game is called is final.
This week’s top performers
Kyler Eldridge (Model) had 180 yards of total offense (120 passing, 50 rushing) and scored all three of the Blue Devils’ touchdowns in a win over Sonoraville. He also had three tackles for loss.
Seth Stanley (Armuchee) was 8 for 19 passing for 165 yards and threw the game-winning touchdown to Tamalachi Lovelace in a win at Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe.
Jarrett Pierce (Trion) rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns on eight carries for the Bulldogs against LaFayette.
Jamious Griffin (Rome) had 16 carries for 160 yards against Harrison and helped set up Jalynn Sykes’ three touchdown runs.
Coosa’s defensive line shutdown Coahulla Creek’s running game as the Colts only managed 6 cumulative yards from scrimmage.
Week 2 local scores
Thursday Chattooga 49, Cedar Bluff (Ala.) 7
Friday Armuchee 13, LFO 7 Cedartown 35, Rockmart 7 Coosa 41, Coahulla Creek 6 Dalton 28, Calhoun 13 Harrison 22, Rome 20 Model 22, Sonoraville 0 SE Whitfield 42, Gordon
Central 0 Trion 43, LaFayette 20