Local matchups to highlight 2020 area football schedules
Football fans in both Catoosa and Walker Counties have always taken a keen interest in how the other teams around the two-county area are doing on a regular basis.
Based on the schedules for the 2020 season, there will be even more interest this fall.
The six combined programs in both counties will do battle with each other nine separate times in the first eight weeks of the upcoming season as new region alignments have shuffled the deck for the area’s programs.
Those regular season meetings will begin on Aug. 21 as LFO travels to Heritage. The following week (Aug. 28), the Generals will make the short drive to Ringgold, while the Warriors will be at home to face longtime rival Gordon Lee.
Two more rivalry games will be on tap for Sept. 4. Ringgold will make the eightmile drive up Highway 2 to square off with Ridgeland, while Lafayette will make the journey up Highway 27 to face off with Gordon Lee in an all-walker County clash.
On Sept. 11, LFO will travel to Lafayette to meet the
Ramblers for the first time in the regular season in a number of years and the first time as region opponents since the 2009 season. One week later, Ringgold will make the short trek to Fort Oglethorpe to face the Warriors in the annual Catoosa
County battle.
On Oct. 2, Heritage and Ridgeland will renew acquaintances in Rossville in a rematch of last year’s epic Saturday night game in Boynton. The final of the nine matchups will take place on Oct. 9 as Lafayette hosts Ringgold in their first region (6-AAA) meeting on the gridiron since 2011.
Apart from the intercounty and intracounty matchups, there will be some new opponents on the schedule for all six teams this fall.
A new all-public school Region 6-A slate will see Gordon Lee face Bowdon, Mount Zion and Trion, along with newcomers Armuchee and B.E.S.T. Academy. The Trojans’ other non-region opponents include Dade County, Gordon Central and Southeast Whitfield.
LFO, Ringgold and Lafayette will face Class 3A holdovers Coahulla Creek, Sonoraville, North Murray, Murray County and Adairsville in region play this season, while Rockmart has come up from Class 2A. Lafayette will also square off with Model in non-region game in late August.
Meanwhile, Heritage and Ridgeland will be joined in their new-look and newlynamed region (7-AAAA) with holdovers Northwest Whitfield and Pickens. Centralcarroll and Cedartown are new to the region. Gilmer has moved back to another Class AAA region in a more northeastern part of the state, while Southeast Whitfield will still be a Region 7-AAAA member, but has elected not play a region schedule in football this upcoming season.
In addition to its annual meetings with LFO and Ringgold, Heritage will face Temple, Christian Heritage and Darlington in non-region contests in the month of September.
Ridgeland will open its season by playing a Tennessee opponent for the first time in program history when they travel to East Ridge on Aug. 21 in what is being termed ‘The Battle for Missionary Ridge”. Along with the games against East Ridge and Ringgold, Ridgeland’s non-region schedule will also include Dalton, Calhoun and Cass.
The Panthers will travel to take on the Jackets, who are now a Ghsa-designated Class AAAAA program. Those two schools met in each of the last two seasons as part of the Corky Kell Classic in Rome with Calhoun winning both times.