The Battle for Polk County bragging righs ended with a Cedartown win
An early-season date for the rivalry between Rockmart and Cedartown didn’t deter the visiting Bulldogs from coming on strong.
Cedartown combined for 350 yards of offense compared to Rockmart’s 155 and the Bulldogs won the 2016 Battle of Polk County, 35-7.
Quarterback Trevon Wofford was 11-of-14 passing for 205 yards and three touchdowns for Cedartown, including a fourth quarter 48-yard TD strike to Quan Neal.
The Bulldogs (1-1) sealed Rockmart’s fate with a third quarter drive that lasted 7 minutes and ended with Tony Mathis scoring on an 11-yard run.
Head coach Scott Hendrix said that his team took the wind out of the Yellow Jackets on that drive.
“We told our kids to take it down and score,” Hendrix said. “We converted a couple of third and longs, and the offensive line established the line of scrimmage, and to me that was the turning point in the game.”
The Jackets took a brief lead on their lone score early in the second quarter on an 11-yard run by Markus Smith to make it 7-0.
Rockmart (1-1) would be shut out of the end zone the rest of the night, and Cedartown’s 14-7 halftime lead only grew.
Jackets head coach Biff Parson was adamant about his team’s need to regroup following the night’s loss.
“We didn’t play tough, and we didn’t play the way we did the last two weeks, and I think a little bit of it has to do with the rivalry,” he said. “We’ve got to overcome the mental part of it, because we’re a lot better than how we played tonight. I know that as a head coach, but we also know as a head coach that we’ve got a lot of things to fix.”
Parson said he’ll be looking for a leader this coming week in practice ahead of their next home game on Sept. 2 against the Woodland Wildcats.
Meanwhile, Cedartown will travel to Ellijay this week to face Gilmer County.