Cedartown falls to Marist to finish season

ATLANTA — The Cedartown Bulldogs put up a big run this season, winning second place in Region 5-4A behind a top-ranked Cartersville and winning their first home playoff game in 15 years at home.

Then that run came to an end with a trip to Marist, where the War Eagles cut the Bulldogs’ trip through the Class 4A playoffs short in a 31-18 Cedartown loss on Friday night.

Head coach Doyle Kelley said that despite his team fighting hard all year, the 10- 2 Bulldogs fell short to a Marist offense who got the better of his squad.

“We battled the whole game,” Kelley s aid. “Marist had a good team, and they got a chance to go further.”

Cedartown’s kept the game close through the first half, holding the War Eagles just a touchdown and went into the locker room with a 7- 6 lead.

Marist struck in the opening of the second half with a touchdown, and Cedartown responded with a score of their own but missed a 2-point conversion. That was followed up by a 80- yard touchdown run on the kickoff return, the first the Bulldogs gave up all year.

“That was a momentum changer for us,” Kelley said. “We’d just come back and score, and that turned the game in their favor.”

Marist added two more touchdowns on a game where they were only able to rack up 255 yards compared to Cedartown’s 314.

Trevon Wofford put up 255 of those yards on 11 completions and 28 att empts, t hrowing all three of Cedartown’s t ouchdowns t o Tony Mathis and Keshun Kent and gave up two interceptions.

Marist picked up most of their offense in their ground game, running for 236 yards on the night.

“We didn’t play our best football. Not to take away from Marist, they had a good football team,” Kelley said.