Bulldogs come up bust against Bremen
The Cedartown Bulldogs clawed and struggled through four quarters, but they couldn’t completely stop a strong Bremen Blue Devils running game and fell at home 13-9 last Friday night.
Cedartown (1-2) tried to hold off Bremen and make a fourth quarter comeback for the win, but couldn’t come up with a crucial first down on a fourth and six play on two incomplete passes from Bulldogs quarterback Taji Hudson.
Senior running back Tony Mathis got to score on a two yard run in the first quarter, but remained mainly stifled by the Blue Devils defense for most of the night. The Bulldogs saw the point after blocked, and then Bremen scored late in the first half to go up before heading into the locker room.
Before the half, Cedartown was pushing toward the end zone again and the Bulldogs were getting close to scoring when in the last seconds a pass put up by Taji Hudson was missed, and complaints were issued by the Cedartown receiver.
Whatever was said about the lack of a pass interference call, it prompted the referees to penalize Cedartown for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Head coach Doyle Kelley went to midfield before heading into the locker room himself, and attempted to argue the issue further and was also penalized.
Kelley later said he was sorry for the outburst, and said that emotion played heavy in the game.
That started Cedartown off after halftime with 30 more yards to make up on kickoff, and they were just able to recover an onside kick.
Referees during the first half also sent players to the sidelines on several occasions on both teams for shirts underneath their jerseys not being tucked in properly, and in one case a Blue Devil player was sent back for a kneepad not being placed correctly.
As the game wound down in the second half, Cedartown was able to punch a field goal in during the third quarter but Bremen responded with a touchdown and a missed 2-point conversion attempt. Neither team scored during the fourth quarter at all.
Hudson threw a lone pick with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter to bring the Bulldogs’ chances of getting a last second winning score to an end.
Kelley said after the game to his players in the team huddle that he was responsible for not having the team prepared well enough ahead of Bremen’s visit to Cedartown Memorial Stadium.
“We didn’t execute on offense the way we normally do,” Kelley said. “I’ll tell you that we’re a rhythm team, and we never could get into our rhythm. We were down in the 20 three or four times and couldn’t the first down that we needed or punch it in. We had our chances.”
Bremen put up 236 yards of offense against Cedartown’s 317 overall on the night, but penalties hurt the Bulldogs.
They ended the night with 14 flags thrown and 115 yards lost against them on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve got to go back to work and work harder,” Kelley said. “I’m a firm believer… it bothers me that we had a lot of guys cramping tonight. I know it hot and its humid and all those kinds of things. But they should be in better shape than this. But we’re going to go back and work hard.”
Kelley added that “the guys know what they’ve got to do.”
There’s not much time left for them to work out issues in practice they faced on the field last Friday night. Two days from now, the Bulldogs are right back into the thick of things for Homecoming night.
They face a 2-1 Southeast Whitfield next Friday, who came off a big win of their own over Coahulla Creek on Aug. 31 in a 9-6 contest. They got a break last week before they travel to Cedartown.
Southeast Whitfield started off the season with a loss at home to Woodland, but hosted a 21-16 win over Murray County on Aug. 24.