Cedartown bounces back in second half
The Cedartown Bulldogs clinched a third-place spot in the playoffs in a big second-half turnaround win 29-7 over Chapel Hill.
Cedartown (5-5, 4-2 5-4A) held the Panthers to negative yardage in the second half and scored three unanswered touchdowns to come back from a 7-6 deficit at the half.
Head Coach Doyle Kelley admitted the team didn’t play as well in the first half, but turned it around in the locker room for the comeback.
“I challenged the team to come back out and win it, and they did that extremely well,” Kelley said.
He added his praise for a defense that held the Panthers to just 150 yards and a single second quarter score from 3 yards out by Imani Davis.
Cedartown’s offense played flat through most of the first half and it wasn’t until late in the half before they responded to the Panthers score with a Kobe Pryor stretch over the pylon to put up a 36 yard touchdown run.
The Bulldogs defense held up the Panthers on their first drive in the third quarter and kept their offense off balance through the rest of the game as Jayden Johnson ran in a 38-yard and 7-yard touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters, and threw one more late in the fourth to Jeremiah Johnson. Jorge Pineda also hit a 21-yard field goal on the night. He missed a extra point in the first half.
In all, the Bulldogs put up 321 yards of offense — 298 of those on the ground spread between Pryor, Johnson under center and CJ Washington.
Johnson threw 4-9 for 23 yards and the lone touchdown and gave up no interceptions against the Chapel Hill defense. The Bulldogs gave up a pair of fumbles, including one on a punt that hit a Cedartown return man in the helmet and came up as a Panthers ball.
Chapel Hill also gave up three turnovers on interceptions, including a big return back down the field for freshman Reece Tanner. Micah Arbuthnot also grabbed two more over Panthers quarterback Jomaurie Hester. He went 12-17 and 87 yards in passing with the trio of picks.
Chapel Hill finishes their season 5-5 overall and 2-4 in region play.
With the win, the Bulldogs now head into the first round of the postseason next Friday with a big test ahead in Marist.
The War Eagles are coming into the game with an 9-1 record on the year and are coming off a regular season ending overtime loss 33-30 to Blessed Trinity. They had a bye week heading into the first round of the playoffs.
Even with the break, Kelley said his Bulldogs will be ready for next week.
“We’ve been there before and we know what they do,” he said. “We expect a hard fight on the road.”