Calhoun shuts out Woodland
The Calhoun Yellow Jackets’ football team traveled to Cartersville on Friday night to take on the Woodland Wildcats. Thanks to a standout performance by Cole Speer, the Jackets earned their second Region 7-AAAAA victory by a score of 38-0.
Speer made his presence felt in a big way on both offense and defense, as he had a receiving touchdown and added two interceptions and returned one for a touchdown. Calhoun head coach Clay Stephenson praised Speer.
“He’s been solid the whole year,” Stephenson said. “He’s very electric when he gets the ball. Tonight, he obviously showed his defensive back skills as well.”
The Jackets started the game with a bang, scoring on the first play from scrimmage, as quarterback Christian Lewis threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Quin Smith. Speer made a name for himself in the second quarter of the game, as he scored on a 49-yard receiving touchdown from Lewis and added a 65-yard pick-six off a pass from Woodland’s Chase Carson on the very next possession to put Calhoun up 21-0 at the half.
Calhoun (6-2, 2-1) broke it open in the second half, as they added 17 more points. Calhoun running back Jerrian Hames, who had a quiet night up until the third quarter, busted loose from Woodland defenders and rushed for a 53-yard touchdown. He finished with 94 yards on seven carries.
To begin the fourth quarter, Lewis added his third touchdown of the night with a 16-yard pass to Smith. Lewis had a very efficient night from the pocket, going 5-of-7 for 123 yards with the three aforementioned scores and no interceptions. To add more salt to the wound, Carlos Orozco nailed a 21-yard, chip-shot field goal with less than six minutes remaining in the game to give the Jackets the 38-0 win.
The Jackets defense played an excellent game overall. They gave up a decent number of yards to Woodland but kept the Wildcats (3-2, 0-2) off the scoreboard. Ultimately, that is all that matters to Stephenson.
“That’s the name of the game,” Stephenson said. “Coach (Tony) Plott (of Woodland) did an awesome job. He had his kids playing hard. They had some good schemes, and they were blocking us up front. They gave us some unbalanced formations that took a little bit of adjusting to. They did some unconventional stuff that gave us a few problems in the first half, but I was very proud of the effort we gave. ... Having zero on the scoreboard is always good.”
Calhoun’s next game will be another region battle at Cass next Friday night. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.