Calhoun beats Northwest Whitfield in preseason play
♦ Jackets hit on big plays early, takes down Northwest in scrimmage
Calhoun opened preseason play with a big win over Northwest Whitfield, but according to head coach Clay Stephenson, the Jackets “have plenty of work to do,” as they set their sights and attention on their home opener with Dalton next Friday night.
“A lot of teams hold two scrimmages. We do not,” Stephenson said. “We take the two weeks after our scrimmage to continue working on things and to continue getting ready for the season. So we’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ve got a lot of different things we need to continue to get better at. And we’ll also continue to get ready for our first game at Dalton.”
The Jackets definitely looked like a team primed for a lot of future success Friday night in Whitfield County, scoring touchdowns the first five times they had the football in rolling to a 35-0 advantage in the first quarter against the Bruins.
“We had a real good scrimmage,” Stephenson said. “I think we got everything out of it we wanted to. The goals going in were obviously to get our (first-team) and (secondteam) players a few repetitions and we were able to do that. Because of the way we played in the first half, we were able to get our freshman and our jayvees in there each for a quarter and that was good as well.
“I thought we had a lot of kids, both returning and new guys, that played well. We have some excellent returning playmakers and they made some big plays. I thought our lines, both offensively and defensively, did a real nice job. I thought we executed offensively and got stops defensively and that’s what we’re looking for. I think we had 94 players on the roster and they all got in. And that was another thing we wanted to accomplish because we want to make sure we get a good look at everyone on our roster.”
The romp began on the second play of the night when returning senior quarterback Christian Lewis hooked up with senior wide receiver Quin Smith on a 75-yard touchdown pass for a quick 7-0 lead after the extra point kick.
The Calhoun defense, which Stephenson said also had a good night, forced a threeand-out and the offense again took over, under the format of the scrimmage, at their own 25-yard line.
Moments later, they rang the cash register with another 70-yard touchdown pass as Lewis this time connected with senior wide receiver Cole Speer to put Calhoun up by two scores.
The CHS defense continued getting the football back to the offense very quickly, forcing three more Bruin punts in the first quarter alone. And the Yellow Jacket offense would respond by putting the ball in the end zone all three times.
After showing how quickly they can score through the air, Calhoun showed how fast they can score on the ground with two long touchdown runs of over 60 yards by two different backs on their next two possessions.
First, senior Gage Leonard rolled through the Northwest Whitfield defense for a touchdown and then sophomore Caden Williams broke loose for his team’s fourth trip to the end zone in just a matter of minutes.
Calhoun’s fifth touchdown of the quarter came on Lewis’s third touchdown throw of the
period when he found Dustin Kernes on a mid-range pass.
“We’ve got some explosive playmakers and they were making plays and so we feel very good about that going forward,” Stephenson said. “We feel like there were a lot of positives that we can build off of. We feel like we’ve had a good couple of weeks of practice to start and so right now it’s just a matter of us continuing to prepare for the season. We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us and we got a lot of tough teams in front of us, so we just want to continue to prepare for that.”
The Jackets scored a sixth touchdown when sophomore quarterback Tre Townsend threw a scoring pass to wide receiver Kaleb Ray, who also played strong safety on defense.
Linebacker Christopher Lewis and defensive back
Rex Walraven were cited by coach Stephenson for their work as Lewis was in Northwest Whitfield’s backfield several times in the first quarter alone while Walraven had an interception.
The home team did score
a pair of touchdowns to finish with 13 points.
“It was a good first step for us,” Stephenson said. “We got to look at all of our players. We had a lot of guys making plays and that’s what you’re looking
for right now is guys to make plays. So it was a good first step for us.”
Calhoun will open the regular season a week from Friday night at home against Dalton, which they defeated 41-14 to start last season.