The start of Region games getting closer
For the three high school football teams in Gordon County, the games that really matter begin very soon.
In fact, for Gordon Central, its first Region 7-2A game against Fannin County is now officially less than two weeks away with those teams meeting on Sept. 23 while for Calhoun and Sonoraville, which have serious playoff aspirations, the kick off of their five-game league slates comes one week later on the last night of this month.
Going into Friday night’s games — which was the fourth one for each of the three local high schools — it appears the other teams in their respective Regions are also playing good football through the first month of the season and the games ahead will be all about surviving the ups-and-downs that can come with facing good competition.
CALHOUN
The Region 7-5A the Yellow Jackets have been in the past couple of years hasn’t changed much on paper, with nearby Dalton coming in and Blessed Trinity’s leaving the only changes made in the most-recent school reclassification.
But it does appear the six-team league as a whole is much improved with everyone in the win column after the first three weeks. Last year, at this juncture, Hiram was still winless while Woodland had one win and both teams would finish 1-9. Woodland would beat Gordon Central to start the year and then lost the next nine while Hiram beat Woodland for its lone win.
Cartersville, which is the third-ranked 5A club in the state, is the only team in the league still undefeated heading into the week, with a 3-0 mark and Calhoun was the only other winning team at 2-1.
Dalton, after falling 27-21 to Sonoraville last Friday, was third at 1-1 while Cass, Woodland, and Hiram were each 1-2.
So it seems that once again Calhoun and Cartersville, which play each other on that final night of this month to start the district schedule, are once again the teams everyone will be chasing, but the other teams have all gotten stronger since last year.
Cartersville has outscored the opposition, 108-36, in those three wins but the Purple Hurricanes were truly pushed last Friday night at Allatoona, trailing 20-0 late in the third quarter before scoring the last four touchdowns of the game, including three of them in the fourth quarter, to take a 28-20 win over the Buccaneers.
Before that game, the Purple Hurricanes had silenced Cherokee, 35 to absolutely nothing and then whipped Jonesboro, 38-15.
Senior quarterback Paul Gamble has played well for them, completing 26-of46 passes after three games for 392 yards and zero interceptions. Six of his completions have been touchdown throws with a longest of 52 yards. Gamble has ran for another 64 yards, giving him 456 all-purpose yards thus far.
Dalton stands 1-1 on the year and has played smaller schools to this point, beating Murray County, 49-20, and then losing to Sonoraville. But the Catamounts are still dangerous because of one young man, senior running back Tyson Greenwade, who has scored eight touchdowns in the team’s first two games and reached paydirt six times along against 2A Murray County.
He has also rushed for over 500 yards in those two games and when combined with the Catamounts’ passing attack, led by receiver Ross Blanchard, they do have a potent offense.
Woodland, Cass, and Hiram all appear to be better than last year just
based on the way they have played to this point.
Cass is 1-2, but the Colonels are just 10 points away from being 3-0. And they have looked very good offensively, scoring 58 points last week in a 58-15 win over Drew High School and putting up 104 points in their first three games.
They began the year with a tough 30-21 loss to a very good 2A Rockmart team and then lost a heartbreaking 26-25 decision to Kennesaw Mountain.
Hiram has also shown a full-throttle offense in the early-going with 90 points in three games, including 49 in a 49-9 win over Woodstock.
Running back Jamarion Whitley has been maybe the 7-5A’s most explosive player so far, having produced 310 yards rushing and three touchdowns on just 14 carries. He also has an 81-yard touchdown run but has carried it a long way just about every time he has touched it. Backfield mate Kaden Hamilton has also been averaging just under 50 yards rushing to give the Hornets a twopronged attack.
Quarterback Samir Wylie has thrown for 447 yards in three games for the Hornets, going 25-of-45 for five touchdowns with a rating of 103.
Woodland is 1-2 but with a little more luck could be 2-1. The Warriors lost 38-13 to East Paulding to begin the season, but then shutout Coosa, 34-0, to win its first game. But last week, they lost to Model, 17-14, and had they finished a couple of scoring threats, they would have won the game.
Sonoraville
Going into the fourth week of the high school season, three of the six teams in the Region 7-4A, which Sonoraville is now officially a member of, were still unbeaten and sporting 3-0 record.
“The other teams in our Region are playing very well,” Phoenix head coach Denver Pate said. “And that’s because they’re all quality teams. That’s why we’re playing the schedule we’re playing here in non-Region, to help us get ready for those teams. And we’re still learning about the teams in our region. We’re trying to find out all we can about them, but I know one thing about them for sure, they’re all very good.”
One quick look at everyone’s record definitely tells that tale because all six of the teams in 7-4A have a winning record.
Cedartown, Heritage, and Northwest Whitfield are all 3-0 while Sonoraville, Central and Southeast Whitfield are all 2-1.
Central and Southeast Whitfield fell from the ranks of the unbeatens last Friday with Central falling 34-33 to Hampton in a game in which Hampton outscored them, 15-13, in a wild fourth quarter to prevail. Southeast Whitfield lost to Gordon Lee, 46-22, at home after the Raiders beat Coosa
and Gordon Central in consecutive weeks to start the 2022 campaign.
The three teams still unbeaten in 7-4A has all displayed powerful offense so far with all having notched more than 100 points. Cedartown has rolled three teams, 109-21 while Heritage has topped them 103-40 and Northwest Whitfield has earned 111 points and allowed 64 in their wins.
Despite the setback last Friday, Central has also put up more than 100 points with 104 while giving up 66 thus far.
Cedartown’s only close call was their first game, when the Bulldogs held off pesky Rockmart, 27-14.
Since then, they whipped Callaway, 46-7, and Sequoyah, 35-0, last Friday night as they again set their sights on making a run at first a 4A Region 7 championship and then a possible 4A state championship.
Heritage topped nearby Ringgold, 31-17, to start the year in a game that was tied at 14 before the Generals pulled away. Then they knocked off East Hamilton, 24-9, before they had their best game of the year last Friday with a 48-14 victory over LakeviewFort Oglethorpe.
Northwest Whitfield has been one of the top passing teams in Northwest Georgia in the first three weeks, and maybe their point-production has also gone down each game, but they are still scoring at a fairly high rate.
They started out with a 46-17 drubbing of Pepperell and then outfought Coahulla Creek, 35-31, before they held off Ringgold, 30-17, last Friday night.
Gordon Central
While there was a lot of fanfare before the season began regarding just how strong the new Region 7-2A would be with two 2021 playoff teams joining, it has been a mixed bag up to now with everyone playing much bigger schools.
North Murray went into this weekend as the only one of the seven schools above .500 at 2-1 and the Mountaineers have been flashy offensively, having scored 137 points in three games. And they have gone 50 or higher twice with a crazy 54-50 victory over Pickens County two weeks ago and a 56-19 whipping of Ridgeland last Friday night. Their loss was a 49-21
setback to Dalton to start the season.
Newcomers Rockmart and Haralson County are each 1-1 and then Model and defending 7-2A champion Fannin County are each 1-2. Gordon Central and Murray County are each winless and those two teams are scheduled to meet on the final night of the regular season or in just less than two months.
Rockmart has played a 4A and a 5A team and both made the playoffs last year as they started out by losing to Cedartown, 27-14, but then beat 5A Cass, 30-21, last week.
Haralson County got its first win last week with a 15-14 nail-biter over Bremen after the Rebels began the year with a 49-3 loss to Rabun County.
Fannin County and Model, along with Gordon Central, are the lone holdovers from last year still in Region 7-2A and the FC Rebels won the 7-2A championship last year.
They have put up big numbers the last two weeks offensively. After starting the year with a 14-7 loss to Union County, they dropped a 49-35 shootout to Gilmer before grabbing their first victory, 38-12, over Pickens County last Friday.
Gordon Central and Fannin County meet, Friday, Sept. 23, at Ratner Stadium in both teams’ league opener.
Model is 1-2 but the Blue Devils are just two points away from being 2-1. They went west to Alabama to play their first game and lost 20-0 to Cherokee County before they fell to nearby Pepperell, 15-14, in Week Two.
But they bounced back last week with a big 17-14 conquest of 5A Woodland, using a fourth-quarter field goal to get the win. Model is also enjoying its first open date before they are supposed to wrap up their non-Region schedule next Friday against Trion.
Murray County is off to an 0-3 start and the Indians have been outscored 98-14 in losses to Gilmer, LakeviewFort Oglethorpe, and Coahulla Creek.
Of those three games, though, the one to LFO was close with the Tribe falling 13-7 as the teams were tied at 7 after one quarter and it remained that way until LFO scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Their other two losses were a 36-0 loss to Gilmer and a 49-7 setback to Coahulla Creek.