AHS students get pumped for football game

♦ The Indians are shut out by visiting Haralson County after a week off.

The first part of the high school football season can provide the toughest lessons for a football team. Two games into the season, the Armuchee Indians are trying to learn from those lessons.

Back after a bye week, the Indians were hit early and often Friday night by Class 3A Haralson County in a 59-0 loss at Lindsey Stadium.

Armuchee head coach Jeremy Green said his team has to maintain a level of determination throughout the entire game to be successful.

“We’ve got to learn to play as hard as we can every snap and do exactly what we’re coached to do,” Green said. “We just ran up against a bigger, stronger team, and we didn’t always do what we were coached to do. To have a chance against Trion, we’ll have to do that.”

The Indians (0-2) will head out on the road next Friday to face the Bulldogs.

The Indians had bright spots in their offense, putting together a drive early in the game where they had two key third-down conversions. Unfortunately for Armuchee, the drive stalled and the Indians turned the ball back over to the Rebels.

Gauge Burkett led the ground game for Armuchee with 50 yards on 17 carries. Kameron Parker finished 2-for-9 for 23 yards, and fellow quarterback Chandler Desanto had 19 yards on two carries. J.J. House had two catches for 17 yards.

Parker and Desanto split time at quarterback filling in for senior Devin Pledger, who suffered a season-ending injury during the first game of the season against Murray County.

“I was proud of Kameron,” Green said. “He was never a quarterback until last year, so I was very proud of that. Chandler did some good things too.”

Desanto had a 15-yard run on the Indians’ final possession of the night to get his team into Rebel territory, but Armuchee wasn’t able to capitalize on the drive.

Cade Cordle led the Armuchee defense with eight tackles, and Devin Cromer had six tackles.

In the first half, Haralson County quarterback Clay Hyatt scored three

times on rushes of 32, 35 and 44 yards as the Rebels (2-0) ended the first half of the game with a 33-0 lead.

The Indians finished with 118 yards of total offense, while the Rebels racked up 366 offensive yards.

Following the contest against Trion, the Indians will then open Region 7-AA play Sept. 20 at home against Rockmart.

Photos by John Popham Above: Armuchee High School’s band plays during the Friday afternoon pep rally before the school faces off against Haralson County. Right: Armuchee High School cheerleaders lead the student body in a cheer during the school’s pep rally. Below: Student Cameron Parker gets on stage to encourage his classmates to attend Friday night’s football game.

Above: Victoria Merritt (left) and Paige Tessin sport glow sunglasses during the Armuchee High School pep rally. Left: Students at Armuchee High School cheering during their neon-themed pep rally.

Steven Eckhoff Haralson County’s Trey Lovelace (from left) and Richard Hyatt close in on Armuchee quarterback Kameron Parker during Friday’s game at Armuchee.