Rocky road for Rockmart
back.
The game was marred by an 80-minute weather delay, coming right after the end of the first quarter. There were talks of canceling the game during the delay, but the skies ultimately cleared of lightning and the teams warmed up again for what seemed like the second game of the night.
With many other games getting rescheduled, the officials decided to restart the game around 9:20 p.m. Despite the delay, little to nothing changed in the game’s flow, with Coosa pounding the ball on the Yellow Jackets in every quarter.
The Eagles would finish with 285 rushing yards, with three different players breaking off runs of 20 yards or more.
The first quarter featured almost no offensive firepower through the first seven minutes, featuring four punts and a combined two first downs. But Coosa suddenly engineered an 88- yard drive just before the end of the quarter, culminating with a fiveyard touchdown run by Zinnermon.
“We have so many good performances by backs tonight, and our offense line grew up too,” Wheeler said. “We came in here and thought we could ride those players and we were able to do that.”
After the delay, Coosa continued its success on the ground but missed two opportunities to score in the first half.
A 55-yard drive midway through the second ended in a missed 42yard field goal. Then, in the final moments of the first half, Rockmart stuffed Zinnermon on a goal-line stand, and the Eagles were forced to let the clock run off without any timeouts to stop it.
Little of this actually mattered, as Coosa’s offense was never able to get rolling and routinely took big penalties or sacks that killed drives. The Yellow Jackets recorded only 5 total yards at halftime and could not accumu- late more than 50 until the final moments of the game.
Yellow Jackets coach Bin Turner cited the loss of offensive lineman Kerrion Woolfork and total miscommunication at the line since Woolfork’s departure.
“It was no continuity on offensive line, period,” Turner said. “We had a man go down last week and we haven’t been the same line since.”
Rockmart went threeand-out on its first two second half possessions, the second ending with a bad punt putting the Eagles at the Rockmart 37. Four downhill running plays led to another Zinnermon touchdown to make it 13-0.
The next Coosa possession stalled out quickly and appeared disastrous when a low snap was bobbled by punter Hunter Chastain. But Chastain thought on his feet, found a corner down the sideline and scampered 59 yards for a wild third touchdown.
Wheeler laughed about the play, saying it was just pure smarts that made the play happen.
“Hunter Chastain is a gamer,” Wheeler said. “He is the kind of kid who just sees things and just makes something out of nothing. I just can’t say enough about Hunter Chastain.”
Rockmart would get its own bad snap on a punt in its next possession, but this one resulted in giving the Eagles the ball inside the 25. Two more plays resulted in a final Coosa touchdown, this time an 18-yard run by Xavier Bailey.
The Yellow Jackets saw their most success on offense in the waning moments, when freshman running back Marcus Smith tallied 73 yards in two runs including a 25-yard touchdown run as time expired. The plays came with mostly second-string players on the field.
Coosa will have a bye week before it plays its final non-region game Sept. 25 at Pepperell, while Rockmart will look to get healthier as it travels to Bremen next week.