Bulldogs drop to 0-5 in Homecoming loss
Cedartown will have two weeks to recover before their region schedule kicks off after falling on Homecoming night to the Fayette County Tigers 21-15.
The Bulldogs found themselves once again driving toward a win late in the fourth quarter when disaster struck and running back Quan Neal lost the ball to the Tigers defense, who then were able to keep up a short drive and end Cedartown’s hopes for a first win of the season.
“Quan got hit and got a couple of guys on him, and the last guy came in and it came out,” said head coach Scott Hendrix. “I thought he was down, the referee thought he wasn’t, so they called it their ball.”
Despite the disappointing end to the first half of the Bulldogs season, Hendrix said that his team has been steadily improving, including quarterback Trevon Wofford.
“He did well tonight, but the rush got to him a bit,” he said. “He’s progressing.”
Wofford put in the first score for the Bulldogs by capping off a 50yard drive after Fayette County gave up good field position on a bad punt to end their opening drive.
Wofford snuck in from less than a yard on the touchdown with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
He’d later hand it off to Neal for a 25-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter.
From there, the Bulldogs gave up 21 unanswered points, starting with 15 in the first half when Tigers quarterback Daveion Nash connected for a big pass, and then scored again on their next drive when Nash threw a 10 yard touchdown pass.
Fayette County put one more touchdown on the board in the third quarter on a 19-yard drive following a short opening drive by the Bulldogs deep in their own territory that ended with a blocked punt and the Tigers with the ball on the Cedartown 19.
“We gave a couple of long passes that we should have covered, and we absolutely blew some coverages, and that let them stay around in it,” Hendrix said.
After that, it became a game of drives ended by punts for both teams as the defenses took over. The Bulldogs final shot came when Neal lost the ball, and the Tigers converted three more first downs before time ran out in the game.
It was these small errors, Hendrix said, that hurt Cedartown in the end.
“That’s the difference in the game,” he said. “When you have one or two good teams, those plays are the ones that make the difference and it came out on their side.”
Though the Bulldogs have dropped to 0-5, they start over their season and hopes for a playoff run on Thursday, Oct. 8 when they take on Callaway on the road to open 5-AAA play.
Hendrix said the main thing for his team to remember during the break as they recover from the first half of the season is that “everyone starts back over at 0-0.”
“We just have to keep working and improving, and keep trying to set ourselves up for a run in the playoffs,” he said.