Cedartown’s season cut short at St. Pius
The Cedartown Bulldogs’ football season came to a close on Friday night. On a chilly, rainy, and windy night in Chamblee, Cedartown was upended by the St. Pius X Golden Lions 38-6 in the first round of the GHSA Football Playoffs.
Following a scoreless first quarter. St. Pius X opened scoring early in the second quarter, giving them a 7-0 lead. On the next possession, Cedartown had their best offensive drive of the game when senior running back and West Virginia commit Tony Mathis punched it in on a short yardage touchdown run. A missed extra point made it 7-6. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, this is the closest the game would be.
The Golden Lions would score once more to make it 14-6 with only a few minutes left in the half before the Bulldogs would fumble
the ball near midfield. Thanks to
the good field position, St. Pius X was able to add a field goal on the last play of the half, extending their lead to 17-6.
St. Pius X would add three touchdowns after halftime. Quarterback Connor Egan, fullback James Bir, and running back Mason Benefield found success running their wishbone/triple option offense against a fatigued Bulldog defense in the second half. Cedartown put together a few promising drives but could not score again.
The Golden Lion defense deserves credit as well: they limited Cedartown’s running back duo of Tony Mathis and Kobe Prior to well under 200 yards the whole game, and much of their yardage came in the first half. Junior quarterback Taji Hudson had one of his best passing performances all season, completing 14 of 19 passes for over 140 yards.
St. Pius ended the night with 375 yards of offense.
Cedartown’s season ends at 5-6 overall. Coach Doyle Kelley said after the game that he hates to end the season in the manner they did, especially for seniors such as Mathis, Dalton Bowman, Zahquan Frazier, and Tim Brown, as well as all the other seniors who put in so much work over the past four seasons.
The Bulldogs came into the matchup 5-5 overall with a 3-3 region record, claiming the fourth and final seed in Region 5-4A for the playoffs.
Despite Friday’s loss, Coach Kelley said the future looks bright.
“They are over 20 juniors coming back next year, and they are some very talented guys,” Kelley said. “We will be right back at it on Monday, preparing for next season.”
St. Pius X put together a 9-1 record heading into the game last Friday, having gone 4-0 and undefeated in region play. They came into the game ranked fifth in the state for Class 4A, having their only loss coming on opening weekend to third-ranked Blessed Trinity 35-13.
The 10-1 Lions continue on to face Marist this Friday night.