We move into Week-2 of the high school football season in Cherokee County as all six county teams will be in action again this Friday night. The Woodstock Wolverines and the Hiram Hornets will square off in Woodstock. Both teams are looking for their first win of the season. Who will be able to put their Week-1 loss behind them and get back on the right track? Over in Hickory Flat, the Sequoyah Chiefs will welcome in the Rabun Gap Eagles for a matchup that will future a clash of differing offensive styles. Can the Chiefs get the ground game going again, or will Rabun Gap control the skies with their passing game?
The Creekview Grizzlies will travel to Powder Springs to take on the Hillgrove Hawks in a non-region tilt. It’s a battle of sophomore quarterbacks. Will it be Creekview’s Austin Guest or Hillgrove’s Toryn Wilkins that leads their team to victory? The River Ridge Knights will take their two quarterback system on the road to face the Pope Greyhounds. River Ridge is riding high after their Week-1 win. Will Pope show signs of preseason rust or will they be fresh and ready for a tussle with the Knights? Finally, the Etowah Eagles host the Cherokee Warriors in the County’s longest standing rivalry game. The Eagles are 1-0 and looking to defeat their county rival for the first time in three years. Can Cherokee bounce back this week, or are these Etowah Eagles the real deal?
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Special thanks to the Georgia Helmet Project for providing each team’s helmet. You can find all of their work here: http://gahelmetproject.com
Special thanks to the Georgia Helmet Project for providing each team’s helmet. You can find all of their work here: http://gahelmetproject.com
Historical records are provided by the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. (ghsfa.org)
The Skinny
The Woodstock Wolverines will look to bounce back after dropping a game to the vastly improved Osborne Cardinals last week. The Wolverines will look to make improvements on the ground and through the air. If Woodstock is going to rebound, they will have to take better care of the ball as they turned it over three times last week. Developing consistency on offense is a theme for most teams in Cherokee County this season and Woodstock is no exception. Coach Hoff will have to regroup quickly as they take steps to improve prior to region play.
The Hiram Hornets also lost their first game of the season to Paulding County. Hiram will be looking for a breakthrough as they have struggled to find the win column as well over the last two seasons. The Hornets have been able to put points on the board averaging 19 points per game in both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, but their defense has surrendered 33 and 40 points per game respectively in the previous two seasons. Hiram graduated their top passer and running back from a year ago. They do however return their top four receivers from the 2021 season. Expect for Samir Wiley to take over under center while Jamarion Whatley should get the bulk of the carries for the Hornets.
Woodstock’s secondary will be tested again as Hiram’s Wiley is an athletic passer with very capable receivers. If the Wolverines can’t get any rhythm on offense, it could spell a long night for Wooodstock. We like the Hornets by 17.
The Skinny
The Sequoyah Chiefs will look for their first win of the season as they invite the Rabun Gap Eagle’s to Hickory Flat this week. The Chiefs were stymied offensively by Lambert last week and will look to get the offense in sync in Week-2. Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but the Chiefs will certainly need some consistency on offense. As we mentioned previously, and we will certainly mention again in these previews, the offense will need to sustain a few drives to help keep their defense off the field. Bright spots for the Chiefs last week include Jaxon Nesbitt who threw for over 200 yards and a TD, Jackson Hancock and Bretton Darling in the secondary.
Rabun Gap will be looking for their first win of the season as they come calling. The Eagles play in the North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association. Rabun Gap advanced to the finals of the NCISAA Division I playoffs last season and graduated several seniors. The Eagles do bring in a new starting quarterback, Gavin Owens, who is projected to be a Power-5 quarterback in a couple of years when his high school playing days are over. Rabun Gap struggled to run the ball a bit last week. It will be interesting to see if they make that a point of emphasis coming into this week.
For our friends in Hickory Flat, do not be deceived by this small Northeast Georgia private school. There is plenty of talent on the Rabun Gap Roster. We will see if the Sequoyah offense can turn some of their drives in to points this week. We believe Sequoyah will be able to move the ball, but will Like Rabun Gap by 10.
The Skinny
The Hillgrove Hawks will face their second consecutive Cherokee County opponent as they will be at home this week in Powder Springs. Like the Grizzlies, the Hawks are replacing several starters at key positions. Last week, Hillgrove struggled early with penalties and turnovers. Expect ball security to be a point of emphasis. Hillgrove did manage to find the end zone twice in their opener. We expect quarterback Toryn Wilkins to become more efficient as he gets comfortable running the offense.
It’s not often that we see the Creekview Grizzlies get shutout. But perhaps more surprising is the fact that the defense allowed 28 points in Week-1. But not all is doom and gloom in Grizzly County. Quarterback, Austin Guest showed some great play making ability to extend some drives, but ultimately some untimely penalties and a stingy Cambridge defense denied the Grizzlies any access to pay-dirt. We expect Creekview to continue to improve as Guest gets more comfortable under center. We will also see how the running game improves this week. That has been a staple for Creekview and expect first year starter Nigel Agyemang to improve week by week as he gets comfortable in the backfield.
Both of these teams find themselves in similar positions looking for some confidence and consistency before they get into region play. We believe the Creekview defense gets back on track this week and helps hold Hillgrove at bay. Grizzlies by 10.
The Skinny
The Pope Greyhounds were off last week and will play their season opener this week as they host the River Ridge Knights. Pope is coming off oa season in which they qualified for the post season for the first time in three years. They return quarterback Patrick Lowe who threw for over 1,800 yards and 14-TDs. However, his supporting cast at the offensive skill positions will have to be replaced as Pope loses their top running back and their three top receivers from last season to graduation. Sosuke Watanabe is the teams most experienced receiver coming back while Kris Hayes has the most experience in the backfield for Pope. They Greyhounds averaged 23 points per game last season. It will be interesting to watch and see if they can duplicate those efforts this season.
The River Ridge Knights used their two quarterback system as both Ethan Spector and Isaiah Coughlan to help guide their offense last Friday. This comes as no surprise as we saw both of these quarterbacks get snaps in the fall scrimmage and Coach Collins even eluded to the fact that both young men would play. The River Ridge faithful should be happy to see Grant Hollier on the sidelines. He’s a young receiver that can help stretch the field for the Knights. Combining Hollier with Jackson Head certainly creates a potentially potent receiving duo for the Ridge. A promising sign for River Ridge was that the defense only allowed one offensive touchdown in last week’s game.
We expect Pope to present a stiffer test for River Ridge, even without having played in Week-1. If River Ridge can put pressure on the Greyhounds Lowe, we like their chances. This game will be closer than Week-1 for the Ridge, but we like them to edge Pope. Knights by 4.
The Skinny
The Etowah Eagles wasted no time getting their first win of the season as they downed Lassiter last week. It was their first season opening win in three tries. Last week, the Eagles won with Xavier Mahoney and Jack Strickland splitting time at QB, while Reece “ Buffalo” Wehr had a great outing at running back to help pace the Eagles. Etowah held Lassiter scoreless in the second half to complete their comeback victory. This week, they defense will look for another lock down performance. Meanwhile, if this combination of Strickland, Mahoney, Wehr and Cacho can stay consistent, Etowah might be challenging for a playoff spot come region play.
The Cherokee Warriors took one on the chin against Cartersville last Friday. The Warriors could not really get much consistency on offense and the defense was on the field a little more than they would like. There certainly were some bright spots from the Warriors as the pass rush Was effective, especially from J.D. Burn and Kyan Simmons. The young Cherokee offense will need to find some rhythm this week and take some steps forward. Cherokee is only returning two starters on offense and has a new offensive coordinator.
The County’s oldest rivalry game will have its 39th installment on Friday. Last season, the Eagles took the Warriors to the brink before falling to some late game heroics by the Cherokee. Etowah looks to be the team playing with a little more confidence. We believe their experience on the offense line is the difference in this one. Eagles by 6.