It’s hard to believe, but we are approaching the halfway point to the 2020 season. Here are our Week-5 Cherokee County Game Previews. (The Cherokee-Cartersville game will be previewed with our Eight Greats Across the State Preview on Wednesday.) First up, Chattahoochee looks to bounce back from last weeks as the host the red-hot River Ridge Knights. Both teams have an explosive offense, but are the Knights contenders or pretenders?
The Battle of the Bears will take place in Milton as Cambridge hosts Creekview. This will be the 9th meeting between the two teams. Creekview has dominated the series winning all of the eight previous meetings. Can Cambridge but the skids on that streak?
Johns Creek hosts Sequoyah as both teams look for their first win of the season. Which ground game will reign supreme on Friday night? Meanwhile, the Woodstock Wolverines will take a long ride up I-75 to take on the Calhoun Yellow Jackets. With the Wolverines passing attack be enough to upend the Jackets?
Finally, the North Cobb Warriors host the Etowah Eagles. North Cobb looks to continue their winning ways. Can the upstart Eagles pull the big upset this week?
As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment and share. Best of luck to all of the teams competing this Friday.
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The Skinny
After lighting up the scoreboard in Week-1, Chattahoochee was limited to one touchdown after facing a very talented Alpharetta squad last week. The lone score came on a Jaylen Smith run. But don’t be fooled be the Cougars low point output in Week-2. Smith and the offense can put up big numbers. In Week-1 he passed for 334 yards and 5-TDs and also rushed for an additional 2-TDs. The Cougars also put up 56 points in Week-1. Additionally, the Chattahoochee defense limited Alpharetta to 21 points last week and kept the team in the game throughout.
The River Ridge Knights are perhaps the hottest team in Cherokee County. The Knights have outscored their opponents 109-45 in the first three games of the season. Amehre Morrison leads the Knights with 509 yards and 7-TDs while quarterback Carson Lathem is second in Cherokee County in passing with 486 yards and 6-TDs. The Knights receiving trio of Jackson Head, Riley Caines and Andrew Bingham have been steady all season. On defense, Brian Bradley, Liam Bruton, Hunter Deriso and Scotty Rutherford are always around the ball making plays on defense. The Knights have been pretty good on defense, but they will need to be great to keep Chattahoochee from lighting up the scoreboard. We think there will be a lot of points scored this week. We like the Knights on the road by 2.
The Skinny
The Cambridge Bears open up region play with a familiar opponent as they host the Creekview Grizzlies. The Bears struggled a bit last week to get a consistent ground game going against North Forsyth. Phillip Michael Collins and Christian Isibor had big games on the ground in Week-1, combining for 191 yards and 4-TDs. Hayden Gardella is a big threat at receiver for the Bears. He is coming off of a junior campaign with over 800 yards receiving.
The Creekview Grizzlies will look to get back into the win column after falling to cross-county rival Cherokee last week. The Grizzlies offense was able to move the ball a good bit, but they were snake bit by penalties and a stingy Cherokee defense once they got inside the redzone. We expect for Creekview to establish their rushing attack behind Tyler Stevens. Stevens was tough inside the tackles last week where yards were at a premium. Dual threat quarterback Brody Rhodes found his way into the end zone last week with his feet. He also had 130 yards through the air. The Creekview defense has been downright stingy this season. They allowed one offensive score last week and are allowing 9.67 points per game. Owen Mello and Cale Williams blanketed the Cherokee receivers for most of the game last week, while Grant Anderson was flying to the ball all night. The defensive front made it very difficult very A.J. Swann to get much time in the pocket. There is an old saying in sports that defense travels. We think that applies this week and like the Grizzlies defense to slow down the Bears this week. Creekview by 10.
The Skinny
The Johns Creek Gladiators will be looking for their first win of the season on Friday. The Gladiators had a very challenging pre-region schedule including games against two top ranked teams in 6A & 7A. Dylan Parr found pay dirt last week but it was not enough to defeat a very talented West Lake team. Johns Creek defense has been put to the test in the opening weeks. Although they are surrendering 25 points per game, their opponents were high-powered offenses (Milton and Westlake).
The Sequoyah Chiefs return to action after a week off last week. The Chiefs have used two different quarterbacks this season. Matthew Traynor and Connor Gellat are a combined 25/43 for 289 yards and 3-TDs. The workhorse for the Chiefs offense has been Jaden Mitchell, with 297 rushing yards, 93 receiving yards and 5 total TDs. Mitchell is joined in the backfield by Aidan Moore and Jack Piskorz who have combined to rush for 144 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs defense answered the bell last week, surrendering only 15 points. However, on the year, Sequoyah is allowing 32.3 points per game. Both teams will look to establish the run this week. Whoever has the most success on the ground should be in good position to win this one. Points may be at a premium, but we like Johns Creek by 8.
The Skinny
It’s homecoming week in Calhoun. The Yellow Jackets are coming off of a huge over Ridgeland last week in their home opener. Jerrian Hames led the way a week ago with 152 yards and 3-TDs. He’s certainly been the bell cow early in the season for Calhoun, but don’t lose sight of Will Seamons. He set the school record in receiving yards two week’s ago against McCallie (TN) with 221 yards on 7 catches with 2-TDs. Perhaps the biggest threat for Calhoun is the versatile Jake Prather, who will line up at linebacker, safety, quarterback and wide receiver for the Yellow Jackets. Calhoun is averaging 34.2 points per game while the defense is surrendering 14.7 points per game.
The Woodstock Wolverines got back to .500 last week as they topped Campbell 48-7. The Wolverines handed quarterbacking duties to sophomore Dan Comeau and he responded by throwing for 281 yards and 5-TDs. (What a way to make a statement!) The Wolverines appear to have found rhythm in the passing game and that certainly could spell trouble for their opponents later on this season. The Woodstock defense continues to improve each week. After surrendering 57 points in the first two weeks, they’ve now given up 23 points in the last two games. Calhoun’s defensive backs will be tested by the Woodstock air attack and Woodstock’s defense will have to slow down Jerrian Hames. Both are easier said than done, but we believe Calhoun is just too tough at home this week…Yellow Jackets by 3.
The Skinny
The North Cobb Warriors had their first bye week and are 3-0 for the second consecutive season. The Warriors scored big wins against Buford and Alpharetta in the previous two weeks. Quarterback Malachi Singleton powers an offense that is averaging 32.3 points per game. Wide receiver Christian Moss had 11 receptions and 133 yards in Week-2 against Buford. Defensively, linebacker Joshua Josephs seems to always find his way to the ball. His last time out, he had 10 tackles, five QB hurries and two interceptions.
The Etowah Eagles come in to the game looking for their first win of the season. The Eagles are 0-3 for the first time since 2005, which is also the last time Etowah was held scoreless in a game. In spite of some the struggles the Eagles have had on offense, running back Klivert Many was able to reach the century mark in rushing last week. The Etowah defense is allowing 26.6 points per game. Last week they limited North Forsyth to three offensive touchdowns, (with the fourth coming on special teams). Etowah’s young starters are growing up, but North Cobb is an extremely talented team. We like North Cobb at home this week by three touchdowns.