Region races are heating up this time of year. Some of the biggest matchups of the season take place this Friday. Here are our Week-8 Cherokee County Football previews. The Cherokee-Roswell game will be featured in one of our Eight Greats Around the State on Wednesday.
First up, the Woodstock Wolverines will host the Alpharetta Raiders. Both teams are looking for their first region win. Who will break through this week? Meanwhile the Etowah Eagles travel to Milton on Friday. The Etowah defense was really good last week. Can they produce another great effort on the road and pull off the upset?
In Class 6A, Creekview hosts River Ridge, this game features one of the state’s best defenses against one of the best running backs in the state. Will the Creekview defense prevail or will upstart River Ridge find a way to sneak past Creekview on the road?
Finally, Sequoyah hosts Cambridge in Hickory Flat. (This game has been moved to Monday the 26th at 7pm.) The Chiefs are in search of their first regular season and region win this week. Will the have success against the Bears or will Cambridge claw their way to victory?
As always, thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment and share. Best of luck to all of the teams competing on Friday night.
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The Skinny
The Woodstock Wolverines will get back to work this week after dropping their region opener. Woodstock’s sophomore quarterback Dan Comeau continues to impress as he has now thrown for 693 yards and 6-TDs in his three starts. In spite of his recent success, the Wolverines have still only managed three touchdowns in their last two games. On the season, the Wolverines are averaging 21.5 points per game, while allowing 26 points per game.
The Alpharetta Raiders will also be looking for their first region win of the season. The Raiders played competitively with Milton, but could not contain them in the second half. The Raiders are averaging 19 points per game while allowing 23.2 points per game on defense. While there is not really such thing as a good loss, the Raiders three losses have been against teams that are or have been ranked in the top-10 at one point this season…and they’ve been within 14 points of those teams. All that to say, we are still trying to figure out this Alpharetta team half-way through the season. The loser of this game could very well find themselves on the outside looking in of the playoffs. We like Alpharetta by 4 on the road this week.
The Skinny
The Milton Eagles got three rushing touchdowns from Jordan McDonald last week as they pulled away from Alpharetta to win their region opener. On the season, Milton is averaging 26 points per game. Quarterback Devin Farrell showed his versatility last week as he threw and rushed for over 100 yards in the game. Farrell has thrown for over 800 yards and 6-TDs on the season while McDonald is over 300 yards rushing with 7-TDs. Milton’s defense is only allowing 11 points per game.
The Etowah Eagles come into this game in search of their first win of the season. The Eagles were in the ballgame last week with a highly ranked Roswell team, but could not get over the hump. We mentioned his name last week, but Klivert Many looks like he is starting to get going at running back for Etowah. The senior back rushed for over 170 yards and 2-TDs in last week’s contest. Perhaps even more impressive last week was the Etowah defense. That unit forced five turnovers in the game. They will certainly need another big performance from Many and the defense if they are going to pull the upset this week. This is a tough challenge for Etowah and their young offense. We believe Milton is just a little too much this week for Etowah. We like the Milton Eagles by 17.
The Skinny
The Creekview Grizzlies got their second consecutive shutout victory last week as they defeated their county and region rival, Sequoyah. The Grizzlies have one of the best defenses in the state. Perhaps that’s a secret in other parts of the state, but we don’t think it will be for long. They are allowing 5.8 points per game. Isaac Hubert and Grant Anderson are names we’ve mentioned before on that defense, yet it’s the entire unit that is always swarming to the ball. Brody Rhodes and the offense looked good in both the ground game and through the air last week. Tyler Stevens found paydirt twice in last week’s victory.
The River Ridge Knights found themselves in a position we haven’t seen them much this season last week, trailing in a ballgame…Twice! The Knights did get another big game from the state’s leading rusher in Class 6A, Amehre Morrison. Morrison is now over 1,100 yards rushing with 15-TDs. They Knights have shown they aren’t just a one-trick pony, with the likes of Jackson Head and Riley Caines at receiver and Andrew Bingham spelling Morrison. River Ridge is averaging 36.4 points per game. Yet maybe the biggest question mark for the Knights is their defense. They have not been as dominant as the Grizzlies, but they’ve done their part. Perhaps most impressive is holding Riverwood, a team that was averaging 39.5 points per game, to just 14. These are the question that need to be answered: 1. Can Morrison break big gains against the Creekview defense? 2. Can Creekview duplicate their red-zone success from last week? We think Creekview can contain Morrison, but we like him to still get loose a couple of times and we believe that will be just enough. River Ridge by 1.
The Skinny
Despite allowing 24 points last week, the Sequoyah defense did pitch a shutout in the second half of last week’s game. The defense had their backs up against the wall most of the night. The offense struggled last week with a few turnovers that really thwarted any momentum. Matthew Traynor got the nod at quarterback and we saw some of the things he can do running the football as a compliment to Jaden Mitchell. Traynor was also active in the secondary picking off a pass. Defensively, Joseph Silva continues to lead the Chiefs in total tackles, while Avery Born and Harrison Hood continue to make plays on the defensive line for the Chiefs. Sequoyah is allowing 27 points per game, but only 17.6 in their last three contests.
The Cambridge Bears got back on track last week with a shutout win over Centennial. The Bears themselves were the beneficiary of an opportunistic defense as they recorded a pick-6 to help lead the way to victory. Cambridge will rely on the legs of Christian Isibor and Phillip Michael Collins this week. Collins had three rushing touchdowns last week while Isibor added another. It was the Bears first shutout victory since 2015. While Cambridge has relied on Isibor and Collins, quarterback Zach Harris should not be forgotten as he helps keep defenses honest in the passing game. Both teams need a win to keep pace this week for a playoff spot. We believe the Bears have the momentum and like them by 3 over the Chiefs.