It’s Week-9 of the Georgia High School Football season and we are in the thick of region play. It’s hard to believe we only have four weeks until the end of the regular season. Five of the six Cherokee County teams are in action this week as River Ridge is off.
The Cherokee Warriors will be back at Tommy Baker Field as they host the Osborne Cardinals. The Warriors have not played at home in over a calendar month. Both Osborne and Cherokee are in desperate need of a region win. Will the resurgent Cardinals get back to their wining ways, or will the Warriors dial up a win this Friday?
Rivalries are the theme in October in Cherokee County and we have two big ones on tap in Region 6-6A. First up is the Battle of Towne Lake, as Woodstock will look to “paint the Towne red”. However, we suspect the Etowah Eagles have plans of their own to earn a playoff birth. A lot is on the line in this game as a loss by either team might just eliminate them from playoff contention. Finally, the Sequoyah Chiefs will host the Creekview Grizzlies. Both teams are smarting after losses last week. Expect for both teams to look to establish the run game and control the line of scrimmage. Will it be another defensive battle this week or will both offenses get back on track?
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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 Cherokee Warriors lost a tough region opener last week to the Wheeler Wildcats. Cherokee will look to bounce back this week as they are back home at Tommy Baker Field. The Warriors are still looking for stability in the backfield as both Christian Irwin and Malachi Echols have been sharing carries this season. Meanwhile quarterback Tanner Savasir has thrown for 980 yards and 9-TDs. Jace Jones and Kaden “Pops” Jameson have combined to catch 42 passes for 476 yards and 3-TDs. The Warriors are averaging 17.6 points per game, but the defense is allowing 28.5. Cherokee’s defense has sacked opposing quarterbacks 20 times this season, with Kyan Simmons leading the way with a team high8-sacks. Simmons is second on the team in total tackles while junior linebacker Chase Montgomery leads the team with 57 total tackles. The challenge doesn’t get any easier this week as the Warriors will need to find a way to slow down a resurgent Osborne Cardinal team.
The Osborne Cardinals are off to their best start since 1994 when they went 9-2 and won their first 8 games of the season. Last week, the Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season to Top-10 and region foe, Kennesaw Mountain. Even after being shut out last week, the Cardinals are averaging 41.8 points per game while the defense is allowing 15.1. Through his first five games, quarterback Deuce Burr has thrown for almost 1,100 yards and 15-TDs. Meanwhile Khalif Walters has been a workhouse on the ground with 676 rushing yards in his first five games and was leading the team in receiving yards in that same time span.
Both Cherokee and Osborne will be fighting for their playoff lives as it’s tough sledding from here on out for both of these teams. The Warriors will need to shore up their run defense this week if they are going to get their first region win. We expect this game to come down to the wire, but we like the Warriors by a field goal.
The Skinny
The Woodstock Wolverines will be back at home after a tough game last week at Allatoona. The Wolverines were able to muster 156 yards of offense, but were only able to find pay-dirt once. (That is just under their average of 159.8 yards per game going into last week’s game.) On the season, Woodstock is now averaging 6.1 points per game while the defense is allowing 49.7. Woodstock’s offense has gone through fits and starts this season and we believe they will look to once again get the ground game going this week.
The Etowah Eagles were off last week. They will be looking for their first region win of the season and also looking to stop their two game skid. Etowah will look to get dual threat quarterback Xavier Mahoney going again. He found success in his last outing with his elusive speed, combined with some tough running in between the tackles by the buffalo, Reece Wehr. Perhaps a unit that doesn’t get enough credit for Etowah is their secondary. Last time out, Jamir Maxime and Frank Mosley were very effective in defending against the deep ball; absolutely blanketing the Creekview receivers and taking away the deep threats. Etowah’s offense is averaging 24.5 points per game, while the defense is allowing 22.6.
We expect both teams to be focused in this rivalry game. Etowah seems to be the clear favorite, but don’t think that Woodstock will just lay down. The Battle of Towne Lake is a big rivalry and we expect Woodstock to play their most inspired ball of the season this week. Even with that said, we believe Etowah has too many weapons on offense. We like the Eagles by 19.
The Skinny
The Sequoyah Chiefs will come back home to Hickory Flat after a tough road game last week. The Chiefs were unable to get much offense going last week against Rome. On the season, Sequoyah is averaging 14.7 points per game and allowing 27.2. Going into last week Sequoyah was averaging 122.4 yards per game on the ground. The ground game will look back to get back on track this week with running backs Jackson Hancock and Tyler Bell. The defense will also look to get back on track as well this week. Prior to the game against Rome, they had held their last three opponents to just 9.3 points per game.
The Creekview Grizzlies are coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to county and region rival River Ridge. The loss drops the Grizzlies into a three way tie for second place with Sequoyah and River Ridge. Last week, the Grizzlies ground game was held in check as Isaac Hubert’s string of 100 yard rushing games came to an end. However, quarterback Austin Guest was efficient through the air finding receivers Jackson Stanley, Cal Shubert and Camden Lusk running open against River Ridge’s man to man defense in the secondary. The Grizzlies are averaging 19.2 points per game and allowing 19.1.
Perhaps a little of the luster was taken from this game with both team’s dropping a game last week, but we don’t believe it makes this week’s matchup any less crucial. The winner stays in contention for a home playoff spot. We expect this game to be closer than those in recent years. Expect a bounce back game for Sequoyah’s defense. However, we think the Grizzly’s balanced offense will be the difference here. Creekview by 4.