TFR Week-12 Cherokee County Football Preview

At stake this week for the Sequoyah Chiefs and Allatoona Bucs is a chance to host a home playoff game. An Allatoona win will secure a first round home game for the Bucs. Sequoyah will need to win and then get help from Creekview. That would force a three-way tie between Sequoyah, Harrison, and Allatoona. Allatoona has won both of the prior matchups against Sequoyah and has really been the more physical team in those games. The Bucs struggled early in the season, but they have reeled off seven straight wins. In those seven wins, The Allatoona defense is only giving up 8.4 points per game. On offense, the Bucs have relied on the legs of Daniel Parsons, who has rushed for 928 yards on the season. The Bucs are averaging 229 yards on the ground per game. So it will be paramount for the Chiefs to slow down the Bucs ground game. Junior kicker Jude Kelley has a big leg and could prove to be an x-factor for the Allatoona.

Meanwhile, the Sequoyah offense has put up some big numbers this season. In their two losses, the Chiefs have not scored over 17 points. Perhaps that‘s a trend tp take note of. On the season, the Sequoyah offense is averaging 34.3 points per game. The Chiefs will need to clean up on some of the miscues that ultimately did them in last week against the Hoyas. Can the Chiefs match Allatoona’s physicality on both lines of scrimmage? We think the Chiefs can, but the Bucs won’t make it easy. We like Sequoyah by 3.

 Sprayberry and River Ridge will face off on Friday as both teams will finish the season outside of the playoff conversation. The young River Ridge Knights have gone through some growing pains. They’ve played one of the most difficult…if not the most difficult schedule in the county. Chico Ward and Amehre Morrison have been bright spots on the offense. Last week Morrison scored twice and the Knights will need more of that to close out the season with a win. River Ridge will also be looking to play a cleaner game, limiting turnovers and miscues.

The Sprayberry Yellow Jackets have played all of the top teams in Region-6 extremely close. The Yellow Jackets are probably a better team than their record indicates. Myles Worthy is a tough back to bring down so River Ridge will have to key in on him. We think that the Jackets are a little too experienced for the Knights this week, Sprayberry wins it by 13.

Coach Adam Carter has changed the personality of the Creekview Grizzly program. With a win this Friday against Harrison, the Grizzlies will secure their first region title in program history. Standing in the way of a perfect regular season is the defending region champ, Harrison Hoyas. They Hoyas escaped Hickory Flat last week with a narrow win over the Sequoyah Chiefs. Harrison didn’t have a pretty game last week, but they got enough offense from Gavin Hall and David Roberts to put themselves in position at a chance for another region title this week.

Creekview has used a formula of disciplined, attacking defense and a steady dose of Cade Radam on offense to help guide them to nine wins. Radam had  a big week against Sprayberry last Friday as he rushed for 210 yards and 2-TDs. On the season Radam his rushed for over 1,300 yards. He has the luxury of running behind Clemson commit John Williams and perhaps one of the top unsigned linemen in the state, Nick Pendley as well as Tanner Taranto and John Clenney among others. The Creekview defense is surrendering 10 points per game on the season. We like that trend to continue this week. This might not be a pretty game, but we like Creekview to win by 6 this week.

The Woodstock Wolverines will host the Walton Raiders to close out the season. Walton has won 7 of the last 8 in the series. Some injuries at key skill positions set the Wolverines back a bit earlier then in the season and ultimately made for an uphill battle for Woodstock to make the post season. Ryan Martin and Trevor Stephens will look to close out with an upset of the Walton Raiders. Walker Ormsby will have a chance to continue to improve as he looks to be the future at quarterback of the future for Coach Budde.

Although the Walton Raiders have already clinched the No. 2 seed in the region, they will look to find a rhythm this week against Woodstock. Walton is averaging 35.5 points per game on offense. Dual threat quarterback Austin Kirksey has a couple of talented wide receivers in Kendall Alford and Dominick Blaylock; these two will certainly be a challenging matchup for the Wolverines defense. It goes without saying that Walton wants to get out of this game healthy to prepare for the post-season. We don’t think that will make them tentative. We like Walton by 14 this week.

The Lassiter Trojans close out the season on the road at Tommy Baker Field against the Cherokee Warriors. It’s been a long season for the Trojans, but Lassiter can play a bit of a spoiler against the Warriors this Friday. The Trojans have some weapons on offense led by quarterback Mitch Storm and running back Nnamdi Orijoke. However, they have had some trouble putting points on the board as they are averaging 11.5 points per game.

Cherokee will be looking to avoid the upset and hang on to the No. 3 seed and avoid a potential first round match-up with the No. 1 team in Class 7-A. The Warriors went win-less last season, so it’s nice to see them back in the post season. Cherokee’s defense held Walton to 27 points last week, which tied a season low for Walton. We would expect another strong performance from the Warriors defense this week. This could be a big senior night for the likes of Grant Hornbuckle, McKinley Hunter, Grant Mogelnicki  and Kerwin Majano. We like the Warriors by 17 this week and a shutout by the Warriors defense certainly wouldn’t surprise us either.

The Etowah Eagles will play their final home game of the season this Friday as they host the Roswell Hornets. Both teams have clinched a playoff berth and while an Etowah win coupled with Cherokee loss would move the Eagles to the 3-seed. But before we get to next week in the playoffs, Etowah will need to slow down a Roswell offense that’s averaging 36.7 points per game. Etowah’s defense has recorded two shutouts on the season.

Meanwhile the Etowah offense has had some fits and starts on offense. They are averaging 17.2 points per game. If Etowah can control the clock and keep this game low scoring, those 17 points could be plenty. We think it might be too tall of a task to ask of the Eagles. Too much Ethan Roberts and Kamonty Jett…we like Roswell by two touchdowns.