Week One of Cherokee County Football is in the books and we must say it is nice to see the young men back on the gridiron. This week there are five county teams in action. The Creekview Grizzlies will take the week off after a thrilling Week-1 victory over Etowah.
The River Ridge Knights will host the Woodstock Wolverines in their home opener. River Ridge put up some big numbers offensively last week; can they duplicate that effort against David Daniel and the Wolverines defense? Etowah travels out of county to face Forsyth Central. They’ll be looking to spoil the season opener for Central who had their Week-1 game cancelled. Will the Etowah offense be able to find their rhythm this week?
Finally, the Cherokee Warriors host the Sequoyah Chiefs. Cherokee is looking to pick up where they left off in Week-1. Their defense looked impressive. Meanwhile Sequoyah will be looking to derail their rival as they look to pick up their first win of the season. This game will feature two of the top backs in Cherokee County in Keith Adams, Jr. and Jaden Mitchell.
As always, thanks for reading. Please feel free to share and comment. Best of luck to all of the teams competing on Friday night!
The Skinny
The River Ridge Knights will be at home for the first time in the young season as they host county rival Woodstock. The Knights are coming off of a big win against Lassiter that saw them put up the third most points in school history. River Ridge will look for another big performance out of Amehre Morrison as he rushed for 225 yards and 14 carries with 4-TDs. But the Knights are no one-trick pony. Jackson Head and Andrew Bingham also had good showings for River Ridge last Friday and will look to duplicate the success on Friday. The River Ridge defense performed well last week also. But expect them to be tested a little more this week by Woodstock.
The Woodstock Wolverines won their season opener against rival Sequoyah in a back and forth affair. The Wolverines were successful in getting Sebastian Moss and David Daniel involved on both sides of the ball. Daniel was making plays all over the field on offense, defense and special teams, blocking a punt while also setting up the go ahead touchdown with a 70 yard kickoff return. Meanwhile, Moss provided what would be the deciding touchdown with a pick 6 with under a minute to play in the game. The Wolverines defense will need to continue that trend this week as River Ridge looks poised to mix up the run and the pass, (a little more than the Sequoyah). Our biggest questions is whether or not the Knights defense can contain Daniel, Moss and Hampton. Containing the stretch plays that Woodstock runs out of the shotgun will be key. As well as making Preston Lawrence uncomfortable in the pocket. Woodstock survived a close game last week, but we think it is finally Knight time. We are putting the Wolverines on upset alert. River Ridge by 3.
The Skinny
The Forsyth Central Bulldogs open their season this week as they host the Etowah Eagles in Cumming. The Bulldogs had their season opener scratched due to a confirmed COVID case at their would be opponent, Blessed Trinity. This season, the Bulldogs will return quarterback Bronson Landreth back to the backfield along with fullback Eli Ruis. In 2019, the duo combined for 1,172 yards and 12-TDs on the ground. Central only attempted 67 passes last season. Look for them to establish the ground game behind East Carolina commit Canaan “CC” Clark and Robby Watson. They should be able to provide plenty of room for the Bulldog’s ground game. Defensively Nick Forrester returns as the teams leading tackler. Clark will also see time on the defensive side of the ball as well.
The Etowah Eagles lost a heartbreaker in Week-1, but will be looking to right the ship. After falling behind early, the Eagles defense tightened up and ultimately held on to a slim 13-7 lead until the final seconds of the ballgame. It is certainly the type of defensive effort that we have come to expect from Etowah. But as one might suspect, most offenses are a little behind defense at this point of the season. We look for Etowah to get a little more comfortable on offense this week and believe establishing the ground game will be a key for the Eagles. This game should will be another close matchup early. However, we like the Eagles offense to be playing with a little more consistency. Etowah by 6.
The Skinny
The County’s second oldest rivalry will take place at Tommy Baker Field at Cherokee High School this Friday as Cherokee hosts the Sequoyah Chiefs. Cherokee is coming off of a big opening week win over Carver-Atlanta. The defense was stout keeping Carver out of the end zone until the final quarter. This week, look for Cherokee to serve up a heavy dose of Keith Adams, Jr. He appeared to run harder and harder as the game progressed. We’d be remised if we did not mention the Cherokee defense and turnovers. They were up to their old tricks again last week, intercepting two passes and recovering a fumble. Whether or not they can continue that this week should go a long way into determining the outcome in this matchup.
Meanwhile, the Sequoyah Chiefs fought to final horn as they fell to Woodstock by 6 last week. It was sophomore Matthew Traynor who emerged as the starter for the Chiefs under center. He will certainly have his hands full this week against a stingy Cherokee defense. Look for the Chiefs to try to keep the Warriors off balance with backs Jaden Mitchell, Aiden Moore, and Jack Piskorz. As with most games, this one will be won at the line of scrimmage. Biggest question for us is whether the Chiefs offensive line can give the young quarterback a little more time in the pocket. At this point in the season, we give the edge to Cherokee on both lines of scrimmage. We think it will be close early, but we like the Warriors by 17 over the Chiefs.