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The Creek is rising

Sandy Creek's Reggie Ellington breaks off a tackle in Friday night's 28-7 win over Villa Rica. Ellington ended up with 82 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Photo/Jamie Sheriff.

Off and running

Mixed results for teams in opening week of football season

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The first week of the season was a mixed bag for the local football teams. While several teams opened up with wins, all know that there are areas where they have to improve.

Region 4-AAAAA

Fayette County (0-1) lost on the road to the Upson Lee Knights, 28-3. The Tigers were down 7-0 with 13 seconds remaining in the first half when kicker Barrett Ratliff connected on a 42 yard field goal to make it 7-3. Upson Lee came on in the second half, scoring two minutes in to the third quarter after intercepting a pass. The Knights would add two more touchdowns and would keep the Fayette County offense in check for the remainder of the game. This week, the Tigers will play their first home game of the season when they host the Jonesboro Cardinals (0-0-1), which tied Mundy’s Mill, 13-13 last Friday.

Starr’s Mill (1-0) played in the Corky Kell Kickoff Classic on Saturday and defeated Walton 20-3. The Panthers got off to a shaky start, allowing Walton’s Justin Forte to gain a bunch of yards rushing right off the bat. The Starr’s Mill defense eventually settled down and became a dominant force, thanks to outstanding play from Jeff Partlow (12 individual tackles), Matt Johnson and Justin Dupont (13 individual tackles). Walton scored first with a 40 yard field goal, but Starr’s Mill answered later in the second quarter when Robby Davis connected with Sean O’Brien who went 78 yards down the field and followed it up with a two yard touchdown run.

The second half started shaky for both teams as both Starr’s Mill and Walton exchanged fumbles. Starr’s Mill’s Antonio Scott rushed for a 64 yard touchdown a little over four minutes into the third quarter and then broke off a 75 yard touchdown run at almost the same point in the fourth quarter to solidify the win. Scott finished with 152 yards rushing, with the majority of the yards coming on two plays.

Coach Mike Earwood also cited good play from Dante Allen, who had an interception, Ben Griffin, Carter Scurry and punter Erick Murphy, who had a 40.1 yard average punt.

Starr’s Mill will play at Pebblebrook (0-0) this Friday. Fans of the Starr’s Mill football team who don’t want to make the drive to Pebblebrook this Friday, can tune into channel 45 on their Comcast Cable and watch the game live at 7:30 p.m. The game will also be simulcast on Sports Talk 790 “The Zone.”

Region 4-AAAA

McIntosh hosted Douglas County last Friday and found themselves in a hole early. Douglas County rushed for a touchdown three minutes in and scored another four minutes later. The scoring continued for the Tigers in the second quarter as they put up four more touchowns and took a 40-0 lead at the half. The Chiefs got some big plays from the defense in the first half, including sacks by Anthony Caldwell and Sean Nerny. The Chiefs held Douglas County scoreless until the fourth quarter with more big stops from Caldwell, Travis Jones and Eric Van Hecke. Tyson Sandlin had a huge run called back due to a holding penalty in the fourth quarter but Nader Juron hit a 46 yard field goal to give McIntosh their first points of the season.

McIntosh (0-1) will play at Villa Rica (0-1) Friday.

Sandy Creek (1-0) got their first win by handily defeating Villa Rica 28-7. The Patriots held Villa Rica scoreless until the fourth quarter when many of the Sandy Creek starters had been pulled and replaced with less experienced and junior varsity players. The starting defense held Villa Rica to 10 yards in the first three quarters.

“We just had a great team effort from the defense,” said Walker, who earned his 250th career victory with the win last Friday. He was quick to deflect the credit, stating “A lot of people, good player and coaches, helped make that happen.”

The Patriot offense was good in places. Reggie Ellington rushed for 82 yards and two touchdowns, while Jamal Rome caught two passes for 14 yards and a touchdown. Ishmael Gordon added another touchdown for Sandy Creek, which gained 196 yards on the ground and 28 yards passing.

The Patriots will be off this week and will play at Northgate (1-0) next Friday.

Whitewater (1-0) outlasted Temple 13-12 last week to start their first varsity season on the right foot. Touchdowns came from Kevin Lewallen and Blake Underwood, while Jonathan Bringuel, Jonathon Ashley, Jonathan Jaurige. and Ryan Johnson had some huge defensive plays. Ashley recorded two interceptions, while Johnson added one. Jaurige had a sack to stop a Temple scoring drive, an interception and two pass knockdowns, while Bringuel had two knockdowns. Leewallen also added an interception as time ran out.

Whitewater will play at Heard County Friday.

Region 5-A

Landmark Christian (0-1) lost to Twiggs County, 34-6. It was a matter of revenge for Twiggs, which lost to the War Eagles, 47-6 in the second round of the playoffs last year. Miles King got the only score for Landmark with a 31 yard touchdown run. Coach Kenny Dallas mentioned offensive lineman Hahns Petty for having a good game and added that quarterback Matt Moody settled in eventually. On defense, Dallas cited linebacker Zachariah Glaize with having a pretty good game.

“This game tells us the truth of where we’re at right now, but we’re not satisified with that,” said Dallas. “We will get better every Friday and we definitely grew up a lot from this game.

Landmark will host Cross Keys (0-1) on Friday.

Our Lady of Mercy (0-1) faced a very talented Pacelli team last Friday and lost 61-0. Still, coach Curtis Barrineau saw reasons for optimism.

“Though we have a long way to go, we played hard,” said Barrineau. “There are a lot of little things to work on. It seemed like we were often one block away from breaking off a run.” The Bobcats hurt themselves early in the game with turnovers on their first three drives.

Our Lady of Mercy also had a scary moment as Matt Sanchez got injured in a collision with a Pacelli player (See sidebar).

This week, Our Lady of Mercy hosts Walker (0-1), a team that has also undergone a coaching change in the off season and is figuring out how to put the pieces together.