By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Sports Editor

The high school football season started last Friday and several local teams started off in the right direction.

Sandy Creek players started their first season under new coach Rodney Walker with a huge 31-7 win over Morrow High School. Morrow was one of the strongest teams in the region and a state playoff team last year.

The Patriots got lots of offense, including two touchdowns, from J.R. Lemon. Eric Frazier returned to the gridiron for Sandy Creek this year, after an infection kept him out of a majority of last season's games. Frazier scored a touchdown, as did Pokoya Criner.

The Patriots will bring their explosive ground attack to Henry County Friday night. Henry County lost to Jones County in their season opener, 30-6. The Warhawks went two and eight like the Patriots last year, but they have talented players and are looking to redeem themselves this season as well. Sandy Creek must stop running backs Rodney Brown and Steven Tallman if they want to match last season's win total by the second week of the season.

Fayette County opened up the season with a stellar fourth quarter and a win over the Paulding County Patriots. The Tigers scored on their opening drive and took a 14-7 lead into the locker room at half time. Much of their success came from tailback Wes Clark, who rushed for 58 yards in the first two quarters. The third quarter saw the Tigers push their lead to 17-7, but Paulding came right back with a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter. They missed the extra point and trailed the Tigers 17-13.

The Tigers then went on to score 14 unanswered points, including a 74-yard touchdown run by Clark. Fayette County won 31-13 and will host the Newnan Cougars Friday night. Newnan defeated their first opponent, Campbell, 28-17. The Cougars are stacked this season, returning a lot of starters and shooting for a playoff spot, while some of the typically stronger programs struggle through rebuilding.

The season started off similar to last year for the McIntosh Chiefs, as they opened up against the Pebblebrook Falcons. The Falcons are an enormous, talented and deep team that went to the playoffs last year. They defeated the Chiefs 56-19. There are reasons for the Chiefs to be optimistic, though. Last year, the Chiefs did not score more than once against Pebblebrook. This year's squad at McIntosh is young, inexperienced, and missing some very talented players due to graduation and expulsion.

The Chiefs can also look forward to a much closer game with this week's opponent. McIntosh will host LaGrange Friday night and won't have to worry about corralling last year's superstar Bruce Thornton again. Thornton graduated and moved to the University of Georgia, but was held to his lowest rushing total last season by The Chiefs. The Grangers lost their season opener to Troup County, 12-7.

The fourth county team, the Starr's Mill Panthers, played their opener Saturday night at Tiger Stadium in Fayetteville. They hosted the Riverdale Raiders and defeated them 17-13. Riverdale committed two early turnovers that stalled their drives. The Panthers, not able to match Riverdale in speed or skill, did not let the game get away from them. They used a ground attack to capitalize on the Raider turnovers.

Though the official stats were not in at the time the paper went to press, Craig Maddock unofficially ran for 127 yards, Ladon Cooper ran for 139 yards and quarterback Brad McClaren rushed for 66 yards.

Defensively, Starr's Mill played very well. Matt Fuhrmann had 16 tackles and a fumble recovery and Jason Laney had a key fumble recovery and an interception. The panthers will meet the Morrow Mustangs this Friday at Tara Stadium in Jonesboro.

“We played better defense this year, but we can still do a lot better,” said Coach Mike Earwood. “There were open field tackles missed.” Despite Morrow's blowout loss to Sandy Creek, Starr's Mill still respects their opponents. “Morrow graduated a number of players from last year, but we can't take anyone lightly this year,” said Earwood.

Back to the Top of the PageBack to the Sports Home Page