Region play started for several high school teams last week and the results were not great for most of them.

Starr’s Mill (2-1) hosted Creekside (3-0) and lost 28-13. The Panthers fell behind early with Seminole quarterback Eric Berry rushing 74 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the game. On Starr’s Mill’s first drive of the game, the Panthers lost tailback Brandon Witta to a leg injury, which hurt their ground attack as they were already playing without Greg Davis. A terrible Creekside punt gave the Panthers ideal field position but they couldn’t convert it to any points due to some penalties. Berry scored his second touchdown of the game on a 31 yard run with 11 seconds remaining in the quarter.
In the second quarter, it was more Berry as he intercepted a pass on the Panther’s second drive of the quarter and ran it back over 50 yards for another touchdown. The Seminoles missed the extra point but would score once again in the half with a run by Kimbi Sutton and two point conversion.

The second half showed Panther fans more of what they were used to. Starr’s Mill started the half with a six minute drive capped off by a one yard touchdown run from Branden Lewis. Dante Cheeks caught passes for three first downs on the drive, matching the Panthers’ first half total for first downs. On Creekside’s first drive of the second half, Berry fumbled and Starr’s Mill recovered, driving for over four minutes but not scoring. The Panthers did score again in the fourth quarter when Davis connected on a pass with Keenan Penson. They didn’t score again though and now have to hope for some teams to upset Creekside if they are to win the region title.

Starr’s Mill had some good defensive play from Matt Sweat, Chris Suddeth and Drew Morrison as well as Kevin Farrow.

Starr’s Mill travels to Westlake (1-2) on Friday, while Creekside hosts Whitewater (2-1).
Whitewater didn’t play a great first half, according to head coach Amos McCreary, as his team entered the locker room tied with the Fayette County Tigers (1-2) at 7-7. They played a much better second half though, making some big plays and scoring 34 points.

“Jay Bright played real well and Cody Haralson and Jerrod Richardson both made some tough catches,” said McCreary. Bright threw two touchdown passes to Richardson and one to Haralson, while rushing for a touchdown of his won. McCreary also cited good defensive play Brice Thomas and Tim Jones but stated that the whole defense played well, especially in the second half.

“They got the ball back to the offense pretty quickly.” McCreary added.

One thing that contributed to a sluggish start for Whitewater was four turnovers in the first half. McCreary and the team knows that four turnovers this Friday at Creekside will mean an almost certain loss.

The McIntosh Chiefs didn’t score in their first two games of the season. They got that monkey off their back very early in their game against Westlake last Friday. The Chiefs’ Eric Willanzheimer got a safety for McIntosh’s first two points of the season and Brett Buehler kicked a field goal in the second quarter to give the team a 5-0 lead. Westlake then scored 33 straight points for the win. Buehler added two interceptions for McIntosh and fullback Mason Davis rushed for 100 yards for the Chiefs in his first game of the season.

“We were more physical than we were in the East Coweta game and we played harder, we didn’t give up,” said Coach Dwight Jones, adding that his team needs to play hard for a full 48 minutes to get a win.

McIntosh (0-3) will play at Banneker (0-2) this week.

Sandy Creek got their second shutout of the young season by defeating Franklin County 34-0. The Patriots got touchdown runs from Anthony Brown, Josh Williams and Brad Bush, while compiling 163 total rushing yards against Franklin County. Quarterback Jake Turing was 10 of 11 passing for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Tim Russell and Braxton Lane were credited with catching the touchdown passes, both in the first half. Lane had four catches for 60 yards.

A lot of credit has to go once again to the Sandy Creek defense though. The Patriots held Franklin County to 141 total yards and intercepted three passes on the night. Jeremy Holt grabbed two and Chris James had one. Robert Jaracz was the team’s leading tackler with nine solo tackles, while Matthew Solomon had three solo tackles, three assists, one tackle for a loss and one sack.

Sandy Creek is off this week They will host Villa Rica on Sept. 29.

The Landmark War Eagles dropped to 2-1 on the season after a loss at home Friday night against the Pacelli Vikings. Pacelli went up early in the game 14-0 before the War Eagles came storming back to take a 15-14 halftime lead. After a great battle, the Vikings took a final 22-21 lead thanks to a two point conversion with 1:06 left in the fourth quarter.

Offensively, Landmark’s Matt Moody accounted for 239 yards and two touchdowns to pace the War Eagle attack. Jimmy Eden gained 106 total offensive yards and a touchdown. Matt Thornton and Tanner Bryant added receiving touchdowns in the game. On the defensive side of the ball the War Eagles once again caused havoc for the opponents by causing five turnovers. Andrew Glaize led the defense with 11 tackles and one fumble recovery. Cole Abernathy and Trey Strickland tallied nine tackles each.

Strickland also had a forced fumble and fumble recovery. Scott Berger and Blake Wyatt each had an interception in the ball game.

The War Eagles now prepare for the Bremen Blue Devils (2-1) in two weeks.

Our Lady of Mercy (0-2) was back in action last Friday with a game against Athens Christian. The Bobcats were down 6-0 after the first quarter and found themselves down 27-0 at the half after an explosive final minute of the second quarter which saw the Eagles score 15 points. It was 34-0 after the third quarter but the Bobcats would get on the board with a touchdown run from Brett Thomas in the fourth quarter. Athens Christian scored again as well to make the final score 41-7.

The Bobcats piled up 212 yards of offense to the Eagles 358. Our Lady of Mercy rushed for 142 yards with 81 of those yards coming from quarterback William Pearl. Pearl threw for 70 yards and two interceptions in the game. Thomas had two catches for 16 yards, while Christian Willis had one catch for 54 yards. Christopher Gair led the team in total tackles with 11, while Christian Brow added 10. Daniel Alexis and Gair each had a sack and Pearl and Ryan Bowman both had fumble recoveries. Patrick Silloway played well for the team on the offensive line, while junior Kendall Augustine got cited by the coaches for good play.

Our Lady of Mercy hosts Towns County (0-1) this Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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