Friday night storylines: North Murray opens region play, Murray travels to Union County looking to build on last week’s win

Published 6:01 pm Thursday, September 5, 2024

North Murray begins region play with LFO at home

After a week off, North Murray opens up Region 7-2A play Friday night against a former region rival that rejoins the Mountaineers’ region this season.

North Murray plays Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Friday night at 7:30.

Since North Murray’s first full season of play in 2010, the Mountaineers had shared a region with LFO.

That ended after 2021 when North Murray fell down into 2A at the previous GHSA reclassification cycle, but now LFO is down into 2A to join them.

North Murray is 9-3 overall against the Warriors, including the last three matchups. The last game between the two was a 56-17 win for North Murray in 2021.

That win came over an LFO team that went 1-9, but, after four straight seasons of no more than two wins, the Warriors may be on the upswing.

LFO comes in at a 1-1 record that matches North Murray’s having beaten Ridgeland 19-9 and fallen in a close game to Catoosa rival Heritage 28-21. LFO, like North Murray, was off last week.

North Murray is starting its eight-game region slate after a pair of non-region games against Whitfield County teams. North Murray shut down Dalton 22-9 to begin the year and had some early success against Northwest Whitfield before the Bruins pulled away for a 29-12 victory.

After first win, Murray County aims to build momentum at Union County

After the rushing duo of Jagger Reed and John Bickford led Murray County to its first win of the season — a 34-14 win over Southeast Whitfield — last week, the Indians are hoping to continue the momentum as they return to Region 7-2A play.

Murray County, which played its first three games at home, will hit the road for the first time this season as it travels to Blairsville to play Union County Friday night at 7:30.

Union, which went 8-4 and made the Class 2A playoffs last year, is 0-2 so far with a pair of lopsided losses. A 33-0 defeat to Gilmer in the opener was followed by a 42-7 loss to Fannin County in week two, and the Panthers were idle last week.

Murray took its own two heavy losses to start the year, falling 42-14 to Towns County and 48-7 to Ringgold, but might have found a recipe for offense in the win over 0-3 Southeast, with Reed and Bickford both piling up more than 200 yards apiece.

It’s the first matchup between Union County and Murray County despite Murray playing football since 1950 and Union County since 1957.

Dalton travels to Rabun County hoping to get a win before region play begins

After going 0-3 in its first three non-region games, Dalton is hitting the road in search of its first win before the Region 7-4A schedule starts next week.

Dalton makes the long trek across the northern side of the state to Tiger to play Rabun County Friday night at 7:30.

Rabun County is 1-1, having outdueled White County 40-28 before falling 28-7 to Fannin County. The Wildcats were idle last week.

Dalton is hoping to get its offense going Friday. After scoring nine points in a 22-9 season-opening loss to North Murray, the Catamounts have been shut out in back-to-back weeks, falling 42-0 to state power North Oconee and 12-0 to Northwest Whitfield.

The Catamount defense held its own for most of the night against a powerful Northwest offensive attack though, and Dalton will hope to build on its defensive performance as the offense catches up. Rabun gives up an average of 34 points per game, so the Cats could have an opportunity to get some more points on the board.

It’s the first game between Dalton, a 4A school, and Rabun, which is in Class A DI. The Wildcats have been a small school power in recent years, having reached the state finals in 2017, the semifinals in 2020 and at least the state quarterfinals in each year since 2015. Gunner Stockton, currently a redshirt sophomore backup quarterback at Georgia, captained the Wildcats before his 2022 graduation.

Southeast Whitfield looks to avoid 0-4 start as Raiders host Armuchee

The Murray County rushing attack burned Southeast Whitfield for more than 400 ground yards in the Indians’ 34-14 win last week, and the Raider rushing defense will likely be put to the test again Friday.

Southeast (0-3) hosts an Armuchee team (2-0) that put up 352 rushing yards across eight different ball carriers in a 41-18 win over Cherokee Christian last week.

The Raiders play Armuchee Friday night at 7:30.

Class A DI Armuchee is 2-0, having beaten Ridgeland 13-10 in week two after starting the season with an open date, then downing Cherokee Christian.

After starting the season with two shutout losses — a 62-0 defeat to Gordon Central followed by a 32-0 loss to Coosa — Class 4A Southeast got a little more offense going against Murray County.

Sam Ramirez rushed for a pair of touchdowns for the Raiders against Murray, but, if the Southeast defense can’t hold the rushing attack of Armuchee in check, the Southeast offense might need to score more to hang in the game.

Southeast is 2-2 all time against Armuchee, with all games coming since the two teams first met in 2020. Southeast beat Armuchee 28-21 in 2022, but Armuchee won 53-10 last year.

The Indians are looking for their first 3-0 start since the 2021 squad started 4-0 on the way to a 5-4 finish.

Trio of local teams on bye week

After three weeks of play, three local teams will get an off night Friday before resuming play next week.

Northwest Whitfield, after its 3-0 start, will be off before stepping back into action to host Southeast Whitfield Sept. 13.

Coahulla Creek, which sits at 0-3, will play Sonoraville on Sept. 13, while Christian Heritage will open Region 7-A DI play with Dade County at home on Sept. 13.