Bruisin’ Bruins: Stingy defense boosts Northwest entering region play

Published 4:30 pm Thursday, September 19, 2024

Through an undefeated four games, Northwest Whitfield’s offense has been good, as all-region quarterback Gavin Nuckolls, running back Cameron Collins and a host of receivers have led Northwest to 29.75 points per game.

But, as the Bruins get set to begin Region 7-3A play Friday night against Gilmer, it’s the defense that’s been the story for Northwest and has helped lead them to the No.6 ranking in Class 3A.

Led by a dominant defensive line, a laudable linebacker group and a solid secondary, Northwest has given up just 19 total points all year — good for an average of just 4.75 per game — and seven of those points weren’t even allowed by the Bruin defense. Southeast Whitfield scored a touchdown on a kickoff return in a 43-7 victory for Northwest, a game in which the Bruins held the Raiders to negative offensive yards.

The Bruin defense has pitched a shutout in three games — Southeast’s offense didn’t score, and Coahulla Creek and Dalton both failed to register a point overall. The only game in which the Bruins gave up any offensive points, a 29-12 Northwest win, came against a North Murray team that has scored at least 21 in each of its other games and hung 40 last week.

It starts up front with players like senior defensive linemen Adrian Madrigal and Everett Williams. Off the edge from linebacker comes Lucas Amos, who flashed in the Dalton game with 13 total tackles, four tackles for loss and three sacks. Linebacker Caden Ramsey racks up tackles, and, while Northwest’s secondary hasn’t faced much pass-heavy offensive tests so far, the Bruins have athletic defensive backs like Rayvon Foster, Kyle Cummings, Kade Parker and Walker Jones.

Against Gilmer in the region opener, the Bruins may finally get that tough test for their defense.

The Bobcats, which come in at 2-2, have scored at least 28 points in three of their four games. The outlier was a 35-15 loss to Westminster. The Bobcats lost to Fannin County 42-28 to start the year, then beat Union County 33-0 and Pickens 35-34 before falling to Westminster.

The Gilmer game, which is Friday night at 7:30 in Tunnel Hill, kicks off a new-look Region 7-3A slate for the currently-unbeaten Bruins.

Northwest goes to Heritage-Catoosa, the lone fellow holdover from the Bruins’ previous spot in Region 7-4A, next week, and LaFayette, Calhoun, Adairsville and Ridgeland still remain on the schedule.

Friday’s game marks the first step for the Bruins as they try to keep late-season slides from becoming a trend.

After a 2021 season in which the Bruins won their final four regular season games, the 2022 and 2023 seasons both saw fading down the stretch, due in part to a packed latter part of the schedule.

After a 4-0 start in 2022, the Bruins went 1-5 the rest of the way and missed the postseason. A 6-1 start a year ago ended in a 6-5 overall record as Northwest lost its last three regular season games and then fell in the first round of the playoffs.

Armed with a bolstered run game and stronger defense to pair with Nuckolls and the passing game, the 4-0 Bruins hope to keep the winning trends going through region play this year.