Friday night storylines: Christian Heritage aims to continue winning streak while Northwest, North Murray aim for rebound

Published 4:15 pm Thursday, October 3, 2024

Christian Heritage rolls on to Gordon Central on 5-game streak

After a loss to begin the season, Christian Heritage has reeled off five straight victories as the Lions thunder through Region 7-A DI play.

Christian Heritage’s next obstacle is a Gordon Central team that is much improved from previous years.

The Lions (5-1, 3-0 Region 7-A DI) play at Gordon Central (3-3, 1-2 Region 7-A DI) Friday night at 7:30.

Gordon Central came into this season having gone 0-10 for three straight years, but the Warriors are playing .500 ball through six games.

But, when Gordon Central has lost, the Warriors have lost big, falling 24-6 to Butler, 55-6 to Chattooga and 38-6 to Fannin County.

After a 41-7 win over Coosa last week, a team Gordon Central beat 30-0, Christian Heritage hopes to score another lopsided win and get to 4-0 in region play with a showdown with Chattooga coming up.

Coahulla Creek hosts LFO for homecoming

At 0-5 and coming off a bye week, Coahulla Creek is hoping for its offensive breakthrough.

The Colts, which came into the year with a majority of new offensive starters have been getting better each week, but the points still haven’t come, with Creek failing to score more than seven points in any game.

Against a 1-4 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe team that has allowed 40-plus in back-to-back games, the Colts hope homecoming night is their night.

Creek (0-5, 0-3 Region 7-2A) hosts LFO (1-4, 0-3 Region 7-2A) Friday night at 7:30 for the Colts’ homecoming game.

The Colts may need to get its offense going to aim for a possible win. Even at 1-4, LFO’s offense has been pretty successful. The Warriors scored but couldn’t stop the other team from scoring in a 41-27 loss to Ringgold and a 40-33 loss to Union County.

Northwest hosts winless LaFayette, aims to bounce back from first loss

Northwest Whitfield’s 31-21 loss to Heritage last week bucked trends for the Bruins in more way that one.

It was Northwest’s first loss after a 5-0 start, and, the 31 points scored by the Generals in the one game — thanks in part to a handful of long scoring plays — was more than what Northwest gave up in each of the first five games combined — 29.

Although Heritage is the best team by record that Northwest has yet played, the Bruins (5-1, 1-1 Region 7-3A) will be looking to return to starting form going forward.

The first chance? Homecoming Friday night at 7:30 p.m. against winless LaFayette (0-6, 0-2 Region 7-3A).

The Ramblers come in without a win, but have come up just a little short in a couple of games. LaFayette fell 28-23 to 4-2 Gordon Lee, and the Ramblers lost last week to region opponent Ridgeland by an identical score of 28-23.

But, LaFayette has been shut out twice and held to 13 or fewer points in three different games, so the Northwest defense could have a chance to look a little more like it did in a dominant 5-0 start.

The offense, too, for Northwest could shake free against a LaFayette team that has given up 28-plus in each game and 44-plus twice.

Northwest scored the first touchdown of the game against Heritage last week, but then couldn’t put together any scoring to stop the Generals taking a 21-7 lead. Northwest drew closer with a late third quarter touchdown and then got in on a desperation drive late in the game to cut the score to 31-21.

The Bruins will look for more consistent offense throughout the game against LaFayette.

North Murray travels to Sonoraville

After a 21-0 shutout loss at Union County on Sept. 20, the first time for the program to be held scoreless in a game since 2011, the North Murray Mountaineers had a free week to rest up and prepare for a bounce back

The Neers travel to Sonoraville to battle the Phoenix for that potential rebound.

North Murray (3-2, 2-1 Region 7-2A) plays Sonoraville (2-4, 2-2 Region 7-2A) Friday night at 7:30.

North Murray will play against a Sonoraville team that is coming off a lopsided loss of its own. Rockmart trounced the Phoenix 42-7 last week. After starting the season 0-3, Sonoraville had beaten region opponents Coahulla Creek 28-7 and Murray County 49-6 before falling to Rockmart.

The Mountaineers had scored at least 21 points in each of its three wins so far, and the North Murray offense hopes to put up some points against a Sonoraville defense that had been susceptible to scoring.

Murray travels to unbeaten North Cobb Christian

After a 49-6 defeat to Sonoraville followed by a bye week, the competition doesn’t get any easier for a rested Murray County team.

The Indians (1-5, 0-4 Region 7-2A) travel to unbeaten North Cobb Christian (6-0, 3-0 Region 7-2A) Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The Indians were burned by a big-play passing offense of Sonoraville, and Murray may be up against more of the same Friday.

Sophomore quarterback Teddy Jarrard — who already has a handful of offers from Division I group of five schools like Georgia Southern, Georgia State and South Florida — has tossed for eight touchdown passes so far.

Southeast, Dalton on bye

After seven straight games in seven weeks to begin the season, the Dalton Catamounts finally get a week off. Dalton will be back in action Oct. 11 against Cedartown.

Southeast Whitfield was originally scheduled to be in the same situation — play seven games, then get this week off — but scheduling havoc has led to the Raiders having a long break. Southeast was originally scheduled to play Decatur’s Towers last Thursday, but the game was moved to Monday because of Hurricane Helene. Then, the game was canceled because of a chemical fire at the BioLab facility in Conyers polluting the area and leading to the evacuation of at least 17,000 people, according to public officials.

Southeast last played Sept. 20, and, thanks to two consecutive scheduled bye weeks, the Raiders are not scheduled to take the field again until Oct. 18 against Woodland.