Christian Heritage comes from behind for victory; Murray County and Coahulla Creek both drop opening region games

Published 1:31 am Saturday, September 8, 2018

Adairsville 41, Coahulla Creek 10

After suffering a narrow defeat to Southeast Whitfield last week, Coahulla Creek held it close through three quarters, but in the end the athletes of Adairsville were too much. The loss drops Coahulla Creek to 0-2, 0-1 in Region 6-3A.

After a 30-minute lightning delay stalled the opening kickoff, Coahulla Creek took its opening possession and drove the field, finishing the drive with an Angel Cabrera 41-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead. The momentum was short-lived, however, as Adairsville returned the following kickoff for a touchdown and retook the lead 7-3 with the extra point.

“That kickoff really kind of took the air of of us but we hung in there and battled,” Coahulla Creek head coach Caleb Bagley said. “I think our offense played better than it has all year. We passed and ran the ball better than at any point.”

The score was 20-3 going into halftime, and Coahulla Creek managed to fight back again to start the second half. Once again the Colts drove the field on their opening possession of a half, and this time they finished with a touchdown when quarterback Cade Bates found Michael King for a 20-yard touchdown pass on a play-action bootleg. Following the extra point by Cabrera, the score was 20-10, but that was as close as Coahulla Creek would get as Adairsville expanded its lead with late touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

“They had a couple athletes that we really had trouble tackling,” Bagley said. “I told my guys the final score isn’t really indicative how close this game was. We didn’t have a great practice on Monday after last week’s loss but we’ve got a resilient bunch of kids. This is the hardest part of the journey when you’re knocking on the door.”

Coahulla Creek plays Friday at home against Murray County.

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe 42, Murray County 15

Playing on the road on Friday night, Murray County fell behind 21-0 early in the game and was unable to come from behind against its Region 6-3A opponent, dropping its record to 0-3, 0-1.

“We had a lot of mistakes on offense and defense in the first half and we really dug ourselves in a big hole,” Murray County coach Chad Brewer said.

Murray County got on the board in the second quarter with a 25-yard touchdown run from quarterback Josh Curtis and that was soon followed by a defensive safety when Justin Genitempo tackled an LFO player, making the score 28-9. Murray County would get the ball back once more before halftime but came up short on a fourth down at midfield.

Adjusting to the midline option that LFO was utilizing all game, Murray County was able to control the LFO running game in the second half, but was unable to put any real momentum together to mount a comeback.

“Defensively we played a lot better in the second half,” Brewer said. “We’re not playing complementary football very well. Our defense will get a stop and then the offense stalls, and then our offense will score but our defense will give up a big play. We just weren’t consistent and that’s on me, we’ve got to do better in practice.”

The running game had trouble getting going all night for Murray County, but the Indians did score once more in the fourth quarter when quarterback Kaleb Jones connected with Wally Underwood for a 5-yard touchdown pass.

Murray County plays at Coahulla Creek on Friday and both teams will be looking for their first win.