Canes extend win streak to 31 with opening night win at Allatoona; other local teams drop openers
CARTERSVILLE 35, ALLATOONA 14
Cartersville may have displayed some early season rust in its first game of the season Friday night, but the Purple Hurricanes defeated the Allatoona Buccaneers 35-14 for an opening night road win that extended their win streak to a school-record 31 games.
Cartersville’s Rico Frye had three scores in the first half and one in the second half. He scored on runs of 1, 4, and 4 yards to go with a 40-yard receiving touchdown with just over one minute to go in the first half.
Frye finished his night with 44 yards rushing in eight attempts.
Trevor Lawrence threw two touchdown passes for the Canes. In a 13-for-19 evening that totaled 230 yards, he three one TD to Frye and the other to JaKobe Orr from 19-yards out that gave Cartersville a 35-7 lead.
Cartersville took a 7-0 lead on its first possession of the game, but Allatoona (0-1) tied the game 7-7 early on a 21-yard TD pass from Dante Marshall to Asante Das and missed an early second quarter 43-yard field goal attempt that would have taken the lead.
The Purple Hurricanes then settled in for 28-straight points that put the game out of reach.
The Buccaneers other score came late in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run by Marshall that capped a 16-play drive for the 35-14 final.
In other game highlights, Cartersville defensive back Marquail Coaxum returned a third quarter interception 41 yards to the Allatoona 14-yard line that set up Frye's fourth TD. JKobe Orr had a pair of catches for 46 yards and a touchdown, and T.J. Horton caught four passes for 75 yards.
Adrian Boyd led the Buccaneers on the ground with 83 yards on 22 carries. Marshall finished with 103 passing yards.
Cartersville finished with 230 passing yards and 105 rushing yards for a 335 total. Allatoona had 105 yards passing, 121 yards rushing and 226 total yards.
The Canes (1-0) will put their win streak on the line next Saturday at home when they host Bartram Trail (FL) in a game that will be televised on ESPN2. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM and the game will be live locally on WBHF Radio with pregame coverage beginning at 6 pm.
Also on Saturday, August 26, Cartersville's Weinman Stadium will host a 3:30 pm game televised on ESPNU. That game will feature Heard County (GA) against Saraland (AL). The doubleheader is being billed as a quarterback showcase with Jack West for Saraland, Ohio State commit Emory Jones for Heard County, Auburn commit Joey Gatewood for Bartram Trail and Cartersville’s Trevor Lawrence who has committed to Clemson.
RIVER RIDGE 35, WOODLAND 14
Woodland fell to visiting River Ridge Friday night 35-14 behind three rushing touchdowns by Knights’ running back Gino Portera.
Each of Portera’s scoring runs were five yards or closer with both teams relying heavily on their rushing attacks.
The visiting Knights outgained Woodland 361 yards to 292 in the contest.
Woodland trailed 14-0 early and 28-7 at halftime.
The Wildcats scored on a 24-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brody Williams to Titus Jones that narrowed the River Ridge lead to 20-7 late in the second quarter, but the Knights took advantage of Woodland mistakes to add to their lead.
Ken Balajadia returned a Brody Williams fumble during a sack 49 yards for a touchdown for River Ridge that gave the Knights a 28-7 lead at the intermission.
Portera connected with Nathan Herring for a 19-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave River Ridge (1-0) a 35-7 lead.
Woodland added its final score late in the fourth quarter when DeMarcus Williams capped an eight-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard scoring run.
Wildcats' running back Justice Carter finished the night with 131 yards on 13 carries to help lead the Woodland offense.
Kurtis Feanny and Titus Jones led the Wildcats' defense with 14 and 12 tackles, respectively,
Woodland (0-1) will have next week off before hosting the Rockmart Yellow Jackets on September 1st at 7:30 pm. That game will be broadcast live via BartowSportsZone.com with pregame coverage beginning at 7 pm.
No. 9 RIDGELAND 48, ADAIRSVILLE 7
The Adairsville Tigers were stopped by the visiting Class 4A 9th-ranked Ridgeland Panthers Friday night 48-7.
Ridgeland had four different rushers score touchdowns in the first half and added a halfback pass for a score in the final seconds of the opening half to take a 34-0 lead at the intermission. Navy commit Jalyn Shelton ran for one score and passed for another on the halfback throw. Kennesaw State commit Markeith Montgomery had two rushing touchdowns and a forced fumble for the visiting Panthers.
Adairsville missed a field goal late in the first quarter and fumbled on its next possession to give Ridgeland extra chances to extend its lead. The Panthers took full advantage.
The Tigers took the opening drive of the second half 45 yards for a touchdown after a good kickoff return. Senior Travon Branch, who had a 51-yard kickoff return in the first half, returned the opening kickoff of the second half 31 yards to set up Adairsville in Ridgeland territory. Mason Boswell punched in the Adairsville touchdown with a one-yard run.
Adairsville then forced the Panthers to punt on their first possession of the second half, but an interception by the Panthers' Azavier Blackwell set up Ridgeland and Montgomery for another score to extend the Ridgeland lead to 41-7.
Minutes later, Ridgeland pushed its lead to 48-7 on Desmond Johnson’s second rushing touchdown of the game.
Shelton totaled 91 yards rushing for Ridgeland with a rushing and a passing score. Montgomery finished the game with 83 yards rushing and two TDs. Quarterback Tanner Hill ran for 21 yards and Johnson had 11, giving the Panthers over 200 yards rushing from those four players. Stephon Walker finished with four receptions for 46 yards.
Adairsville's Bryce Burgess ran for 53 yards for the Tigers. Almost all of those yards came in the second half.
The Tigers (0-1) will look to regroup next week when they hit the road to play at intra-county rival Cass in the Colonels’ regular season opener. Kickoff is at 7:30 pm. WBHF Radio will broadcast the game with complete pregame coverage beginning at 6 pm.
SCRIMMAGE: PEPPERELL 27, CASS 0
Cass was the only local team to not begin the regular season Friday night. The Colonels did, however, host their official GHSA scrimmage with the Pepperell Dragons.
Pepperell won that scrimmage 27-0.
