This week's high school football games at a glance

The local high school football games for this Friday include two teams battling for GHSA state playoff berths. Cartersville hosts Chapel Hill at Weinman Stadium as the Hurricanes look to continue their region and regular season win streaks as well as vie for an eighth consecutive region title. Adairsville travels to Chatsworth to take on the Murray County Indians and keep their state playoff hopes alive. Meanwhile, Cass and Woodland both seek region foes and look to end current losing streaks.

CHAPEL HILL PANTHERS (4-3, 1-2) at CARTERSVILLE HURRICANES (8-0, 4-0)

The Class AAAA top-ranked Purple Hurricanes took a huge step toward an eighth consecutive region title last Friday with a 52-42 win over 4th-ranked Sandy Creek. Cartersville has now won 77 of its last 78 regular season games. The last regular season loss for the Canes was a non-region setback at North Cobb on Sept. 5, 2014. In region play, the streak dates back to an 18-10 loss to Cedartown on Oct. 21, 2011.

Tee Webb was 18-for-26 for 223 yards with three touchdowns against the Patriots. Evan Slocum filled in at running back and finished with 111 yards rushing on 20 attempts with two touchdowns. Harrison Allen added 72 yards on 12 carries with two scores. Canes’ receiver Sam Phillips had 11 receptions for 177 yards and two touchdowns.

The back-and-forth contest in the first half actually saw the Canes build a 24-point lead in the second half after the game was tied 28-28 in the second quarter. Sandy Creek stormed back in the fourth quarter to threaten late, but the Canes held on. Sandy Creek quarterback Matt Williams was 24-of-41 passing for 461 yards and three touchdowns.

The Hurricanes still have some regular season business ahead. Chapel Hill arrives at Weinman Stadium Friday night fresh off a 35-27 home win over Central-Carroll. Central played Cartersville to a two-point game on October 4. After a bye week, Cartersville then has to travel to LaGrange to play Troup who has only one region loss heading into the Tigers’ showdown at Cedartown this week. In addition to last week’s win over Central-Carroll, Chapel Hill has non-region wins this season over Newnan (31-10), Starr’s Mill (28-21), and Whitewater (29-8). The Panthers’ two region losses were to Troup (21-14) and Sandy Creek (45-24). Chapel Hill head coach Justin DeShon is in his sixth season as the top man for the Panthers. His teams have gone 23-35-1 since 2014 and have qualified for the state playoffs twice — in 2016 and 2017.

Cartersville leads the all-time series with Chapel Hill 3-0 including back-to-back shutouts the last two seasons. The Canes won 51-0 last year in Douglasville and 62-0 in 2017 in the only meeting ever in Weinman Stadium. Cartersville won at Chapel Hill in 2016, 48-7.

Projections:

CalPreps — Cartersville by 17

Massey — Cartersville by 21

Maxwell — Cartersville by 24

Broadcast: WBHF-Cartersville (100.3 FM / AM1450) Also available on wbhfradio.org and via the TuneIn app for your smart device.

KELL LONGHORNS (5-2, 3-2) at CASS COLONELS (3-5, 2-4)

The Class AAAAA sixth-ranked Kell Longhorns make their way to Cochran Stadium at Cass this Friday night for a Region 7-AAAAA matchup.

Kell will be looking to bounce back from last week’s 34-14 home loss to 2nd-ranked Carrollton. The Longhorns only other loss this season was at 7th-ranked Rome. Kell has non-region wins over Mays and Lassiter along with region victories over East Paulding (45-0), Paulding County (41-16), and Villa Rica (39-9).

Longhorns’ head coach Brett Sloan is in his third season in the top spot at Kell where his teams are 19-11 and have made the Class AAAAA state playoffs each year.

Cass will attempt to snap a four-game losing streak after winning three consecutive games in September. The Colonels have dropped region games to Rome, Carrollton, Hiram, and East Paulding in recent weeks. They won games over Forsyth Central, Woodland, and Villa Rica in September after dropping their season opener to Adairsville.

The all-time series includes only the past three season while the two schools have been assigned to the same region. Kell won 63-3 last year in Cobb County, 28-10 in 2017 also at Kell, and 39-7 in 2016 at Cass.

Projections:

CalPreps — Kell by 32

Massey — Kell by 32

Maxwell — Kell by 31

ADAIRSVILLE TIGERS (3-5, 2-4) at MURRAY CO. INDIANS (4-4, 2-4)

Although the Tigers dropped a 28-7 decision last week to visiting Sonoraville, Adairsville remains in contention for a state playoff berth. Scenarios still exist for Adairsville to win both of the remaining regular season games over Murray County and Ringgold and reach the playoffs as the No. 4 seed from Region 6-AAA. In order for that to happen, Sonoraville would have to stumble this week against LFO and fall to North Murray in the final week.

Another route for Adairsville is to earn the Class AAA At-Large berth as Region 6-AAA’s fifth place team. Since Region 1-AAA only has four teams, the fourth place team in that region must have a better GHSA power ranking than all the fifth place teams across the state in Class AAA. At the time of this report, Worth County is fourth in 1-AAA with a power ranking of 7.76. Fifth place teams in six of the other seven regions hold a better power ranking with Cherokee Bluff (9.75) and Adairsville (9.67) leading the way.

Cherokee Bluff has the top two teams in Region 7-AAA remaining on its schedule — Greater Atlanta Christian and Dawson County. Should the Bears fall in either of those games and Adairsville win-out, the Tigers would easily surpass the Cherokee Bluff in the power rankings.

The Class AAA at-large qualifier will travel in the opening round to play the Region 3-AAA champion. Benedictine and Jenkins are currently sitting at the top of that league’s standings with three weeks remaining in the regular season schedule. Benedictine is a traditional power in the Savannah-area region, but it is Jenkins in the top ten currently ranked No. 9 by the AJC.

Murray County lost to visiting Calhoun last week 35-0, but has Region 6-AAA wins this season over Coahulla Creek (27-7) and Ringgold (17-16). The Indians other region losses were to LFO (14-7), Sonoraville (34-3), and North Murray (42-16). Murray defeated Armuchee and Southeast Whitfield in non-region games.

In his seventh season at the helm, Murray County head coach Chad Brewer is 20-48 with the Indians.

Murray County teams have not made the state playoffs since 2005 under Bill Napier. This will be the twelfth all-time meeting between the two schools dating back to 1976. Adairsville leads the series 7-3-1 with the Tigers winning each of the last five encounters. The last Murray County win was in 1993. The tie was 13-13 in 1992.

Projections:

CalPreps — Adairsville by 11

Massey — Adairsville by 10

Maxwell — Adairsville by 10

VILLA RICA WILDCATS (1-6, 0-5) at WOODLAND WILDCATS (1-6, 0-5)

The only two teams in Region 7-AAAAA not to pick up a region victory this season square off Friday night at Woodland. Both teams — Villa Rica and Woodland — won their respective season openers, but have since dropped six straight.

Villa Rica beat Campbell 44-7 on opening night while Woodland beat Southeast Whitfield 35-7. Both teams have struggled to put points on the scoreboard in region games. Villa Rica has averaged just 11.8 ppg in region action and only 7 ppg outside of 31 points scored in a 42-31 loss to Paulding County. Woodland has averaged only 5.6 ppg in region games and that includes 21 points in a 44-21 loss at Paulding County. The local Wildcats have also been shutout in three straight losses to Hiram, Rome, and Carrollton.

Head coach Christian Hunnicutt is in his first season at Villa Rica after two seasons as the leader at Grayson and East Jackson. Hunnicutt, whose teams are 25-17 over four seasons, was 20-5 at Grayson where they won a region championship in 2018. He was 4-6 at East Jackson in 2016.

Projections:

CalPreps — Villa Rica by 16

Massey — Villa Rica by 14

Maxwell — Villa Rica by 17 BROADCAST: This will be the Johnny's NY Style Pizza Bartow County Game of the Week via www.BartowSportsZone.com. Click on the green, 'Listen Live' button at the top of this page OR use this link -- https://www.meridix.com/event/157846 Pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m. covering all four local schools with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.