7A Football: A Few Round 1 Surprises

While there were plenty of football games throughout the first round of the playoffs that went as expected, there were a few surprises as well. In our last article, we discussed the surprise shutouts last week, which were shocking in themselves. With that, there were also some close games that revealed a few valuable takeaways as well. First, even though most fans expected Parkview to defeat Camden County, the fact that the game was closer than we thought revealed that their defensive side of the football is a bit weaker than we thought they were. We’ll give them credit for their win in Overtime, but the fact still remains that their defense has to play at its best if the team wants to be able to compete against East Coweta’s running game this upcoming week. In the game against Camden County, the Wildcats gave up 195 rushing yards, revealing their struggle to stop a strong running attack Players such as [player_tooltip player_id="33743" first="Quincy" last="Bryant"], Jaxon Horne, and Kwesi Tillman all have to be at their best, and not just rely on the offense’s strong running game because of [player_tooltip player_id="33667" first="Cody" last="Brown"], if they want to advance past the second round of the playoffs. Secondly, in the match up between Marietta and East Coweta, we were not expected the Indians to be as well rounded, and borderline dominant within the running game as they were. The Indians had some fight in them, as they trailed at the half, and had to put points up in the second half, and make key stops that would eventually win them the game. In the second half, they managed to put up 21 points, while holding Marietta to 7. While Shoch had a successful day passing the football, the majority of the team’s success came from the fact that they put up 276 rushing yards. Trey Bowles led the team with 176 yards and 2 TD’s, while Jayden Bolton also had a very successful days as he totaled 94 yards and 3 TD’s. Along with this, not only did the defense make key stops within the second half, holding Marietta to limited points, but they also accumulated 2 sacks as well. Another surprise this past weekend came in the Newnan, and Harrison game, as the Cougars were defeated 26-24. Most people expected Newnan to win this game, with a score that wasn’t very close. This proved to not be the case, as Harrison found a way to come out on top, and match up well. Because of this, they will now have to gear up to play against Grayson this upcoming week. While we did believe that Newnan may have had a better chance in this upcoming game, we also did not feel they would come close to winning this match up. Even though they have talent on both sides of the ball, including Michael Maginnis, [player_tooltip player_id="33774" first="Bryson" last="Moss"], and Ashton Heflin, we do not feel they could have kept up with play makers such as Jake Garcia, [player_tooltip player_id="33678" first="Phil" last="Mafah"], and DaeDae Reynolds. With a roster as loaded as Grayson’s, it’s hard for anyone to match up well against them, let alone beat them.