This week's local high school football matchups at a glance. Adairsville and Cartersville open the season Friday night with non-region road games, while Woodland will kick off the 2019 season with a home game against Southeast Whitfield. Cass is idle in this opening week and will open the season August 30 at Adairsville. CARTERSVILLE at ALLATOONA Cartersville is 3-2 against Allatoona and has won the last three matchups in 2016 through 2018. Allatoona won the first two meetings in 2011 and 2010. Cartersville was the home team in 2018, 2016, and 2010. Coach Gary Varner has the Buccaneers ranked fifth by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the preseason following last season's 8-4 campaign that saw Allatoona fall in the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs. Varner is 95-35 in a dozen seasons at Allatoona and is the only head coach the Bucs have ever had. Cartersville is ranked second in Class 4A by the AJC and will take the field for the first time under former defensive coordinator -- now head coach -- Conor Foster. The Hurricanes were 14-1 last season under departed head coach Joey King, falling to Blessed Trinity in the state championship game. Cartersville won back-to-back state titles in 2015 and 2016 under King. His teams were 67-4 in five seasons. The Canes have won seven consecutive region championships. Cartersville plays in Region 5-AAAA. Allatoona is a member of Region 6-AAAAAA. 2018 — Cartersville 35, Allatoona 0 2017 — Cartersville 35, Allatoona 14 2016 — Cartersville 30, Allatoona 14 2011 — Allatoona 10, Cartersville 0 2010 — Allatoona 18, Cartersville 13 Projections: CalPreps — Cartersville by 29 Maxwell — Cartersville by 19 ADAIRSVILLE at CHATTOOGA Adairsville is 5-6 against Chattooga in a series that dates back to 1990. Adairsville won a one-point decision last season at home, but the Indians have won four of the last five meetings. Adairsville won four of the first six matchups between the two schools. Adairsville was the home team in 2018, 2009, 2006, 2004, 2002, and 1990. The Tigers, members of Region 6-AAA, are coming off a 4-6 season in 2018 after making the state playoffs in 2017. Adairsville also made the state playoffs for five straight seasons between 2011 and 2015 when the Tigers reached the quarterfinals. Coach Eric Bishop begins his seventh season as head coach at Adairsville. His teams are 41-26. Coach Charles Hammon begins his sixth season at Chattooga where his teams have gone 32-26. He was previously at Dade County 2005 through 2007. Chattooga, a member of Region 7-AA, was 9-3 last season and made the second round of the state playoffs. It marked the fifth straight state playoff appearance for the Indians -- all under Hammon. Chattooga made the state quarterfinals in 2016 and was eliminated in the first round in 2014, 2015, and 2017. 2018 — Adairsville 21, Chattooga 20 2009 — Chattooga 27, Adairsville 7 2008 — Chattooga 39, Adairsville 25 2007 — Chattooga 35, Adairsville 7 2006 — Chattooga 33, Adairsville 14 2005 — Adairsville 28, Chattooga 15 2004 — Chattooga 43, Adairsville 14 2003 — Adairsville 27, Chattooga 26 2002 — Adairsville 7, Chattooga 0 1991 — Chattooga 22, Adairsville 13 1990 — Adairsville 12, Chattooga 6 Projections: CalPreps — Chattooga by 14 Maxwell — Chattooga by 9 SOUTHEAST WHITFIELD at WOODLAND Woodland and Southeast Whitfield meet for the fourth time Friday night and for the first time since 1998 the game will be played on the "banks of the Etowah." The Wildcats have won each of the last three meetings. Woodland was 4-6 last season, winning their first four games before dropping the final six. Head coach Tony Plott enters his fifth season leading the Wildcats who are 8-32 with him at the helm. The Woodland program has one state playoff appearance. It occurred in the school’s second year of varsity competition in 1999 under head coach John Camp. The Wildcats two other non-losing seasons were in 2000 and 2003 when they were 5-5. The ’03 campaign included a forfeit from Osborne. Southeast Whitfield was 3-7 last season, including an opening night loss to Woodland. The Raiders, under head coach Sean Gray entering his 12th season at the school, just missed the state playoffs in 2017 and 2015. Both of those seasons the Raiders lost mini-games to Pickens and Ridgeland, respectively. The last state playoff appearance for Southeast was in 2014 when the Raiders won a mini-game over Heritage-Catoosa, but fell to Buford in the first round, 63-0. Southeast Whitfield is 49-63 during Gray’s tenure. Woodland is a member of Region 7-AAAAA. Southeast Whitfield plays in Region 6-AAAA. 2018 — Woodland 31, SE Whitfield 22 1999 — Woodland 48, SE Whitfield 0 1998 — Woodland 42, SE Whitfield 28 Projections: CalPreps — Woodland by 9 Maxwell — Woodland by 14 -- series data courtesy Georgia High School Football Historians

The Amateur High School Bass Anglers high school and middle school fishing league gets started this weekend with the first of eight tournaments. The 2019-20 initial event will begin with a 7 a.m. blastoff from the boat ramp at Gatewood Park Saturday on Lake Allatoona. At least 41 boats have signed up for this year’s opening tournament which sets a new league mark. Twelve of the 41 boats will carry junior anglers representing middle schools with the other 29 carrying high school anglers. Weigh-ins will begin at 1 p.m. for the junior anglers with senior anglers to follow soon after. The weigh-ins are a full production with an emcee, music, and substantial prizes awarded for the top ten weights. There are 85 anglers registered for the league heading into this week with registration still open to the public. Students interested in joining the AHSBA may visit the league’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ahsbafishing). Registration is $100. The fee covers a jersey and insurance/registration with the Student Angler Federation. This qualifies league members for state and national SAF events. For more information, league organizers my be reached at ahsbafishing@gmail.com or send a message to the league’s Facebook page. Season schedule: August 24 - Allatoona September 14 - Weiss October 12 - Carters November 9 - Lanier February 29 - Allatoona March 28 - Neely Henry April 18 - Lanier May 16 - Classic (location TBD) Participating schools include: Adairsville Middle Calhoun Middle Cartersville Middle Cass Middle Cedartown Middle Red Top Middle South Paulding Middle Woodland Middle Adairsville High Calhoun High Cartersville High Cass High Cedartown High Central High Gordon Central High Pickens County High Rockmart High Sonoraville High South Paulding High Woodland High AHSBA also has a growing number of home school students registered. Gold Corporate Sponsor: Yamaha Pro Fishing Bronze Corporate Sponsors: JCSB Trucking Mission Tire Goldcrest Motorsports Others: Sublime Wear USA, jersey vendor, works with the league on production cost in return for some advertisement. New Beginning Signs has donated more time, skill, and product with graphics than we could possibly put a number on so the league would like to recognize them as well. Adult Leaders: The organization at large is led by Matt and Kristen Martin. Matt is the face of the league. He does the legwork on tournament day with blastoff and weigh-in, handles communication across school teams and with parents, works with sponsors, and works with vendors. Kristen does the legwork behind the scenes with finances, maintaining the points database, handling the SAF paperwork, league and tournament registration, and scholarships. James Hall of JDH Electric is filling a new role for us by serving as the team chaplain, and he will be traveling to all tournaments with us this year. Jeremy Ray and David Adams work primarily with their school teams, but both of these gentlemen have been on board with AHSBA since day one, and not many decisions get made without their input. School specific leaders/contacts: Adairsville - David Adams and Chris Martin Cartersville - Clay Walker and Jeremy Ray Cass - Rusty and Carol Martin Calhoun & Gordon County - Jamie and Susan Mills Paulding County - Wayne Meadows Polk County - Chet Cleland and Aaron Wood Woodland - Chuck Moore

Cartersville softball scored in every offensive frame Tuesday at Sandy Creek on the Lady Canes way to a 22-10 Region 5-AAAA victory in Tyrone. Cartersville banged out 20 hits including five extra-base hits. They also took advantage of seven Sandy Creek errors. The game was tied 2-2 after one inning and 5-5 after two frames before Cartersville broke things open with 17 runs over the next three innings to take a 22-5 advantage. Sandy Creek scored five runs in the home half of the fifth inning. Four Lady Canes had three hits, including Cio Seigler (two doubles, four RBI), Lauren McElhaney (double, five RBI), Elizabeth Nelson (two RBI), and Mikey Lewis (one RBI). Hope Short finished with two hits, a sacrifice fly, and two RBI. Madison Lingerfelt also had two hits. Ava Perkins contributed a double and one RBI. AnnaKate McElhaney had a hit and two RBI. Kaylee McGivaren added a hit and one RBI. Campbell Rogers had the other Cartersville base hit. Kiley Arnold (2 IP, 5ER, 5H, 3BB, 4K), Ava Perkins (2 IP, 0R, 1H, 2BB, 2K), and AnnaKate McElhaney (1 IP, 5ER, 3H, 2BB, 2K) split the Cartersville pitching duties. The loss drops Sandy Creek to 5-4 on the season and 0-3 in region play. Cartersville (4-4, 3-2) plays another region contest at Chapel Hill Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and will compete in the Allatoona Buccaneer Bash at Hamilton Crossing Park on Saturday. KELL 2, WOODLAND 0 Kell’s Mia DeAngelis tossed a nine inning complete game with 13 strikeouts and hit a ninth inning two-run home run to lift the visiting Lady Longhorns to a 2-0 Region 7-AAAAA win Tuesday night at Woodland. DeAngelis (9 IP, 0R, 2H, 1BB, 13K) kept the Lady Cats off the scoreboard and limited the Lady Cats’ bats to only a third inning single by Brianna Hill and a ninth inning single by Ansley Evans. Woodland pitcher Lainey Baker was the Lady Cats’ tough-luck loser. She scattered five hits, did not issue a walk, and struck out 15. With the win, Kell improved to 2-4 on the season and 1-2 in Region 7-AAAAA. Woodland (2-2, 1-2) returns to the diamond Thursday at county rival Cass at 5:55 p.m.

Woodland volleyball swept non-region matches with Haralson County and Model Tuesday night in their home gym. The Lady Cats defeated Haralson County 25-12 and 25-21 before outlasting Model 25-22 and 25-19 in the nightcap. Sydney Molinaro had four kills, three assists, two digs, and a block in the opening win over the Rebels. Caroline Gore had four kills, two digs, and four aces. Emmalee Cigainero contributed two kills, three digs, and eight aces, while Lauren Morris added six assists, two digs, and a pair of aces. In the second match win over the Blue Devils, Molinaro had four kills, five assists, three digs, a block and an ace. Grace Webb had three kills, two assists, seven digs, four aces, and a block with Delaney Tuplin adding three blocks and a kill. CASS SPLITS HOME MATCHES Cass volleyball split a pair of home matches Tuesday night with Pepperell and Hiram. The Lady Colonels defeated Pepperell 25-14 and 25-21, but dropped a three-set match with Hiram. The Hornets won the opening set 25-13. Cass took the middle set 25-23 and Hiram won the third set 15-8. In the victory over Pepperell, Keegan Krause had five kills for the Colonels. Riley Nelson followed with four kills. Maria Piliposyans contributed three blocks. Cass travels to Model on Thursday. ADAIRSVILLE DROPS TWO CLOSE MATCHES The Adairsville Lady Tigers battled Dade County for three sets and took host Coahulla Creek to the wire in both sets Tuesday night, but came up short in both matches. Adairsville dropped the final two sets of their match with Dade County after winning the first set 25-20. The Wolverines won the middle set 25-16 and took to final set 15-7. The host Lady Colts edged Adairsville 25-23 and 25-23 in the Tigers' second match. Adairsville will host Chattooga Thursday.

Cartersville volleyball won a pair of matches Monday night at The Storm Center to even their season record. The Lady Canes swept Rome 25-12 and 25-17 before taking down McEachern 25-11 and 25-16. With the two wins, Cartersville is now 6-6 on the season. “We had great ball control against Rome and our serve receive was much better,” said Canes coach Dutch Cothran. “Halle Mathews was very solid. She blocks or touches a lot of balls and she transitions well and terminates points offensively.” Lauren Wenzell and Anna Grace Brock had 10 kills each against the Wolves. Brock added 11 digs and Wenzell totaled nine digs. The tandem also added two aces each. Macey Vaughn contributed 23 assists. In the sweep of McEachern, Wenzell finished with eight kills, nine digs, and three aces. Brock added seven kills, 10 digs, and a pair of aces. Mia Nicklas had three aces and Macey Vaughn added 20 assists. “We played with more focus this time against McEachern. Last time we gave up a huge lead and lost a set. Tonight we played with more focus,” said Cothran. “The JV girls picked up a win tonight against Rome as well. It came at a good time. They play in a tournament in Rome this weekend.” The varsity Lady Canes have a week off in their schedule. Cartersville plays Coosa and Holy Innocents August 27 at Coosa.

After appearing in six games with the MLB Colorado Rockies, local left-hand pitcher Sam Howard was sent back to Triple-A Albuquerque by the organization. The sixth-year pro made three quality appearances for the Isotopes last week. Elsewhere, Elliott Anderson made his seventh appearance of two or more innings Saturday at home against the Johnson City Cardinals. Connor Justus hit .333 for the week in a series with division-leading Biloxi, and Luke Schiltz made an appearance with Arizona League playoff-bound AZL Rangers. ELLIOTT ANDERSON — Burlington Royals (1st yr. pro; LHP; Rookie Advanced Appalachian League; Kansas City Royals organization; Auburn; Cartersville HS)… made a two and one-third inning scoreless appearance Saturday at home against Johnson City. Anderson allowed one hit and three walks while striking out two. For the season, he is 2-1 with a 1.14 ERA in 15 appearances working just under 24 innings. Anderson has 25 strikeouts and has earned three saves. Burlington (34-23) is second in the Appalachian League East Division trailing Pulaski by three and one-half games. SAM HOWARD — Albuquerque Isotopes (6th yr. pro; LHP; Triple-A Pacific Coast League; Colorado Rockies organization; Georgia Southern; Cartersville HS)… After appearing in six games for the MLB Rockies, Howard returned to Albuquerque where he made three appearances last week. With the big league club, Howard worked eight and one-third innings and allowed seven earned runs on nine hits, six walks, and a pair of hit batsmen. He had eight strikeouts with the Rockies. With the Isotopes last week, he did not allow a hit or walk and fanned two in two and two-thirds innings dropping his Triple-A season ERA to 3.61 and 0.90 over his last ten appearances in the PCL. Albuquerque (53-71) is third in the Pacific Southern Division trailing El Paso by 19 games. CONNOR JUSTUS — Mobile BayBears (4th yr. pro; Infielder; Double-A Southern League; L.A. Angels organization; Georgia Tech; Cartersville HS)… made four starts last week at division-leading Biloxi and went 4-for-12 at the plate with one RBI and two walks. Through 102 games and 306 at-bats this season, Justus has a .193 batting average with 21 RBI. Defensively, he has a .957 fielding percentage in 369 total chances and has been part of 45 double plays for the BayBears. Mobile is 17-36 in the South Division second half standings, 44-77 for the full season, and has been eliminated from post-season contention. LUKE SCHILTZ — AZL Rangers (1st yr. pro; RHP; Rookie Arizone League; Texas Rangers organization; Cartersville native; Stoneman Douglas [FL] HS)… gave up one earned run on two hits and a walk last Thursday in a one-inning appearance at Arizona Brewers Blue. For the season, Schiltz is 1-0 in 10 appearances and 13 innings with a 4.85 ERA. He has recorded eight strikeouts. The Rangers (28-21 overall) are 9-12 in the second half West Division standings and trail the AZL Royals by three and one-half games. The Rangers won the first-half division title with a 19-9 mark to clinch a post-season berth.

The 12U Bartow County Panthers stifled the Dalton Catamounts Saturday 21-0 to open their 2019 season with a non-league victory. The Panthers are members of the Northwest Georgia Youth Football League which begins league action August 31 with a full slate of games. Defense was the story of the day Saturday for the Panthers as they limited Dalton to a mere seven yards of total offense. Dalton had 27 rushing attempts in the contest and attempted three passes. One of those tosses was picked off by Keve Porter of the Panthers. Meanwhile, the Bartow County offense amassed 262 total yards on 36 plays. The Panthers finished with 185 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns on 27 attempts. They also threw for 77 yards and a score. Baylon Long led the Panthers rushing attack with 72 yards on seven attempts and one touchdown. Porter followed with 49 yards on four carries and a score. Isaiah Livsey contributed 41 yards rushing on six attempts. Jacob Ellis carried four times for 12 yards and quarterback Brodie McWhorter added 11 yards on six carries. McWhorter completed 4-of-9 passes for 77 yards and one touchdown. He connected with Talan Nix three times for 56 yards and a touchdown. Davis Waddell had the other 21-yard catch. The Panthers NWGYFL schedule will be released by league officials this Friday.

Local golfer Chad Branton has earned a spot in the 2019 U.S.G.A. Mid-Amateur Championship to be held September 14-19 at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, CO and CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, CO. The stroke play portion of the 39th Mid-Amateur Championship will be held on both courses with the match play portion moving to Colorado Golf Club. A starting field of 264 competitors will play 36 holes to determine the low 64 qualifiers for match play. The stroke play rounds are Saturday and Sunday, September 14 and 15. The Round of 64 in match play will be Monday, September 16. Rounds two and three of match play are Tuesday, September 17 with the quarterfinals and semifinals set for Wednesday, September 18. The 36-hole Championship Match will be held Thursday, September 19. The United States Mid-Amateur Championship is open to any amateur golfer who has reached their 25th birthday as of September 14 and whose USGA Handicap Index does not exceed 3.4. Colorado Golf Club, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, opened in 2007 and has previously hosted the 2010 Senior PGA Championship and the 2013 Solheim Cup. Over 4,750 players entered sectional qualifying for the national championship at 65 sites around the country. Branton fired a 2-under-par 70 in 18-hole qualifying August 12 at Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw to earn one of six spots available at that qualifier among a field of 132 golfers. Matthew Hayes, Michael Pearson, and Timothy Schaetzel shot 68 to tie for medalist at Pinetree. Bryan Jones had a 69 to finish fourth, while Taylor Smith took the sixth spot with a 71. Raymond Wooten and Matt Bernstein are alternates after also finishing with 71s. Branton is a Bartow County resident and member at Cartersville Country Club.

The 9U Bartow County Panthers youth football team won its opening contest Saturday in Dalton over the River City (TN) Bills, 14-6. Kaiden Kent rushed for a pair of touchdowns and a total of 65 yards on seven carries to pace the locals’ offense. He had scoring runs of 21- and 25-yards. Cooper Melvin and Trace Hawkins followed with 38 and 39 yards, respectively. Hawkins also connected on 2-of-6 passes for 33 yards. Both receptions were made by Kent. On defense, ten different Panthers recorded at least one stop each. Lance Tippett and Melvin led with seven tackles each. C.J. McClendon had five tackles. Jatayvious Whatley, Solomon James, and Isaiah Moreno contributed four tackles each. Jahari Whatley made three tackles. Kent and Javious Davis finished with two tackles each and Javien Finney had one solo stop. James forced one fumble recovered by Davis and Kayden Blackwell picked off one River City pass. The 9U BC Panthers (1-0) await the release of the Northwest Georgia Youth Football League schedule, but will open league play August 31.

Cartersville softball split a Region 5-AAAA doubleheader at Troup County Saturday with the Lady Canes taking the opener 5-2 before dropping the second game 12-11. In Game 1, Cartersville pitcher McKinley Chada and the Canes’ defense scattered ten hits and two walks to allow only two fourth inning runs. Chada struck out five to earn the win. Campbell Rogers had two hits including a triple and two RBI for Cartersville. Elizabeth Nelson also finished with two hits. Lauren McElhaney had two RBI with a hit. Chada contributed a hit and one RBI with Cio Seigler and AnnaKate McElhaney adding the other Cartersville base hits. The Lady Canes led Game 2 heading to the final frame, but the host Lady Tigers scored twice in the seventh inning to escape with a 12-11 win and a split of the doubleheader. Cartersville held a 2-0 lead through two innings, but fell behind 10-5 heading to the sixth. The Lady Canes posted six runs in their half of the sixth inning to take an 11-10 lead they would relinquish in the next frame. AnnaKate McElhaney (3 RBI) and Elizabeth Nelson led the Canes’ offense with three hits each. Lauren McElhaney doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs. Campbell Rogers finished with two hits including a double and one RBI. McKinley Chada had two hits and Cio Seigler added one hit and one RBI. Rylie Harris drove in a Cartersville run in the sixth inning with a groundout. Kiley Arnold (3.2 IP, 6R, 4ER, 9H, 2BB, 2K) started in the circle for Cartersville. Chada (3.1 IP, 6R, 2ER, 8H, 4BB, 2K) was saddled with the pitching loss. Following the region doubleheader split, Troup County is now 6-5 overall and 2-2 in the league. Cartersville (3-4, 2-2) plays at Sandy Creek Tuesday at 5:55 p.m. and travels to Chapel Hill Thursday. The Lady Canes then step out of region action Friday and Saturday with games at Hamilton Crossing Park as part of the Allatoona Buccaneer Bash. Cartersville is scheduled to face Ridgeland, East Paulding, and Spalding. HERITAGE-CATOOSA 12, ADAIRSVILLE 3 Playing in the Dalton High School Lady Cats Invitational, Adairsville softball lost to Heritage-Catoosa 12-3 Saturday morning in a game the Tigers managed only three hits and committed eight errors. Victoria O’Neal had a two-RBI third inning single that tied the game 3-3 at the time. Katie Smith and Kyleigh Linn had the other Adairsville safeties. Heritage broke the game open with a six-run fourth inning and added three more insurance runs in the fifth inning for their nine-run win. The Generals totaled eleven hits in the contest. Taylor Rhoades suffered the pitching loss for the Tigers working all five innings in the circle. She struck out six, did not walk a batter, and all 12 Heritage runs were unearned. CEDARTOWN 4, ADAIRSVILLE 2 The Lady Tigers led the Bulldogs 2-0 through two innings, but a four-run fifth inning lifted Cedartown to a 4-2 win in a game Saturday afternoon at the Dalton Lady Cats Invitational. Sadye Johnson had two hits including a solo home run to lead the Tigers’ offense. Taylor Rhoades also contributed a pair of hits. Chloe Souders and Megan Gregory contributed the other Adairsville base hits. Kyleigh Linn added one RBI. Victoria O’Neal was tagged with the pitching loss despite not allowing an earned run. She fanned four and allowed six hits with no walks.

The Cartersville High School cross country teams started their season Saturday morning at the Pickens Preview 5K at Roper Park in Jasper with the boys team coming away with a strong fifth place finish among fourteen teams. Pace Academy raced to the team title with Pope, North Gwinnett, and Dawson County rounding out the top four boys squads. Sidney Stegall led the Hurricanes with a 16th place finish in 17:30.71 among the 126 individual runners. Rounding out the top five scoring runners for Cartersville was Colin McCann (25th, 17:59.84), Alex Rios (33rd, 18:09.16), Max Florence (35th, 18:09.71), and Levi Booth (36th, 18:10.02). Dawson County’s Ben McGinnis won the individual title with a time of 16:24.72. Meanwhile, the Lady Canes placed thirteenth of fifteen teams in the girls race. McKinsey Spinks paced Cartersville with a 39th place finish in 23:14.60. She was followed by teammates Trista Kelly (81st, 25:58.48), Jaxiry Betancourt (94th, 27:01.03), Alice Terry (98th, 28:10.87), and Metztli Munoz (101st, 28:47.90). Next for Cartersville is the Clara Bowl Invitational August 31 at Berry College.

The unofficial opening night of the 2019 high school football season for all four local teams wrapped up Friday night with as many wins as possible for the local teams. Both Cartersville and Cass came-from-behind to defeat Dalton and Pepperell, respectively, while the other two local teams squared off in Adairsville with Woodland taking a scrimmage victory over the host Tigers. WOODLAND 21, ADAIRSVILLE 14 Senior Demarcus Williams scored on a 60-yard scamper and sophomore Asa James broke off a 74-yard touchdown run to give Woodland a 14-0 halftime lead. Wildcats sophomore kicker Jordan Holbrook converted the PATs. Adairsville took advantage of a Woodland turnover near midfield in the third quarter with Tigers sophomore Eli Agnew scoring on a long run that narrowed the Wildcats’ lead to 14-7. Woodland freshman running back Christian Vera gave Woodland a 21-7 lead with a 90-yard touchdown run and Adairsville freshman quarterback Chris Roper scored on a short keeper that made the final 21-14. All-state punter Emanuel Lopez converted the Tigers’ PATs. Both teams open the regular season Friday against teams they defeated in 2018. Adairsville travels to Chattooga while Woodland will host Southeast Whitfield. The Woodland-Southeast Whitfield game will be broadcast live on BartowSportsZone.com via our Meridix portal partner. Pregame coverage will begin at 6 p.m. with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Use the green “Listen Live” button at the top of the page beginning at 6 p.m. each Friday for the Johnny’s NY Style Pizza Bartow County Game of the Week. CARTERSVILLE 24, DALTON 21 A pair of storied programs banged heads Friday night in a preseason scrimmage at Weinman Stadium with the host Hurricanes coming away with a 24-21 victory in new head coach Conor Foster’s unofficial debut. Dalton stopped Cartersville twice to open the game and the Catamounts drove for one score to grab an early 7-0 advantage. Dalton also came up just short on another deep drive, but junior cornerback Devonte Ross broke up a pass in the end zone. The batted ball went high into the air and was picked off by junior safety Evan Slocum to keep the Dalton lead at 7-0. Cartersville kicked a field goal on the ensuing drive to make the score 7-3 before an Amarai Orr interception on Dalton’s next possession set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Quante Jennings. The PAT gave the Hurricanes a 10-7 lead. Ross picked off a pass on the next Catamounts’ possession, but Dalton’s Jahmyr Gibbs — a Georgia Tech commit — picked off a Canes’ pass and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown to give the Cats a 14-10 lead at the intermission. Cartersville scored on its second drive of the second half with a Jennings 3-yard run capping off a 10-play, 43-yard drive that included a pair of fourth-down conversions. With the Canes up 17-14, both squads turned to many of their younger players in the fourth quarter. Dalton grabbed a 21-17 lead with a long run, but Cartersville countered with a late fourth quarter 60-plus yard scoring run by junior running back Earl Harris. “I think we played better as the night went along — especially on defense,” said Canes’ first-year head coach Conor Foster. “It’s always good to get the kids on film in a live game situation. We will take a look at the film Sunday and get ready for Allatoona. We will make a lot of progress next week.” CASS 23, PEPPERELL 21 Junior place kicker Kaleb Speights nailed a 25-yard field goal Friday night in Lindale to give the Colonels a pleasing 23-21 come-from-behind win on the final play of the game. The host Dragons led 14-0 early. Pepperell scored on a five-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter and added a 50-yard scoring dash on their next possession for a 14-0 lead. Speights converted a 46-yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining in the first half to get the Colonels on the scoreboard at the intermission. Although Cass failed to hit pay dirt in the first half due to several penalty set backs, the running back trio of David Gbadie, Zay Jackson, and Cameran Hill had productive evenings according to Colonels’ head coach Bobby Hughes. “They had some good runs and our quarterbacks — Logan Nelson and Triston Mize — did fine. We made some mistakes, but I’m pleased with their efforts and performances,” said Hughes. On the first play of the fourth quarter Pepperell extended its lead to 21-10, but the Colonels would score the game’s final 13 points to escape with a win. Morocco Wilkey scored on a 40-yard run and Speights converted a field goal with just over seven minutes remaining to narrow the Dragons’ lead to 21-20. Pepperell used multiple timeouts to try and “ice” the Colonels’ junior kicker and it worked on an initial 35-yard miss, but a Dragons’ penalty gave Cass a second chance and Speights nailed the 25-yarder for the win. “We outlasted a really good football team tonight that has a lot of tradition,” said a happy Cass head coach Bobby Hughes after the game. “Tonight is definitely something we can build on. Our kids keep believing in what we are doing. They stayed with it tonight.”