The Cedartown Bulldogs fell in a 14-7 bout with one of the leading teams in the area over the past years after a 35-year break with the Yellow Jackets.

After holding the Jackets on defense through most of the first half, Calhoun capitalized on a Bulldogs fumble and took a 7-0 lead into half time before coming back out in the second and playing through until the fourth quarter, when they added another touchdown midway through the fourth quarter in an attempt to close out the game.

The Bulldogs were able to bounce back and add a score of their own thanks to a breakout run from freshman Harlem Diamond that set up a touchdown for quarterback Jayden Johnson. A comeback try for the Bulldogs came down to the final seconds when Cedartown quarterback Reece Tanner put up a pass that was tipped and gave Calhoun’s Cole Spear the chance to step in front of Johnson and head down the field.

He was pushed off the sideline and that gave the Yellow Jackets the chance to take a knee to run out the clock and to escape with the win.

Photos by Gail Conner. Find more including Senior Night portraits at camerachik.smugmug.com.

Key Takeaways

The Cedartown defense is a force to be reckoned with this season. They have taken on two sets of Jackets over the past two weeks and have held Rockmart and Calhoun to 35 points overall against offenses that are used to scoring easily and often with air and ground attacks.

Especially against a Calhoun team that in previous weeks put up 41 against the Dalton Catamounts, and 22 in a losing effort to McCallie (Chattnaooga.)

The Bulldogs also played without CJ Washington and Patrick Gardner this past Friday night, both sidelined by injuries during their first game of the season against Rockmart.

Cedartown also tried a tactic of kicking off on fourth down in several instances last Friday with Gio Jacobo which worked well on pinning down the Calhoun offense in their own territory.

Tanner will have to work more on not passing against coverage, after giving up interceptions against both Rockmart and Calhoun in the past two weeks.

Next up

Cedartown (0-2) heads to Douglassville to play New Manchester for their third game of the season. The 2-1 Jaguars come off a 46-13 win over Hiram this past week, won their first one over Walnut Grove but fell to East Coweta in their second outing of the year.