Who in the world had heard of Berkmar before they showed up on the schedule?
Some folks in Lilburn might beg to differ about that opinion, but the Cedartown Bulldogs are facing a squad they’ve never tested before – and have the chance to carry away a Thursday night thriller with a big victory.
Coming off the 24-3 win over Rockmart over the weekend, Cedartown goes into tonight’s competition with a short week against a Berkmar Patriots squad that got away with a season-opening win – just barely.
Berkmar took on Lakeside in their opener and put up a 6-0 final score (for what we could find…) as the upper classmen heavy 6A squad comes to the Doc to play.
(I would say more about Berkmar here, but they didn’t upload any stats from their recent victory I could find immediately online…)
The Patriots come into this one 1-0, coming off a 3-6-1 season in 7A before reclassification brought them down a level. This year’s Region 7-6A includes a number of metro area schools who found themselves in a similar situation.
Cedartown obviously comes into this game with a 1-0 record as well, and plenty of threats on the ground, in the air and on defense to make Berkmar’s life difficult.
The Bulldogs have three keys to this one: establish the run and eat off clock, give Isaiah Johnson space to spread out the running and passing game in his dual-threat role, and simply allow the Bulldog defense to be the Bulldog defense.
Look for Quinlan Cothron to be a real threat in the secondary, especially after the way he played in the scrimmage earlier this month against Troup County and Week 1 against Rockmart.
Cedartown moved this one up to Thursday night ahead of the start of the season.
The Bulldogs also celebrate Senior Night on Thursday evening at the Doc. That program is expected to start at 6:50 p.m., honoring 21 football players who are graduating in the class of 2025, plus several cheerleaders and band members as well.
