Doc Ayers Field will be rocking on Friday night not just with the Polk County Fair across the highway, but with a big football game coming up after the Bulldogs were forced to take a two-week break in their schedule due to COVID-19 cases on the team.

The Bulldogs host the New Manchester Jaguars in their first time back onto the gridiron after an imposed break, but they will be ready after getting back to practice this week and with a squad full of playmakers ready to take on the best that the Douglasville school can throw at the home team.

Cedartown will have CJ Washington back on the field, Reece Tanner under center and a crew of talent like Harlem Diamond and Patrick Gardner to work on both offense and defense on Friday night when the Bulldogs kickoff at 7:30 p.m., but one thing will matter most for the squad: setting the tempo early for getting their season back on track. And if all goes according to plan, Cedartown should be able to get through this one with a win and onward to Heard County and the region schedule.

The 1-2 Jaguars come into this contest with a win under their belt, but have thus far had no rest on their young season after starting the year against Carrollton on the road in a 49-13 loss, then were shut out by East Coweta in another trip out of town in a 48-0 loss during week 2.

New Manchester bounced back this past week against Hiram in a 30-6 win at home, but with another road game at the Doc on Friday night they will have to work hard to maintain that momentum after Cedartown got time off (forced) for the past two weeks, but just got back to practice this week.

The team was previously forced to call off the Rockmart-Cedartown game, then the Cedartown at Calhoun matchup amid a suspension of football activities for a 10-day period until players got better and came out of quarantine with more than 8% of the team sick with COVID-19.

The Bulldogs do have one bright spot: fresh players and a winning record. Since Cedartown was forced out of their second and third games of the year – non-region games, to be sure – the Bulldogs are sitting at 1-0 on the young season after a 7-3 win over a much-bigger Denmark Danes squad. The Alpharetta-based Danes has since added two wins to their against Banneker and Shiloh.

Cedartown beat the Jaguars in their only other meeting last season when the Bulldogs went to visit New Manchester and came home with a 24-0 win. That night was the start of an eight-game winning streak that took the Bulldogs into the quarterfinals of the playoffs for Class AAAA in 2020.

Check back on Saturday for more coverage on how the Bulldogs fared against Rockmart.