The Rockmart Yellow Jackets and the Cedartown Bulldogs have been waiting for this moment for months. All the hard work in the weight room, on the practice field and in scrimmage play during the pre-season is over.
Now the time comes to determine who is the better team in Polk County.
Rockmart travels to Cedartown on Thursday evening with first-week schedule change at 7 p.m. at The Doc (Cedartown Memorial Stadium) as the Jackets look for revenge after Cedartown snapped a winning streak last year at The Rock in The Delay Game.
The 27-14 victory for the Bulldogs began a magical season that saw the Bulldogs go undefeated up until the state title game, where they fell a yard short against Benedictine in the championship game.
Rockmart made it to the quarterfinals last year after a two-loss regular season (Bulldogs and Irwin County are responsible for those losses) and finished out with a touchdown loss to Fitzgerald to finish 10-3 on the year.
This year’s squads are both have veteran players and new faces alike, and both teams are coming off runs where they continue to dominate their regions. Only one question remains for the two teams who battle it out annually: who is the best?
Let’s delve into what to expect from both teams in this opening week preview:
Rockmart
Rockmart’s JD Davis – who has headed the offense since is sophomore year – returns under center for one final season in 2023 to go for the team’s seventh region title and run toward the playoffs.
GPB has the team ranked fifth in pre-season polls in Class AA football, with Thomson on top of that poll.
He’s got a lot of help in the backfield and in receiver spots with guys like Brent Washington and Tristan Anderson working on both sides of the ball to make their mark this season. The real question will be up front on the offensive and defensive line this season, and whether they can hold tough throughout a murder’s row of an upcoming season and a third week on the road.
The Jackets’ 2023 pre-season campaign began with a 34-6 win over Bremen on the road, but last week they ran into trouble against a much bigger Rome Wolves, who knocked Rockmart for a 48-6 loss which included a Reece Fountain (edit: I am struggling on the typing lately, I swears it. -KtE) fumble recovered in the end zone for six.
The Jackets have to do two things to ensure victory: stop Tae Harris on the ground, and Drew Ledbetter and Reonte Porter in the air. Rockmart’s offense is capable and well-seasoned at this point, so the Jackets better have a solid plan on defense to open the season with a win.
Win or lose this one, Rockmart still is on track for a big year.
They should repeat as Region 7-AA champs (set to be their fifth since 2017.) Parson will still head the team to a winning record and the playoffs. How far they go? That’ll come down to a lot of factors, but I suspect the Jackets do better this year than they did last no matter how they play against Cedartown.
Cedartown
The Bulldogs? Oh boy, they aren’t in rebuilding mode so much as they are reloading this season.
Ranked second in the state by GPB in the preseason in Class 4A, the Bulldogs have a lot of talent to make that ranking well deserved as they look to get back tot he title game for a likely rematch against Benedictine.
Drew Ledbetter is under center in his senior year is finally getting the chance to start after mainly playing in second halves of the 2022 season after former QB Reece Tanner and the rest of the first stringers got in their points on the game. Ledbetter showed he had the talent last year to be Bulldogs’ field general, but now he gets to show off what he can do.
In the backfield with Tanner will mainly be junior Tae Harris, looking to spread mayhem as the fastest guy on the team and able to change directions at will. Harris already has committed to UGA when he graduates with the Class of 2025.
Harris won’t be alone with guys like Isaiah Johnson and Reonte Porter able to grab carries, a bunch of young guys (including Tony Walker) who will get their opportunities for yards and scores on Fridays.
Defensively, Harris is also a guy to watch. His pick-six completely changed the game for the sole scrimmage this season against Cass, and the Bulldogs retook the lead and held it for the rest of the outing.
Michael Gibbons Jr. and Edgar Martinez have plenty of experience getting to quarterbacks and runners in the backfield, and head a group of guys who all want the opportunity to grab sack numbers this season.
This game has a chance to go either way depending on the defense. If they remain off the field against Rockmart in 4-and-out runs, Cedartown will have a good night. If the Bulldogs defense are on the field for extended time, don’t expect it to be an easy night for Cedartown.
Game time
Rockmart travels for their third time in a row to start the season on the road against Cedartown at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 17.
The game was moved up from Friday due to continued official shortages that are impacting games all across the state (it ain’t just us, folks.)
It is worth noting the schedule changes aren’t known until Sunday prior to the coming week’s games, so it is likely that Cedartown and Rockmart will see additional shifts in the schedule this coming year.
School officials weren’t given an option for a Saturday game, which is where many of the teams who were expecting Friday night openers landed.
