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Barrow News-Journal
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• WBHS football 2B • Prep calendar 6B
• AHS football 2B • Loran Smith 6B
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Phone: 706-367-5233
Fax: 706-367-8056
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
Section B
★★★★
Go to barrownewsjournal.com for Tuesday night prep results and coverage.
FOOTBALL WEEK 6 PREVIEWS
Winder-Barrow, Habersham Central set to tangle in region opener
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barro wne wsj ournal. com
With second-ranked and defending
GHSA Class 6A state champion Buford
considered a heavy favorite to repeat as
champs in Region 8-AAAAAA, that would
leave the other six teams, including Wind
er-Barrow, fighting for the other three play
off spots over the next seven weeks.
That battle ramps up in earnest this week
as region play begins, including the Bull-
doggs’ trip up to Mount Airy on Friday,
Sept. 24, to face Habersham Central. If re
cent history is any indicator, the winner of
this game will have an early leg up on its
quest for a postseason berth while the loser
will find itself in an early hole.
Fans arguably should also expect a game
that’ll go down to the wire. Three of the last
five meetings between the two sides have
been decided by a touchdown or less, in
cluding each of the last two. In 2019, in its
last trip to Mount Airy, it was Winder-Bar
row that blocked an extra-point attempt to
hold on for a wild 41-40 win and squash
the Raiders’ playoff hopes. Last year at W.
Clair Harris Stadium, it was Habersham
Central that intercepted a pass deep in Bull-
dogg territory with less than a minute left
and then scored the winning touchdown in
a 27-21 triumph that wound making the dif
ference in the playoff seeding in the region;
the Raiders finished third, the Bulldoggs
fourth.
Fast-forward to this year, and there are
again similarities between the two squads.
Both defeated their one common opponent
so far, Apalachee (the Bulldoggs, 19-3, in
week one, and the Raiders, 27-7, a week
later), and both have gone through some
early ups and downs on their way to 2-2 re
cords in their respective non-region slates.
“They’re a very solid program,” Wind
er-Barrow coach Ed Dudley said of the
Raiders, who will be looking to rebound
from last week’s 35-18 setback against 5-0
Stephens County. The Bulldoggs are com
ing off a 36-18 homecoming victory last
week over Cedar Shoals that evened their
record.
“I think this should be a tough matchup,”
Dudley said. “We’ve got to strive to contin
ue to have good balance on offense, and our
defense has got to continue to come along.
They’ve played well, maybe started a little
bit ahead of where we thought they’d be,
and have improved from there. The offense
See WBHS, page 3B
Photo by Ben Munro
Winder-Barrow’s Jacob King (78) and the rest of the Bulldoggs will try to stifle
Habersham Central’s offense when the two teams meet in Mount Airy on Friday,
Sept. 24, for their GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA opener
c There’s no place like home’
Photo courtesy of Regina Logan/
Bethlehem Christian Academy will try to improve to 6-0 on the season this week when it hosts Towns County in
its 2021 home opener.
Knights set to host Towns County on
new turf held after 5-0 road stretch
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjoumal.com
As an undefeated Bethle
hem Christian Academy got
set this week to finally play
its 2021 home opener after
going through five consec
utive road games to open
the season, Knights head
coach Bruce Lane reached
back to the 1939 classic film
“The Wizard of Oz” to de
scribe the feeling and mood
around the program.
“As Dorothy says, ‘there’s
no place like home.’ Lane
quipped, noting that his
team hasn’t just been “road
warriors” on Lriday nights
so far this season, but also
for its practices.
That was until last week,
when BCA finally got the
chance to begin practicing
on the all-new turf surface
installed over the last sev
eral weeks at Knights Lield.
The Knights, who had been
practicing on and hosted a
preseason scrimmage at the
synthetic turf field at Vic
tor Lord Park a mile or so
up Highway 11, will make
their playing debut on their
new home surface Lriday,
Sept. 24. when they wel
come in Towns County for
a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
“Now we can walk out of
our gym and be within 75
yards of our facility,” Lane
said. “It’s a great surface,
and it’s always going to
be a great playing surface
because you don’t have to
worry about rain or having
footing issues on the field,
things like that. It becomes
a 24/7 kind of deal where
it’s designed to have a lot of
use. And with all the activi
ties we have going on at our
school throughout the year,
this allows us to maximize
usage.
“By now our kids are
used to playing on the turf
See BCA, page 3B
Photo by Scott Thompson
Quarterback Ben Reed and running back Joshua Ad
ams have played key roles in Bethlehem Christian
Academy’s 5-0 start.
Apalachee gears up
for another tough
challenge with Eastside
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
Apalachee walked out of Billy Henderson Stadium
in Athens last week on the short end of the scoreboard
following its 31-17 loss to Clarke Central in its GHSA
Region 8-AAAAA opener, but the final tally perhaps
didn’t do the down-to-the-wire nature of the contest
full justice.
In fact, Wildcats head coach Tony Lotti and his staff
and players came away both incensed at a couple of
controversial calls in critical spots — which they felt
cost them a real chance at pulling off the upset — but
also encouraged by their overall performance against
the overwhelmingly favored defending region cham
pions who have been billed as a top contender to take
home the title again.
The Wildcats can’t much afford to look backward
this week, as they get set to host Eastside. widely
considered the other Region 8 favorite, in a big game
Lriday night, Sept. 24, at R. Harold Harrison Stadium.
“I felt like we did a better job overall of executing,
playing together and just playing extremely hard.”
Lotti said of the loss at Clarke Central, yet another in
a long line of games over the last four seasons where
the Wildcats have been neck-and-neck with an oppo
nent but lost when one or two key plays didn’t swing
their way.
See AHS, page 3B
Photo by Scott Thompson/
Apalachee coach Tony Lotti and the Wildcats will
host Eastside at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, in an
other GHSA Region 8-AAAAA battle.
CROSS COUNTRY
Apalachee’s Akin, BASA’s Carroll pace teams at Apple Hawkins Invitational
The Apalachee and Barrow
Arts and Sciences Academy girls’
and boys’ cross country teams
finished in the lower half of the
team standings Saturday. Sept.
18, in Apalachee’s fifth annual
Apple Hawkins Invitational, but
there were some solid showings
among individual runners.
Apalachee’s Averie Akin fin
ished 12th out of 124 female run
ners (21:04.27) to lead the Lady
Wildcats, while BASA’s Smita
Carroll came in 17th (21:50.96).
Norcross had the individual
girls’ winner in Kyra Andrews
(19:25.04). and the Blue Dev
ils were also the team winner.
Apalachee finished 12th out of
18 teams, while BAS A finished
14th.
In the boys’ race, the Wildcats
were 13th out of 23 teams, as
Austin Sigman finished 29th out
of 151 runners (18:29.19) and
younger brother Luke Sigman
came in 31st (18:32.88). BASA.
which finished 17th overall, was
led by Michael Fletcher in 54th
place (19:12.40). Shiloh’s Nathan
Solomon was the individual male
winner (15:55.72). while Jeffer
son took the boys’ team title.
Both schools will be back in
action along with Winder-Barrow
on Saturday, Sept. 25, in the Bat
tle of Barrow meet at Apalachee
— starting at 8 a.m. with the
boys’ race, followed by the girls’
race.
o