The high

school football season started last Friday and several

local teams started off in the right direction.

Sandy Creek

players started their first season under new coach Rodney

Walker with a huge 31-7 win over Morrow High School.

Morrow was one of the strongest teams in the region and a

state playoff team last year.

The

Patriots got lots of offense, including two touchdowns,

from J.R. Lemon. Eric Frazier returned to the gridiron

for Sandy Creek this year, after an infection kept him

out of a majority of last season's games. Frazier scored

a touchdown, as did Pokoya Criner.

The

Patriots will bring their explosive ground attack to

Henry County Friday night. Henry County lost to Jones

County in their season opener, 30-6. The Warhawks went

two and eight like the Patriots last year, but they have

talented players and are looking to redeem themselves

this season as well. Sandy Creek must stop running backs

Rodney Brown and Steven Tallman if they want to match

last season's win total by the second week of the season.

Fayette

County opened up the season with a stellar fourth quarter

and a win over the Paulding County Patriots. The Tigers

scored on their opening drive and took a 14-7 lead into

the locker room at half time. Much of their success came

from tailback Wes Clark, who rushed for 58 yards in the

first two quarters. The third quarter saw the Tigers push

their lead to 17-7, but Paulding came right back with a

touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter. They

missed the extra point and trailed the Tigers 17-13.

The Tigers

then went on to score 14 unanswered points, including a

74-yard touchdown run by Clark. Fayette County won 31-13

and will host the Newnan Cougars Friday night. Newnan

defeated their first opponent, Campbell, 28-17. The

Cougars are stacked this season, returning a lot of

starters and shooting for a playoff spot, while some of

the typically stronger programs struggle through

rebuilding.

The season

started off similar to last year for the McIntosh Chiefs,

as they opened up against the Pebblebrook Falcons. The

Falcons are an enormous, talented and deep team that went

to the playoffs last year. They defeated the Chiefs

56-19. There are reasons for the Chiefs to be optimistic,

though. Last year, the Chiefs did not score more than

once against Pebblebrook. This year's squad at McIntosh

is young, inexperienced, and missing some very talented

players due to graduation and expulsion.

The Chiefs

can also look forward to a much closer game with this

week's opponent. McIntosh will host LaGrange Friday night

and won't have to worry about corralling last year's

superstar Bruce Thornton again. Thornton graduated and

moved to the University of Georgia, but was held to his

lowest rushing total last season by The Chiefs. The

Grangers lost their season opener to Troup County, 12-7.

The fourth

county team, the Starr's Mill Panthers, played their

opener Saturday night at Tiger Stadium in Fayetteville.

They hosted the Riverdale Raiders and defeated them

17-13. Riverdale committed two early turnovers that

stalled their drives. The Panthers, not able to match

Riverdale in speed or skill, did not let the game get

away from them. They used a ground attack to capitalize

on the Raider turnovers.

Though the

official stats were not in at the time the paper went to

press, Craig Maddock unofficially ran for 127 yards,

Ladon Cooper ran for 139 yards and quarterback Brad

McClaren rushed for 66 yards.

Defensively,

Starr's Mill played very well. Matt Fuhrmann had 16

tackles and a fumble recovery and Jason Laney had a key

fumble recovery and an interception. The panthers will

meet the Morrow Mustangs this Friday at Tara Stadium in

Jonesboro.

"We

played better defense this year, but we can still do a

lot better," said Coach Mike Earwood. "There

were open field tackles missed." Despite Morrow's

blowout loss to Sandy Creek, Starr's Mill still respects

their opponents. "Morrow graduated a number of

players from last year, but we can't take anyone lightly

this year," said Earwood.