Staff Reports
ONEONTA – Cherokee County High School senior quarterback Carson Tittle wanted to play in one last football game with his teammates.
Tittle tore his ACL in last week’s game at Arab. He will have surgery on it on Monday, but Friday night, he went out with a bang.
Tittle went 6 of 8 passing for 144 yards and threw a pair of touchdown passes in the Warriors 47-6 rout at Class 4A Region 6 rival Oneonta.
“He decided after Wednesday that he was good enough to play tonight,” Warrior coach Jacob Kelley said. “He started one more time for us tonight with a torn ACL. He managed the game. It was just good to go to war one more time with him. When he has surgery, and if we can do our part and continue to get better and make a run through the playoffs, maybe he’ll be well enough to get back.”
Tittle wasn’t the only hero for the Warriors (2-1, 1-0) on Friday night. Ben Frampton had five catches for 128 yards, including a pair of touchdown passes. Tae Diamond led the Warrior ground game with 124 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns. Freshman Jayshawn Stroup added 113 yards on nine totes with two scores. Keyshawn Woods tallied 67 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Tristan Brown finished with 49 yards on just three carries.
The Warriors built a 19-0 advantage at halftime and led 33-0 after three quarters.
“It was just a good team win tonight,” Kelley said. “We were solid on special teams. The defense played lights out. The offense did a good job of blocking the right people. A lot of guys had a lot of carries tonight.
“We knew they (Oneonta) were going to be a little bit different tonight. Our defense did an outstanding job. I think we held them under 100 yards total offense for the night. The guys have played really, really good on the defensive side of the ball. We forced three turnovers and blocked a punt.
“Offensively, our offensive line continues to get better and better. We graduated a lot of guys off the line a year ago. That bunch is really starting to mesh and that’s really good to see. We didn’t play really well in our first game (against Piedmont), but the growth between the first game, the second game and now the third game is promising.”
Cherokee County hosts Etowah in another Region 6 battle on Friday.