My fiancée Bethany and I spent much of last weekend moving into our new house. Anyone who’s ever moved before knows there’s so much involved, everything from unboxing items to arranging furniture and lots of clean up in between.
I must say we got a lot done over the weekend, and that’s not counting the late Friday night I spent gathering information from an eventful Week 6 in area high school football action.
We had a little bit of everything ranging from impressive individual performances to blowouts and bye weeks.
I’ll delve into all that below, but first things first. I went 4-2 in last week’s picks, to “move” my overall record to 31-8 on the season.
Let’s see if I suffer a moving hangover this week or if I return to the land of undefeated picks.
Sand Rock (1-6) at Fyffe (5-1): The Fyffe express is now rolling after a season-opening hiccup to Geraldine. The Red Devils have won five in a row, including a 53-6 thumping of Collinsville last week.
Sand Rock had its most productive offensive outing of the season in last week’s 47-28 loss at North Sand Mountain, but I’m afraid the Wildcats won’t find that much production against Fyffe’s defense come Friday night on the road.
The pick: Fyffe.
Collinsville (4-2) at Ider (2-4): As I just mentioned, Collinsville took it on the chin against the defending 2A state champions last week, but I think they’ll rebound nicely behind a balanced attack behind Mason McAteer’s passing and the running of Quintavious Rogers.
The pick: Collinsville.
Glencoe (2-4) at Piedmont (2-4): The Bulldogs got the boost they so desperately needed last week in the form of Trevor Pike.
Pike did a little bit of everything in Piedmont’s 35-19 over Westbrook Christian. The first time he touched the ball at running back, he ran for 54 yards to set up a McClane Mohon 4-yard touchdown less than three minutes into the game. He caught four passes for 65 yards and two scores (40 and 18 yards). He also ran for 62 yards on just three carries, and returned a kickoff 81 yards for a score just before halftime.
Here’s thinking Pike’s presence proves productive again for the Bulldogs against Glencoe.
The pick: Piedmont.
Cedar Bluff (3-4) at Coosa Christian (1-5): To say the Conquerors have had an interesting season would be an understatement. After starting out with a shutout loss at Geraldine, they won four in a row, outscoring their opponents 153-6.
But that was before they had to forfeit those four games for the use of ineligible players.
Ironically, Coosa’s only “win” was also by forfeit by Heritage Academy in Mississippi back on Sept. 29, the same day the AHSAA announced Coosa’s forfeit losses. The Conquerors had last week off.
Cedar Bluff has also had an unusual season to this point. It’s been a loss-win pattern since the Tigers’ opener at Winterboro. If you follow that pattern, the Tigers are due a win this week on the road before their bye week on Oct. 20.
I’m really not sure what to expect in this one, especially since we really don’t know who is going to be playing for the Conquerors. But they have had two weeks to prepare, and they’re playing at home, so I’ll give them the edge.
The pick: Coosa Christian.
Pleasant Valley (4-2) at Spring Garden (5-2): Spring Garden’s offense got back on track last week. John Welsh, Chapel Pope and Connor Bates each ran for over 100 yards and accounted for six touchdowns on the ground in a 51-23 victory at Talladega County Central.
This week they’ll be taking on a Pleasant Valley team that has lost two in a row and struggled to score. The Raiders have only managed a combined 12 points in losses to Ragland and Locust Fork.
Here’s thinking the Panthers can keep both trends going.
The pick: Spring Garden.
Fultondale (2-4) at Cherokee County (6-0): The Warriors are coming off a bye week, so they should be fresh for the stretch run. I expect Jacob Cornejo and company to pick up right where they left off two weeks ago in this week’s Foothills Tractor Game of the Week.
The pick: Cherokee County.