By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

CENTRE – Mother Nature delayed Cherokee County’s football scrimmage with North Jackson for an hour and 18 minutes on Friday night, and she put an abbreviated end to the action once the two teams got going.

However, they were able to play almost a complete half in which the Warriors won by the final of 14-0 on a pair of Tae Diamond touchdown runs.

“It was good to be back finally under the lights,” Warrior coach Jacob Kelley said. “We played hard and we played physical, but we’ve got a lot to improve on. We tried to be a little basic and do things we felt like we could execute. We threw it around a little bit, and we’re always going to try and run the football. We were introducing a lot of new faces on the O-line. We had some new faces on defense in some spots, but I felt like they did a good job of bearing down when we had to have it.

“It’s just good to be in the situations we were in. You can’t really find the answers to the questions until you get into battle mode.”

Diamond and Keyshawn Woods both finished with 26 yards rushing for the Warriors. Diamond had his yardage on five carries with scores of two yards with 3:27 to go in the first quarter and six yards with 5:24 remaining in the second quarter.

Woods accumulated his yardage on nine carries.

“He (Woods) did his best to try and get loose, but they were stacking the box on us,” Kelley said. “North Jackson is a good football team. They’ve got a loaded roster. They’ve got a couple of guys they didn’t have last year. They were physical. It was kind of like playing ourselves to a certain degree. For ever how long it was, it was physical and really fun.”

The Warriors also hit on a few pass plays. Quarterback Carson Tittle completed 4 of 7 attempts for 86 yards, all to Ben Frampton. Tittle also had 11 yards on three carries and Frampton connected on both Warrior extra points.

Tyson Wood had an interception at the 3:44 mark of the second quarter, which turned out to be the last play of the scrimmage. Officials called the scrimmage after lightning had returned to the area.

“At least they got to get out here and compete a little bit,” Kelley said. “We’ll be able to look at the film and that’s the best thing to help us out moving forward.”

Cherokee County opens its 2024 regular season on Friday against Highway 9 rival Piedmont. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Warrior Stadium.

The following is a summary of how the rest of WEIS radio’s coverage area teams did in their Friday night scrimmage action.

 

Spring Garden 20, Ranburne 19

RANBURNE – Noah Barber connected on 4 of 8 pass attempts for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 19 yards and a score to lead the Spring Garden varsity squad to a 20-19 scrimmage decision at Ranburne. In junior varsity action, Ranburne defeated the Panthers by the final of 6-0.

John Welsh caught a pair of passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. Joel Hunter added a catch for a 48-yard score.

Jacob Welsh led the Panther defense with five tackles. Lukas McGatha, Carson Bostick and Bryant Williams each made four stops.

Spring Garden hosts Sand Rock on Thursday.

 

Gaston 7, Gaylesville 6

GAYLESVILLE – Alex Baty scored on an 8-yard touchdown run to cap a 13-play drive, but the Gaylesville Trojans fell by the final of 7-6 to visiting Gaston in scrimmage action on Friday.

The scrimmage was called with about three minutes remaining due to inclement weather.

The Trojans open the 2024 regular season on Friday at home against Donoho.

 

Cedar Bluff 13, Fayetteville 13

SYLACAUGA – Cedar Bluff and Fayetteville battled to a 13-13 tie in football scrimmage action on Friday.

The Wolves took the early advantage on a long Cameron Hammonds touchdown run. Nicholas Ibarra’s extra point gave Fayetteville a 7-0 lead.

Cedar Bluff quarterback Hunter Stallings gave the Tigers the lead on a pair of touchdown passes. The first went to Hunter Jenkins and the second to Caleb Edmondson, giving the Tigers a 13-7 lead after three quarters of play. Kuper Bradley connected on the second touchdown PAT.

Fayetteville scored the final touchdown on Cedar Bluff’s second team late in the scrimmage on a touchdown run by Aiden Blair. The extra point was no good to keep the score tied at 13 for the final.

Cedar Bluff travels to Valley Head for its season opener on Friday.

 

Sand Rock 0, Saks 0

Ohatchee 27, Sand Rock 7

WHITE PLAINS – Sand Rock battled Saks to a scoreless tie and fell to Ohatchee by the final of 27-7 in football scrimmage action at White Plains on Friday.

Brenden Lindsey accounted for the Wildcats’ lone score against Ohatchee. Morgan Tucker added the extra point.

Jayden Heard scored a pair of touchdowns on runs of 28 and 43 yards for Ohatchee. He also caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Jake Roberson.

Brayden Collins scored the Indian’s final touchdown on a 32-yard run.

Sand Rock travels to Spring Garden for its season opener on Thursday.

 

Piedmont 7, Jacksonville 0

Piedmont 7, White Plains 0

WHITE PLAINS – Piedmont picked up a pair of scrimmage wins at White Plains on Friday evening. The Bulldogs defeated both Jacksonville and White Plains by 7-0 scores.

In the win over Jacksonville, Aliandre Wright scored on a 9-yard touchdown run. Cole Wilson’s extra point provided the final margin with 4:00 to play in the junior varsity period.

Wright scored on a 7-yard TD run against Jacksonville with 3:52 remaining in the regular period. Wilson added the point after for the final.

Piedmont travels to Centre to take on Cherokee County in its season opener on Friday.

 

Collinsville 49, Appalachian 6

ONEONTA – Mason McAteer threw three touchdown passes – two to Gavin Lang and one to Quintavious Rogers – to lead the Collinsville Panthers in a 49-6 football scrimmage rout at Appalachian on Friday.

Aaron Herrera was perfect on PATs.

Collinsville opens its 2024 regular season at Cedar Bluff on Aug. 30.