The White County High football team lost its season opener to Franklin County, 13-3, Friday night in Cleveland. Franklin County running back Jay Moon put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 45-yard touchdown run. The Lions also scored on an interception returned for a touchdown in the first quarter.

White County’s Mark Bardenwerper kicked a 37-yard field goal in the second quarter to narrow the score to 7-3. Warriors coach Gregg Segraves says that it was a physical, hard fought game, but his team has things to improve on. “We had our opportunities, but we missed too many tackles during the game.”

Big Red defense

Gainesville coach Bruce Miller says that its 35-0 season-opener win against Chestatee was the best he’s seen out of his program since 2005. The Red Elephants coach says that the defensive efforts of Phillip Gaines, A.J. Johnson, Shamond Stringer and Robert Humphrey were key to holding the War Eagles to only 212 yards of total offense. Last season, Gainesville opened the season with a 55-0 win against East Hall at City Park.

“I’m so proud of how we played,” Miller said. “We were right where we needed to be all night.”

Gainesville’s last shutout victory against Chestatee was in 2004, when the Red Elephants won three consecutive games by way of shutout (Chestatee, Gilmer and West Hall) to finish the regular season.
The last time Chestatee was shutout was a 49-0 loss to Stephens County in the first round of the 2005 state playoffs.

Welcome back

Riverside Military’s 21-20 win against Elbert County was the first in the GHSA, since a 49-20 win against Towns County in 2001. Diego Osegueda-Weiner, a senior, led the Eagles defense with 12 tackles and Aaron Gambrah, a junior, added eight tackles. “It felt great to pick up that win, especially with as many turnovers as we had,” Eagles coach Chris Lancaster said.

Riverside Military goes for its first win in Region 8-AA against Banks County Friday night.