The Cartersville Purple Hurricanes (7-0) defeated the Cass Colonels (4-3) on Friday night 21-14 in overtime.
Cass received the kickoff, but didn’t score on its opening drive. The Canes, who have struggled at times getting out of the gate on offense, also were unable to threaten on their opening drive. On its second possession, Cass showed why it was a dangerous team in the preseason. Sacovie White caught big throws from Brodie McWhorter, before the drive was capped on a 3-yard touchdown run by Devin Henderson.
Both teams stood tall, but both left some points on the board. On its third drive, Cass got into the Cartersville red zone, but penalties kept pushing back against the Cass attack. Unable to convert a third down in the red zone, Cass elected to kick a field goal. The kick sailed wide left, and it felt like a win for the Cartersville defense.
Both teams continued to trade possessions and neither defense planned to give an inch. Finally, Khristian Lando broke loose and set up Cartersville deep in Cass territory. Just a few, short plays later, Richard Houston scored on a 2-yard run to tie the game at seven. Through the game’s first 24 minutes, very little had been decided.
Cartersville scored in the third quarter as Nate Russell connected with A’darrian Taylor-Wilson for a long touchdown to give the Canes their first lead of the game. It seemed that maybe Cass had run out of steam, but once again the combination of McWhorter and White had big plays that set up Henderson’s second touchdown of the game.
On the next Cass possession, the Colonels went on a march down the field. The Colonels chewed up nearly seven minutes of clock in order to set themselves up for the winning score and not leaving any time left for Cartersville to answer. The Colonels were set up with a chance to kick a field goal, but, once again, were doomed by penalties. The Colonels missed the field goal and played for overtime.
The Canes received the first possession in the overtime period. Facing a third down, Russell found blown coverage in the Cass secondary and connected with Taylor-Wilson for a touchdown pass to once again give Cartersville the lead.
On Cass’ possession, the Colonels found their backs against the wall for the first time in the game. McWhorter had a big scramble to set Cass up at the Cartersville 10-yard line threatening to score. McWhorter dropped back to pass for the last time as Reed Ezell had the game-winning interception to put an end to a thrilling football game.
Cartersville will host Hiram next Friday night, while Cass will travel to Dalton. Both teams have kickoffs set for 7:30. You can hear Cartersville by listening to WBHF with pregame coverage beginning at 6:00 from Scott’s Walk-Up BBQ. Cass, meanwhile, can be heard while streaming Bartow Sports Zone.