The Cartersville Purple Hurricanes (4-0) defeated the Cherokee Warriors on Friday night by a score of 24-14.
Cartersville scored on its opening drive, as the Canes stuck with the ground game, which ended with an Amari White touchdown run to give the Canes an early lead. Cartersville stymied the Cherokee offense and before the Warriors could blink, Cartersville had a two-score lead following the Jesus Gutierrez field goal.
But then it was Cartersville’s turn to get caught off guard. The Warriors were able to take advantage of some busted coverage as quarterback AJ Swan took advantage of the mismatches, tossing two touchdown passes before Cartersville could blink. The Canes found themselves down 14-10 and, with a minute to go, punted the ball away with their eyes on the second half.
But then Cartersville got a break.
The Cherokee return man backed up, fumbled the ball, and Cartersville pounced on it and got a new breath of life. Now the Canes would look to capitalize at the Cherokee 25-yard line. And they would do just that, as White found the end zone again and the Canes held a 17-14 lead.
The second half would favor the defenses. It wasn’t until the 5:59 mark in the fourth quarter that Amari White would score his third touchdown of the evening and give The Canes a 24-14 advantage, which would hold for the rest of the game.
Cartersville did suffer several penalties in the game, one was on a Jake Brasfield interception return for a touchdown, which was a momentum killer for the Canes.
Cartersville will get a bye week before starting region play on October 1st against Cass High School. You can hear that game on AM 1450, FM 100.3 WBHF or on the TuneIn Radio app.