5 North Fulton Teams Capture Region, Sub-Region Titles

By Mike Blum

ROSWELL, GA — Oct. 26 was championship celebration night in North Fulton, as four area high school football teams won region championship and a fifth captured its sub-region. A sixth local team clinched second place in its region and a first-round home game in the playoffs.

The region champions are Roswell (4-AAAAAAA), Milton (5-AAAAAAA), Johns Creek (7-AAAAAA), and
Blessed Trinity (7-AAAA). Fellowship Christian clinched its sub-region title and will play for the Region 6-A Championship this Friday at Mt. Zion of Carrolton. Centennial captured second place in 7-AAAAAA behind Johns Creek.

However, not all is lost for Alpharetta, Northview and Cambridge, as they are still in contention for a playoff spot in 7-AAAAAA along with Pope, which has finished its season and can do no worse than tie for third.

Roswell broke open a tie game with three touchdowns in the span of 90 seconds late in the fourth quarter to defeat Woodstock 34-14 in the Hornets’ regular season home finale. The Hornets snapped a 14-14 tie on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Roberts to John Copenhaver in the fourth quarter, and added two more scores in the next minute-and-a-half on interceptions returns of 35 yards by Ty’ron Hopper and 25 yards by Abe Nyang.

Roswell scored early in the first quarter, and the Hornets’ 7-0 lead held up until early in the fourth period. A 20-yard pass from Roberts to Copenhaver made it 14-7 before Woodstock tied the game for a second time. Roberts passed for 192 yards and scored on a 2-yard run, with Copenhaver catching eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Roswell played without Jacob Jarrett, one of the team’s two primary receivers, with sophomore Marquis Willis taking over at the position with six receptions for 91 yards.

The Hornets also lost standout running Kemonty Jett and a starting lineman to injury early in the game.
Jett carried five times for 13 yards before exiting, with backup Jeremy Slaughter rushing for 88 yards on
14 attempts. Roswell is 4-0 in the region and 8-1 overall and ranked sixth in the state. The Hornets have two wins over top teams in 7A, defeating rival Milton 22-20 in a non-region game and Walton 32-31 in the game
that decided the region championship.

The Hornets have three region titles in the last four years after reaching back-to-back state championship games in 2015 and 2016. Roswell has no players left who played significant roles on the 2016 state finalist team and no varsity coaches from that season are still on staff. Roswell plays Friday night at Etowah and will be at home Nov. 9 for the first round of the state playoffs, likely against Camden County from Region 1.

Milton lambasted Lambert 57-7 last Friday at home, leading 51-0 at the half. Senior quarterback Jordan Yates had a career night, rushing for 170 yards and four touchdowns on 10 carries and completing 9 of 15 passes for 150 yards and two scores. Yates scored on runs of 19, 28, 39 and 47 yards, and threw passes of 41 yards to Holden Shaw and 24 yards to Dylan Leonard to account for all six of Milton’s offensive touchdowns in the first half.

The Eagles also scored on a blocked punt for a safety and a short fumble return, with Jack Rhodes having a hand in both. Milton is 4-0 in the region and 7-2 overall, with both losses coming by two points against state-ranked opponents, Roswell and Parkview. The Eagles last won a region championship in 2014, when the team reached the quarterfinals, the farthest Milton has ever advanced in the state playoffs. The Eagles own a win over state-ranked Archer in the season opener and also defeated a top team from Florida. Milton crushed three of its four region opponents and led region runner-up South Forsyth 35-7 in the fourth quarter before winning 35-21. Milton has re-entered the top 10 in 7A, and will close out its regular season Friday at North Forsyth. The likely opponent for the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs is South Gwinnett.

Johns Creek captured a region title for the second time in three years with a 32-6 win last Friday at Alpharetta. The Gladiators are unbeaten against Georgia opponents this season, with their only loss coming against a team from the Washington, D.C. area that is ranked in the top 10 nationally. The Gladiators are 7-0 in region play and 8-1 overall and average 44 points a game in their seven region wins. Zach Gibson, a fourth year starter at quarterback, had 2000 yards passing and 24 touchdowns prior to the win over Alpharetta, and threw his 25th touchdowm pass of the season to Giovanni Dye, who has 11 touchdown receptions.

Running backs Nate Hope and Will Watson have combined for 13 rushing touchdowns and well over 1000 yards, as the Gladiators sport a productive, balanced attack, with Gibson having a quality group of receivers. The Johns Creek defense turned in its strongest defensive effort of the season against the Raiders, holding them scoreless until late in the game.

The Gladiators forced four turnovers, two coming on interceptions by John Stegenga and also blocked a punt for a safety. Johns Creeks closes out the regular season Friday night against Dunwoody at North DeKalb Stadium, and opens the state playoffs at home Nov. 9, most likely against Sequoyah.

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Blessed Trinity captured its fifth region title in the last six years with a 10-7 win at home over Marist. The Titans are 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the region, and have been ranked No. 1 in the state all season after winning the 2017 AAAA championship. The Titans host White County this Friday, and will open defense of their state title Nov. 9 at home against either Heritage of Catoosa or Northwest Whitfield. The Titans are hoping to get two key players back by playoff time, as running back Elijah Green, who has not played since the third game, and cornerback Jackson Hamilton are close to being ready to play, according to coach Tim McFarlin.

Fellowship Christian closed out a 7-0 record in its sub-region with a 42-40 shootout win last Friday at
Whitefield Academy. The Paladins play Friday at Mt. Zion, which tied for first in its sub-region with a 5-1 mark, but got the No. 1 seed for the region title game with a victory over North Cobb Christian, which also finished 5-1. Both teams were ranked fifth in the state power rankings used to seed Class A teams for the playoffs, with Fellowship playing in the private division and Mt. Zion in the public division.

Despite the loss of senior quarterback Brooks Bryant to a season-ending injury in the Paladins’ sixth game, Fellowship remains one of the top offensive teams in the state in Class A. Fellowship averages almost 43 points a game, with sophomore Murphy Reeves the leading rusher in the state in Class A. Reeves has carried 152 times for 1630 yards and 16 touchdowns and has three games of at least 270 yards and is averaging 10.7 yards per carry. He carried 33 times for 290 yards and two touchdowns last week, after rushing for 343 yards and four scores the previous game. Centennial will finish second in its region, with a 28-26 loss to Johns Creek a few weeks ago keeping the Knights from a region title. The Knights improved to 6-1 in the region and 6-3 overall with a 70-42 win last week over North Atlanta, scoring the game’s last five touchdowns after trailing 42-35 in the second half.

The Knights amassed 768 yards of offense, 465 rushing. Cal Dickie carried 25 times for 253 yards and four touchdowns, including scoring runs of 29, 33 and 37 yards. Quarterback Max Brosmer gained 204 yards on 9 attempts including a 72-yard scoring run, and was 14 of 24 passing for 303 yards and five touchdowns Rekevian Mathis was the leading receiver with six yards for 129 yards and three scores covering 37, 49 and 14 yards.

Richard Shaw had five catches for 75 yards and a 49-yarder for a touchdown that put the Knights ahead 49-42 in the third quarter. Dickie caught three passes for 84 yards and had a 38-yard scoring reception. The Knights are home Friday against Northview, which must win the game to have a chance of making the playoffs. Alpharetta is at home Friday and can get the third playoff spot from 7-AAAAAA with a win over Cambridge and a Northview loss. If Cambridge wins and Northview loses, the Bears get the fourth playoff spot on a tiebreaker. If Northview wins and Alpharetta loses, Northview will be the region’s fourth seeded playoff team.

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