Southeast Whitfield staying out of region play on the gridiron

The Cedartown Bulldogs will have a tough schedule ahead on the turf in 2024, and the region realignments have blessed and cursed the Dawgs for the upcoming season.

Additionally, one team has decided to stay out of the region entirely when play starts later this year in the fall.

The Bulldogs will take their first steps on the field this spring with the Red-and-Black game in an intrasquad scrimmage, but their first competition on the field will be against a previous rival in region play: Troup County.

The Tigers will be visiting the Doc for a shakedown game that won’t count on August 2. It’ll be the first time the two teams have met since they faced off in region competition in 2019, when Cedartown came away with a close win.

Once the scrimmage is over, the Bulldogs have a week to regroup before the season opens against a traditional rival.

Season’s Greetings from the Rock

Cedartown’s season opens on the road this year for the Battle of Polk County, and the Dawgs are on a hot streak winning the past two in a row over Rockmart. The Jackets host the rivalry game on Friday, August 16.

Rockmart finished 2024 heading to a state title game and fell to Pierce County for the runner-up spot, finishing with a 12-3 record overall on the year, their second time to the state title game under head coach Biff Parson.

The Bulldogs home opener for the 2024 season will be against Berkmar High School out of Lilburn. The Patriots were a 7-A school in 2023 and finished their season 3-6-1 (1-5 in region.) Cedartown looks to get an early season win in the home-opener over a Patriots squad who has not put up a winning season since 2005.

The non-region half of the season continues with a trip to Alexander, followed by another to Pepperell before region play begins for the new 7-4A.

Alexander hosts Cedartown on August 30 in trip to Douglasville for the showdown with the Cougars. They went 2-8 overall in 2023, and failed to grab a region win at 0-7.

The following week’s trip to Lindale on September 6 brings the Bulldogs back into action with a longtime rival in Floyd County. The Dawgs last faced off against the Dragons in 2017 and took a 42-10 win in a non-region matchup.

Pepperell will come into this one after a seven year hiatus with a new coach, but one with experience against Cedartown. Rockmart alum Brandon Haywood who was with the Woodland Wildcats program is now head coach at Pepperell.

He’ll be looking to improve a Dragons squad who went 5-6 overall in Region 7A in 2023, and exited the playoffs against Mount Vernon in the first round after finishing the region in fourth place.

A New Region

Reclassification has completely changed the landscape for the Cedartown Bulldogs. Where over the past several years the Dawgs have been at the top – or in contention – for a region title, this year Cedartown finds itself in a all bets are off situation.

The opening of a new region with tough foes in 7-4A begins on September 13 when the Dawgs host Allatoona in their first outing against one another in over a decade.

Cedartown is 0-2 against the lakeside Buccaneers, who had winning seasons when they last faced off in 2010 and 2011. The difference now is the script is flipped and the Dawgs are in a better spot than a squad who went 2-8 overall as a 6A school facing the likes of Rome and North Paulding in their region play, are now in Class 4A and against some teams who are among the tops in Georgia football.

Following the region opener at home, a foe Cedartown has faced over the past couple of years in scrimmage play is now a region contender looking for some payback. The Cass Colonels came down into Class 4A and the region with realignments as well, but Cedartown and Cass have past history as well.

Cedartown has a 26-4 record over the Colonels overall, but the last time these two played and it counted it was a 2013 victory for the Dawgs by double digits: 54-28. The Colonels are coming into 2024 having put up a winning season at 7-6 overall (2-3 in Region 7-5A) and a wild quarterfinals playoff run that ended against Coffee.

Mark these words, Bulldogs faithful: Cass coming to town could get ugly.

The Bulldogs will get their first bye week on Sept. 27 on the season before region play continues, and by then it’ll be a much-needed break for a Cedartown squad that’ll be six games into the season without a break.

They’ll need it against a Hiram Hornets team coming off a successful year for a program that needed it.

Finishing the year at 9-3 in the second round of the playoffs against a highly-ranked Jefferson squad, Hiram is coming into the new Region 7-4A building off the past three seasons under coach Pete Fominaya. The team in 2021 was 1-9, then in 2022 went 5-5 before their first winning season in 2014. Expect this game to be a showdown trip for the Bulldogs’ chance of being able to control their destiny in 7-4A this coming season, or fighting it out for a playoff spot.

Then there’s Dalton. Oh, Dalton.

The Catamounts over the past two seasons have been a non-region foe in mid-September who helped Cedartown’s strength of schedule and margin of victory. The 2022 43-9 victory was part of the team’s undefeated run to a state title game against Benedictine. Last year’s victory over the Cats at 35-27 on the road was a needed win and evened up a 17-17-4 record between the two on-and-off longtime foes with games that date back to the 1920s.

The Cats come into this one with a winning record in 2023 (8-4 overall, made it to the second round of the playoffs) but also without any luck over the past two seasons over Polk County teams. Maybe Coach Kit Carpenter will find a winning formula this coming season against Cedartown since they won’t have Rockmart on the schedule for 2024. (Dalton already released their schedule for the year as well.)

Once upon a time, Cartersville’s road to region title glory (and later state gold) came through Cedartown. The last time the two faced off in 2018, The Canes stormed the Dawgs offense for a 24-2 loss on the road. The year before, the 21-20 loss at home was part of a title run in 2018 that ended against Blessed Trinity in the finals.

Now that the two teams have been on their own powerhouse runs in different classifications, this first matchup in five seasons is going to be highly anticipated, and could settle a region title winner. Especially with the way the season is going to end for the Dawgs.

The best part of this game is that Cedartown is hosting at The Doc.

The Dawgs will get to host one final regular season game for their October 25 closer against the Woodland Wildcats. The Wildcats have not yet had a winning season (they’ve come close a few times since the school opened in 1998) and are moving into a region where that option will be unlikely going forward. Under Haywood, they picked up a pair of wins on a season that ended without any major progress forward, and now the Wildcats are bringing in a new staff after Haywood headed to Lindale. Look for this Senior Night victory

Where’s Southeast Whitfield? They might be part of the region, but the squad is staying out of region play in football for the next two years. Officials at the school reported to PolkSportsWire that after a 2023 campaign that saw no forward progress for the program, they plan to play a completely non-region schedule in hopes to gain some experience and improvement for student athletes.

Without the Raiders on the schedule, Cedartown’s second bye week comes before the squad could have a potential playoff run, a break that no other squad around the state is likely to have and might give the Dawgs an advantage heading into a Class 4A playoff grouping that is going to be a buzzsaw.