The Rockmart Yellow Jackets had already secured their fourth region title in a row – this year under 6-AAA instead of the 7-AA crown of years past – and finished out their regular season also cementing another accomplishment: senior players on the team have gone four years in a row perfect in region play.

Rockmart traveled to Ringgold to keep that run going and came back home Friday night with a 35-12 victory over the Tigers with a final knee from quarterback JD Davis.

Head Coach Biff Parson said that despite a night when the Jackets could have played a lot more competitively, “you never curse a win.”

“It’s a region win, and you know these seniors are going out and they ain’t lost a region game in four years,” he said. “The fight that they have, the resilience that they have. They’ve done a great job for this program.”

That win came off the heels of a Jacket offense that faced some competition in the first half from the Ringgold defense, but still were able to put three touchdowns on the board before heading into the locker room before the second half began. Quarterback Javin Whatley ran it in early to put Rockmart on the board early, and with two more scores in the first half from Keyshaun McCullough and Whatley on the ground, Rockmart took control of the game.

The biggest play of the night was a touchdown pass that Whatley threw into double coverage to Dennis Sims, who came down with the pass in the end zone to put Rockmart up 28-6.

“We made kind of a 50-50 jump ball there for Dennis, and Dennis made an unbelievable catch to give us that go-ahead lead there,” Parson said of the play. “It gave us a little bit of a spark there in the second half.”

Freshman running back Brent Washington cemented the victory with a touchdown run in the fourth to put Ringgold away for the night. Washington grabbed and interception to stop a Ringgold drive in its tracks.

Ringgold got a chance to get on the board thanks to a touchdown pass between 7 and ? in the first half, and then a run to get on the board again in the third quarter.

Rockmart’s defense was able to slow down the Tiger offense enough to keep them from getting anywhere in the second half, with the exception of their fourth-quarter touchdown that came off of a drive when some of the Jackets’ younger members of the team got a chance to get in the game.

The 9-1 Jackets now head into a whole new season, hosting White County for the first round of the Class AAA playoffs. The Region 6-AAA winner had one game called on the year, missing LaFayette last week due to COVID-19 cases on the Ramblers squad.

“We get to play another season now,” Parson said. “We’re in playoff mode. We’re excited and blessed to have that ability to play. We didn’t play our best game. We were flat. Credit to Ringgold though. They came out, and we knew that they were going to come out and give us everything that they had.”

Key Takeaways

The Jackets utilized passing more in the final regular season game of the year, but only because many of the backs that Rockmart has to take on defenses were sidelined by injuries this week. Parson said that they’ll hope to have those running backs in action again when White County comes to play next Friday following the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We had some injuries tonight. We’ve got to get those (kids healthy) and make sure that we’re ready to go for the first round,” Parson said. “White County is a really great football team, and should really be the No. 1 seed or the No. 2 seed in that region. They had some injuries and they got them back. It’s going to be a dogfight in the first round.”

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Rockmart is hosting a practice next Thursday morning and alumni are welcome to come to participate. They’ll be starting early so no one will miss the holiday lunch or dinner.

The 6-AAA region championship was sealed last week, but the rest of the teams had an opportunity to battle it out for final placement in the standings. North Murray has the second place spot, Adairsville finished in the third, and LaFayette in fourth.

One personal note: I joined a group of reporters, photographers and videographers that have taken hits on the sideline in order to cover a football game. This is what it looks like:

PS: I’ll have to watch out for Keyshaun from now on. -KtE