Rockmart Yellow Jacket fans will have to wait a week before watching the squad take the gridiron again, but they’ll be on the road again when they take the field against a Model Blue Devils squad who this week are facing Murray County to open their region contest for the year.

The Jackets coming off a 28-16 win over Irwin County during their road trip down I-75 where a sidelined JD Davis remained out while Calliyon Thompson took the field and put up a solid outing against the Indians after a close loss to Dalton two weeks prior.

The overall conclusion: this is a week to get healthy and get ready, because this year’s region is going to come down to Rockmart, Model and North Murray.

The Jackets are in a good spot to repeat this year with a strong core of seniors on the squad who are standing up to big teams. The defense overall is holding down the fort as the Jackets held Cedartown to 13, Dalton who scored 50 on Sonoraville and 56 in Lassiter were held to 21, one of those touchdowns in a busted play on the first down in overtime. Irwin County put up 82 points between their Dooly County and Turner County wins (their defense gave up 56 points in those wins of note.) The close win over Cass in a comeback? Well…

In the following two games, Cass dropped 50 on Drew and 40 on Adairsville. They went from a 34-0 shutout to start the season to that in a crazy swing of the season.

Rockmart’s strength of schedule is now starting to show results, but next week’s region opener will be the real test and potentially the region title game for this season. Model is coming into the game (well, unless disaster strikes) at 3-1 after wins over Pepperell, Woodland and a loss to Trion over the opening weeks of the season.

Former Darlington coach Tommy Atha has also been helping out on the sidelines for the Blue Devils this season as well. It could get interesting up in Shannon next week.

Check back on the weekend of Sept. 29 for full highlights from the region opener for Rockmart.