A hot start may have been the worst thing for Dalton in Friday night's game at Cartersville with the GHSA Region 7-AAAAA championship on the line.
The Catamounts scored on their first three possessions to take a stunning 21-7 lead over the Purple Hurricanes, but the hosts would score the next five touchdowns to win 42-21 and finish their regular season unbeaten.
With the loss, Dalton (7-3, 3-2) fell to the region's No. 3 seed and, after an open date next Friday, will travel to Greater Atlanta Christian School for a first-round playoff game.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area prep football games)
The Catamounts took the opening kickoff and went 80 yards in just six plays as quarterback Ethan Long was 3-for-3, including a 25-yard pass to Kendrix London to the 12, where Adriel Hernandez scored on the next play, barely two minutes in.
Cartersville had a lengthy drive to the Dalton 14, but a missed field-goal attempt turned it back over to the Cats, who this time needed only four plays to go 80 yards. Long started the drive with a 25-yard completion to Jeffson Locke and ended it with a 35-yard strike to Bubba Tanner for a 14-0 lead.
The Canes used three penalties on Dalton, including a pass interference call on third down, to help them cut the lead to seven on the first of four touchdowns by sophomore running back Khristian Lando.
Dalton, though, kept its offensive momentum with the help of two Cartersville penalties, including pass interference in the end zone that gave the Cats third-and-goal at the 7. Long rolled right, avoided a rusher and found tight end Bannon Phelan in the back of the end zone for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead three minutes into the second quarter.
The Cats, however, would get only one more first down over the rest of the half and the entire third quarter as Cartersville flipped the switch, starting with an 87-yard drive to end the second quarter, capped by a 22-yard Nate Russell touchdown pass.
The second half was all Cartersville and Lando, who had touchdown runs of 40, 5 and 14 yards and finished with 236 yards on 35 carries.
Long had 268 yards on 18 completions for Dalton, with Hernandez adding 54 yards on the ground and London 78 yards on eight catches.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.