CHATSWORTH, Ga. – For a half Friday night, it appeared North Murray wasn’t the only football team on the field making its 2020 season debut.
The Mountaineers, due to scheduling changes, were off the first two weeks of the Georgia High School Association season. Meanwhile, their opponent Friday, Northwest Whitfield, already had a pair of wins under its belt. The Bruins shook off a slow start to go 3-0, using another big night from sophomore quarterback Owen Brooker and his two elite receivers, Matt Redmond and Ray Morrison in a 20-10 win.
Northwest trailed 10-7 at halftime, the only points coming on a Brooker-to-Morrison 99-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Outside of that play, however, the Bruins were held to 32 yards and did not have a first down after the big play.
“We just played really poorly on offense in the first half, but we played so much better in the second half,” said Northwest coach Josh Robinson, whose team lost starting tailback Chase Gentry to injury in the opening quarter. “It boiled down to execution. Things weren’t looking good at halftime, but we did a good job of stopping their athletes in the second half and made enough plays to win.”
North Murray, breaking in 16 new starters after making a run to the Class AAA quarterfinals last season, used a short field, Noah Lunsford’s 24-yard run and a 20-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Seth Griffin to Spencer Chasteen to tie the game midway through the second quarter. Griffin and senior D’Ante Tidwell hooked up for a 32-yard play late that led to Owen Hannah’s field goal and a 10-7 halftime lead.