Daniel Mayes: Looking back at the storylines from the local high school football season

Nov. 25—All good things must "pass."

And what just passed is a local high school football season full of eye-popping passing performances.

With the defeat of Dalton and Christian Heritage in last week's second round of the high school playoffs, another football season has wrapped up for the teams of Whitfield and Murray counties.

It was a season packed full of storylines for local teams, but none perhaps more obvious than the talented senior quarterbacks that took the field for local schools this year.

The leading passer in Class 2A during the regular season? North Murray's Seth Griffin with 2,620, who just wrapped a stellar career for the 'Neers after taking over starting QB duties from current Georgia standout Ladd McConkey in 2020.

3A's leader? Kace Kinnamon, who put together a spectacular senior season in leading Coahulla Creek to a historic season. Kinnamon completed a rise from under 900 passing yards as a sophomore starter in 2020 to leading 3A with 2,190 this season.

The leader in 4A was Owen Brooker from Northwest Whitfield, last year's Dalton Daily Citizen All-Area Player of the Year, who closed his career with another strong year, throwing for 2,413 yards, despite a difficult end to the season leading to the Bruins missing the playoffs.

Those quarterbacks dominated defenses this year, but the prolific passing was far from the only storyline to pop up in 2022.

Creek completes historic rise to the playoffsLed by Kinnamon, Coahulla Creek rose to history in 2022.

The Colts had never finished better than 2-8 entering last season, and a 4-6 finish in 2021 with plenty of returning seniors led to the highest hopes for the playoffs Coahulla Creek fans have had entering this season.

Coahulla Creek delivered.

Despite dealing with a cavalcade of injuries that decimated front-line depth on both sides of the ball, the Colts finished the regular season 7-3, setting a new program mark and securing the school's first winning season, and played with a chance at a region title on the last night of the regular season.

The season was by far and away the best at Coahulla Creek, and it was so close to being more impressive, with a close loss to Northwest and tough region defeats against Adairsville and Ringgold on the schedule. If the Colts won the region and got a home playoff game instead of traveling to state power Sandy Creek in the first round, Coahulla Creek might have added the school's first postseason victory to a season full of history.

Greenwade helps lead Catamount

return to the playoffsDalton didn't have one of those 2,000-yard passers, but the Cats nearly had a 2,000-yard rusher.

Tyson Greenwade powered a playoff return by piling up 1,839 rushing yards in nine games played in the regular season, leading Class 5A.

With Dalton coming off of two consecutive losing seasons and entering Class 5A this season, Dalton seemed primed for progress, and the Catamounts made plenty, finishing a win short of a region title but winning a playoff game for the first time since 2016.

Greenwade and the rest of the 2022 Catamount seniors helped put one of the worst stretches of seasons in Dalton football history behind them and lead the proud program to the postseason again.

The season fizzled out with a defeat at Creekside in the second round, but 2022 has to left Dalton's supporters encouraged after a pair of difficult years.

Christian Heritage nearly turns difficult schedule into deep playoff runThe 4-6 record next to Christian Heritage's name after the regular season was a little misleading, and Greene County found that out in the first round of the Class A Division II playoffs.

A 37-6 romp over Greene County set up a game at undefeated Johnson County, ranked as the No. 2 team in the classification by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Christian Heritage was fourth-quarter stop away from having the chance to take a late lead.

With a competitive game against the No. 1 team in the state, region opponent Bowdon, already on the schedule, who knows where the Lions could have made it if they'd pulled the upset at Johnson County.

That 4-6 record in the regular season was the result of playing eight different playoff teams — all eight of the in-state opponents the Lions faced.

Senior Eli Thomason led a powerful run game that matched the deepest run the Lions have made in the playoffs under head coach Jay Poag.

Offense leads North Murray to seventh

straight playoff appearanceNorth Murray was yet another team that played in the final game of the regular season for a region title.

The Mountaineers fell short in that game, falling to quarterfinalist Rockmart, but Griffin and the powerful North Murray offense still punched a ticket for the seventh consecutive year at the school.

Griffin found his offense by slinging the ball to Jadyn Rice, who led 2A with 930 yards during the regular season, and Judson Petty, who was right behind at 915. The versatile Petty also came on strong in the Mountaineer run game, especially late in the year.

The Mountaineers struggled on defense though, allowing at least 66 points twice in the last three games of the regular season, and made that seventh straight playoff appearance on the road. North Murray has been one-and-done in the postseason for three consecutive years since a quarterfinal run in 2019.

Northwest, Southeast start off strong, get swallowed by tough regionSpirits were high early in the season for both of the directional Whitfield County schools.

Northwest started 4-0 with a statement win over North Murray, and Southeast was 4-1, good enough already to clinch the Raiders' highest win total since 2017.

Then, Region 7-4A play started.

Coming off of back-to-back appearances in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in school history, Northwest hit a wall of tough region opponents in 2022, finishing 1-5 after the 4-0 start and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

The only win in the final six games was over the Raiders. Southeast hit that same wall, but theirs also included Northwest. Southeast lost its final five.

Region 7-4A Cedartown is still playing in the state quarterfinals as a state title contender, and Central-Carrollton reached the second round. It's a tough end to the stellar career of Brooker, who did a lot of winning in his four seasons leading the Bruins. It's hard to stay positive while losing the last five games of the season, but Southeast saw some definitive progress this year after combining for just three wins in the last three seasons.

Happy finish to difficult first year for Kurt Napier at MurrayThere weren't a whole lot of positives for Murray County in a difficult first season under new head coach Kurt Napier, but a win in the season's final game certainly took a little sting out of the year for the Indians.

With a 32-27 win over Gordon Central in the year's final game, the Indians avoided a winless year and kept the program from having to enter year two of Napier's tenure still searching for an initial win.

Injuries and forced lineup changes hampered the Indians from the start, and Murray couldn't gain traction especially on offense.

Murray never scored more than seven points in a single game before the finale, but the win will help generate some excitement for the Indians going forward.

Daniel Mayes is the sports editor for the Dalton Daily Citizen. Write to him at danielmayes@dailycitizen.news.