The Lake Oconee Academy football team was defeated by the George Walton Academy Bulldogs last Friday night with the final score ending at 42-6.
The Titans’ defense made some important plays during the first half, but the Bulldogs’ rushing attack proved to be too much. At halftime, the Titans were down 28-0, and couldn’t seem to find a rhythm offensively.
After some back-and-forth play in the second half, Lake Oconee Academy head coach Patrick Stewart dialed up a play call to put the Titans in the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Heading into the second week of their first full schedule, Lake Oconee Academy travels to Hiawassee, Ga., to take on the Towns County Indians.
Like the Titans, the Indians are in a rebuilding phase of their program.
Towns County hasn’t finished with a winning record since they went 7-3 back in 2008. Indians’ head coach Jason Roquemore now enters his fourth season with the team, and has slowly gotten the program back heading in the right direction.
The Indians didn’t win a game when Roquemore took over in 2019, but followed up with a 3-6 the year after. Last season, they went 4-6.
Towns County is now in the same division as Lake Oconee Academy and Greene County after the reclassification. The Tigers defeated the Indians 63-36 toward the end of last season.
Given the two current states of these programs, expect a well-leveled matchup.
Offensively, the Titans have to figure out how to find their identity.
Senior running back Rhett Sandhagen is out for the foreseeable future after going down in the second quarter against George Walton last week. Two-way player Cameron Kelley will likely see more touches for the Titans.
Defensively, Lake Oconee Academy just seems to need fundamental tweaks.
Last week, the Titans pursued the ball very well and had multiple stops throughout the game; however, a handful of missed tackles resulted in breakaway Bulldog touchdowns.
Stewart and his squad will look to limit big plays defensively, and get some momentum going on the offensive side of the ball.