By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The high school football season started last week. The 30^th Corky Kell Classic had the first high school game in the nation last Wednesday August 18. Let’s take a look at the results.

Cherokee 52, Mays 6: The 7A Warriors beat up on 4A the Mays Raiders.

West Forsyth 38, Carver-Atlanta 8: This is another matchup with a 7A team, West Forsyth against 3A Carver.

#4 Westlake 29, Archer 14: The Westlake Lions are famous for being Cam Newton’s alma mater. They are a 6A team that beat a 7A opponent.

R.J. Johnson was 12-of-22 passing for 126 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for 57 yards and two scores.

Jai’Den Thomas rushed for 129 yards and had two sacks and another tackle for a loss. Gannon Weathersby also had two of Westlake’s seven sacks.

#10 Dacula 32, Tucker 7: The Falcons dominated the game and held a 32-0 lead at halftime. Dacula held Tucker to minus-88 yards rushing, negative yardage on six of Tucker’s first 10 drives, and to one yard on two other drives.

Johns Creek 26, Gainesville 10: The one bright spot for Gainesville is they have the best team name, Red Elephants. Other than that, it was all downhill.

#1 Buford 35, #3 North Cobb 27: The Wolves avenged last year’s season opening loss to North Cobb. I picked them to lose this game since it’s a 6A versus 7A matchup but that did not matter.

They trailed 14-0 midway through the third quarter before they scored on five consecutive possessions. They had two one-play drives. C.J. Clinkscales had the longest play of the game, a 66-yard run.

McEachern 53, Kell 20: This was a matchup of two Cobb County teams played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kaleb Webb had six receptions for 146 yards and three touchdowns. He also had an 86-yard kickoff return for a TD.

Mill Creek 43, #7 Parkview 10: Both teams are 7A schools in Gwinnett County, but this was their first meeting. Hayden Clark was 14-of-24 passing for 235 yards and three touchdowns.

The Panthers streak of winning 7 consecutive season openers was snapped. Mill Creek held Parkview to minus-20 yards rushing. Kevin Mitchell and Nic Denick had two tackles for losses each worth minus-34 yards.

#9 Walton 34, #6 Lowndes 28: This was the most exciting game. Lowndes scored two touchdowns and recovered an onside kick in the final two minutes of regulation after trailing 28-14. They sent the game to overtime and Sutton Smith scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to win the game. He finished with 85 yards rushing.

Jacurri Butler rushed for 152 yards and a score. He was 10-of-19 passing for 164 yards and three touchdowns, all to Chase Belcher. He almost single handedly kept the Vikings in the game.