Any thoughts that the North Cobb football team might have a bit of a letdown after clinching the Region 5-6A championship last week were quickly put to rest Friday night against Wheeler in the teams’ regular-season finale at Emory Sewell Stadium in Kennesaw.
The Warriors scored on five of their six first-half possessions, returned a punt for a touchdown and dominated defensively in a 49-14 victory to complete the third undefeated regular season in school history and first since 2007.
“If you don’t get better every week, you go backwards,” North Cobb coach Shane Queen said. “You’re only getting better or getting worse, and I challenged our kids this week that it was about working on North Cobb and getting better every day. They had a great week of practice, they responded well, and they came out and performed tonight.”
North Cobb (10-0, 6-0) will have next week off before opening the playoffs at home on Nov. 15 against Camden County, the No. 4 seed from Region 1-6A. Camden County secured its playoff berth Friday night with a 38-28 victory over Tift County, combined with Richmond Hill’s 31-13 loss to Colquitt County.
Despite the loss, which dropped Wheeler to 2-8 overall and 2-4 in the region, the Wildcats earned the fourth playoff berth from 5-6A. Wheeler finished in a three-way tie for fourth place with Marietta and Cherokee but defeated both during the regular season.
North Cobb’s Nick Grimstead, playing just the first half, passed for 175 yards and threw touchdown passes of 45 yards to Micah Billingsley and 39 and 22 yards to Malcolm Smith to help the Warriors take a 35-7 lead with 1:44 remaining in the first half.
“He’s an unbelievable football player,” Queen said of his senior quarterback. “He’s being overlooked from the recruiting aspect. He does everything we ask. He takes care of the football and doesn’t turn the ball over, and he leads this football team. Somebody’s going to get a steal for him to play on Saturdays.”
Miles Butler’s 57-yard punt return for a touchdown just before halftime made it a 42-7 game.
Wheeler was unable to get anything going offensively. The Wildcats’ only touchdown of the first half came on a 70-yard pass from Patrick McCollugh to Ja’Von Broussard that accounted for all but nine of the team’s first-half yards. Prior to that play, Wheeler was trailing 28-0 and had been outgained 265-3.
Each team scored once in the third quarter, and the fourth was played with a running clock.
North Cobb finished with 240 rushing yards and 417 total yards. Zach Belyeu led the running game with 107 yards on eight carries, and Quavy Echols had 73 yards on 10 carries with touchdown runs of 22 and 19 yards. Smith had 97 receiving yards and two touchdowns on four catches.
Wheeler had 152 yards in the second half and finished the game with 231. Greg Kendrick rushed for 98 yards on 11 carries, and McCollugh passed for 108 yards.
Seventh-ranked North Cobb enters the playoffs as a No. 1 seed for the fourth time in five seasons but has not advanced beyond the second round during that stretch. And it won’t be an easy task to reach the third round this year. Camden County, the Warriors’ first-round opponent, was a semifinalist last season and, despite being unranked now, the Wildcats reached as high as No. 4 earlier this season. Awaiting the winner will be a second-round matchup against either No. 4 Douglas County or No. 8 Mill Creek.
“That’s a tough region, so we don’t have an easy game,” Queen said of Camden County. “Once you get to the playoffs, everybody’s good. Luckily we’re at home and they have to travel up here, that’s the only positive. We expect a dogfight, and I’m sure they’ll bring us one.”
Wheeler - 0-7-7-0 - 14
North Cobb - 21-21-7-0 - 49
First quarter
N - Quavy Echols 22 run (Michael Hill kick), 6:51
N - Micah Billingsley 45 pass from Nick Grimstead (Hill kick), 3:10
N - Malcolm Smith 39 pass from Grimstead (Hill kick), 0:07
Second quarter
N - Christion Peacock 3 run (Kaleb Castro kick), 4:16
W - Ja’Von Broussard 70 pass from Patrick McCollugh (Eliezar Lara kick), 3:04
N - Smith 22 pass from Grimstead (Hill kick), 1:44
N - Miles Butler 57 punt return (Hill kick), 0:12
Third quarter
W - Josiah Allen 22 run (Lara kick), 4:41
N - Echols 19 run (Castro kick), 1:55
