We Speak High School Football
Gary Walker Is Running Creekside Toward Another Region Crown
Every great Creekside team has a running back defenses fear, and this fall that back is Gary Walker. The senior is putting together one of the finest seasons in Georgia, and the Seminoles are riding his legs toward another region championship.
The numbers from MaxPreps tell the story. Walker averages 120.6 rushing yards per game, leads Creekside with 15 rushing touchdowns and has scored 15 total touchdowns, more than any other Seminole. When Creekside needs a drive finished, everyone in the stadium knows who is getting the football, and it has not mattered.
College programs noticed long ago. Walker is a Clemson commit, a four-star running back who chose the Tigers while piling up yards in Fairburn, and his senior season is showing exactly why the biggest programs in the country came calling.
Walker does not do it alone. Senior quarterback Savoy Nichols has thrown 19 touchdown passes while completing two-thirds of his throws, which means defenses cannot simply stack the line and dare Creekside to pass.
And Walker has plenty of help. Junior Branden Wiley has added eight rushing touchdowns of his own, senior receivers Samaj Anderson and Armani Hill both average better than 60 receiving yards a game, and the Seminoles’ defense is loaded, led by senior linebacker Tavarre Terrell’s 8.5 sacks and senior tackle Kenny Fairley’s 7.7 tackles per game. Creekside does not beat teams with one star. It beats them everywhere, all night.
The results speak loudly. Creekside is 6-1 after a 54-0 shutout of Lovejoy, the Seminoles’ fourth shutout in five games and their 33rd consecutive region victory, and High School Football America ranks the Seminoles No. 4 in the entire state of Georgia. On Saturday, rival Langston Hughes visits with first place at stake, and Walker gets another big stage to show Fulton County what a Clemson-bound back looks like.
We Speak High School Football
Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights
The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.
Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.
That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.
That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.
The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.
Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.
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