We Speak High School Football
North Atlanta Warriors Winning the Close Ones in a Season of Thrillers
If you like your football with a little drama, the North Atlanta Warriors are your team. In back-to-back weeks, the Warriors won games that came down to the final possessions, and they are building a season on poise under pressure.
On October 2, North Atlanta outlasted Harrison 38-34 in a shootout. A week later, the Warriors did it again, edging Kennesaw Mountain 35-30. Two wins, by a combined nine points, against quality opponents, is not luck. It is a team that knows how to finish.
Senior quarterback Weston Goodman is at the center of it. According to MaxPreps, Goodman is completing 59.8 percent of his passes with a 96.0 quarterback rating, steady numbers that explain why the Warriors keep finding points when games get tight. In the biggest moments of the Harrison and Kennesaw Mountain games, North Atlanta put the ball in its senior’s hands, and he delivered drives that won both games.
Look at who those wins came against. Harrison arrived at 4-2, and Kennesaw Mountain was 4-1 when the Warriors beat them, so North Atlanta is not fattening up on struggling teams. The Warriors are winning the exact kind of games, against the exact kind of opponents, that define a season. Earlier in the fall, a 37-7 loss to a strong McEachern team showed this group what the top level looks like, and the Warriors have responded by winning thrillers ever since.
Winning close games in October is the exact skill that matters in November, when one drive can end a season. North Atlanta has already passed that test twice.
The Warriors travel to Hillgrove on Friday, October 23, for their next challenge, then close the regular season at home against Campbell on October 30. If recent weeks are any guide, Fulton County fans should expect another thriller, and a North Atlanta team that believes it will win it.
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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