Big wins for Sandy Creek, Starr's Mill and Whitewater

In the final week of the regular season, a week before teams from the two sub-regions meet, the games were not close.

Whitewater beat McIntosh 45-10, Starr’s Mill shutout Fayette County 34-0 and Sandy Creek deafeated Northgate 37-3.

Whitewater got two touchdowns and 169 yards from Josh Clemons in the win. Clemons also became the school’s first 1,000 yard rusher in school history during the game. Others with touchdowns for Whitewater were Renaldo Jenkins (92 yards rushing), Lance White (14 tackles and an interception returned 41 yards for a touchdown) and Robert Boyd. Dylan Johnson added a field goal in the first quarter. Whitewater head coach Amos McCreary also credited Andrew Dean with playing a good game on defense.

“He had seven quarterback hurries and really kept the pressure on their quarterback all night,” McCreary said.

Scoring for McIntosh were kicker Michael Mateos and Darius Miliam. Whitewater piled up 426 total yards of offense, including 322 yards rushing. McIntosh had 264 yards of offense with Cam Porter completing 12 of 25 passes for 167 yards. Spencer Wood had three catches for 51 yards.

Whitewater will host Alexander this Friday, while the Chiefs will host Douglas County.

Starr’s Mill got two touchdowns from Zach Laskey (139 yards on 23 carries) and one a piece from Justin Smith (three catches for 51 yards), Derek Brown and Trenton Edwards in their win over Fayette County. The Panthers outgained the Tigers 388 yards to 160, rushing for 214 and throwing for 174, while holding Fayette County to 34 yards on the ground and 126 yards passing. Eric Lauderdale was the leading receiver for the Tigers with four catches for 41 yards. Defensively, Starr’s Mill was led by nine tackles a piece from Bryan Bureau and Ufomba Kamalu, while Jake Marchman added four tackles and an interception.

Starr’s Mill will host Villa Rica and Fayette County will host Tri-Cities (4-5, 3-3 region) this Friday. If Starr’s Mill wins, they will make the Class AAAA state playoffs. Tri-Cities has won three of their last four games, including a 15-8 upset win over Villa Rica last week.

Sandy Creek got three touchdowns from Rajion Neal (99 yards rushing), and Ronnie Bell (13 of 18 passing for 280 yards) connected on touchdown passes with Alex Chisum (three catches for 88 yards) and Jarrett Davis (four catches for 83 yards) in the win over Northgate. Devon Hughes was the leading receiver with five catches for 107 yards. Zach Lopez added a field goal. Defensively, the Patriots were led by nine tackles and a fumble recovery from Clinard Stokes, while Mike Hilton added eight and Gavin Rocker had seven. Lacy Coleman had three tackles for a loss and a sack.

The Patriots will meet Banneker (7-2, 5-1 region) Friday for the region title. Banneker beat Alexander 51-7 last Friday. Banneker has won three in a row since their 30-19 loss to Villa Rica. Their other loss was to North Clayton in a non-region game on Sept. 5.

In region 5-A action, Landmark Christian snapped a two game losing streak with a 51-14 win over Southwest Atlanta Christian last Friday, while Our Lady of Mercy lost to Holy Innocents 61-0. The Bobcats (2-7, 1-6 region) will play at Pace Academy (2-7, 2-5 region) this Friday, while Landmark (5-4, 5-2 region) will play at Mt. Pisgah (5-4, 4-3 region).