Marietta hangs on, gets by Cherokee

The Marietta defense held Cherokee to less than 200 yards of total offense, but the rest of the Marietta performance was lackluster in a 14-9 victory against the Warriors.

But the important thing for coach James “Friday” Richards was that his team is 2-0 on the year and 1-0 in Region 5-AAAAA.

“We will take the win, but we know we have plenty left to do,” Richards said. “I know the kids realize that we can’t play like that every night.”

The Blue Devils offense rolled up nearly 250 yards of rushing offense — most on the legs of junior tailback Greg Franklin — but fizzled and couldn’t finish drives.

“Maybe we came out overlooking them or something, but we weren’t clicking tonight,” said Marietta quarterback Chris Tanzy, who had 62 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown. “We have to bring our ‘A’ game every night.”

The Blue Devils never trailed after Tanzy’s 2-yard run topped a 12-play, 71-yard drive that was almost a copy of most of Marietta’s drives on the evening. Marietta had five drives the rest of the night of eight or more plays, but the Blue Devils scored only once.

“Offensively, we moved the ball all night like we should, and the defense gave up only one drive the entire night,” Richards said. “We just didn’t finish on the offensive end of the field like we needed to. I believe that we will get better, and we will.”

The Marietta defense limited the Warriors running back combo of Kenny Foster and Chrys Johnson to 133 yards on 25 carries. The Warriors (0-2, 0-1) managed a 3-0 lead on a 35-yard field goal by Marc Valle, but that came only after a dropped punt by Marietta.

Both offenses sputtered the rest of the second and third quarter before Marietta capped an 11-play drive with Franklin scoring from 3 yards out. A key fourth-down conversion on a pass from Tanzy to Caleb Cox was the difference in the drive and gave Marietta enough cushion for the win.

The Blue Devils travel to Woodstock next week, while Cherokee faces county-rival Etowah.