With their 50-7 win over Mount Paran Christian in a Region 6-2A game on Friday, the South Atlanta Hornets improved to 6-0, 3-0 in league play. They also moved to No. 2 in this week’s state rankings. Both their record and ranking are new highs for the program, but reaching milestones is what this season will be about if the Hornets want to reach their ultimate goal of playing for a state championship.
That’s because the program, though founded in 1994, hasn’t had any history to speak of until recently. Last year, the Hornets went 11-2 and reached the quarterfinals — record for wins and best finish — in Michael Woolridge’s first season as coach.
Brad Stephens took coached the Hornets from 2016-2020, and in that time they came a lot of firsts and firsts-in-a-long-times. In 2017 they made the playoffs for the first time since 1994. In 2018 they had first winning season since 1995. In 2020 they posted their first playoff win and won their first region title. Then there was last year’s historic run, punctuated by running back Keyjuan Brown leading the state in rushing yards with 2,757 on 251 carries.
Remarkably, the Hornets are still in position to top last year.
This week, the Hornets will host the unranked North Cobb Christian Eagles (7-0, 3-0) for what is almost assuredly the Region 6 championship, barring a major upset-loss for the Hornets or Eagles after this game. Should the Hornets win, it will all but clinch them their third-consecutive Region 6 title.
Though unranked, North Cobb Christian would likely be a shoo-in for the top 10, and maybe the top five, should it win. In this week’s polls, Appling County went from unranked to No. 4 after beating No. 2 Pierce County in a Region 3 contest.
Against Mount Paran, the margin of victory and lights out performance from Brown (300 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries) and the defense would indicate the Hornets are locked in and ready for North Cobb Christian.
However, penalties prevented the Hornets from doing even more damage Friday, slowing down a game plan they eventually executed. There were also miscues on special teams in the punting game, with a bad snap forcing a Hornet to fall on ball inside the South Atlanta 10 for a turnover on downs.
While they’re certainly not in panic mode at South Atlanta, discipline will be a point of emphasis this week in practice, Woolridge said.
“My main focus is cleaning up penalties that will cost us against playoff teams,” Woolridge said. “North Cobb is going to be a good team. They’re going to be disciplined and well-coached...and they’re not going to beat themselves. That’s why I worry about the penalties. They’re going to execute and follow the game plan, so it’s going to be a good game next week.”
Helping the Hornets to overcome their mistakes is a defense that has allowed just 25 points in three region games thus far (against Therrell, KIPP and Mount Paran), and Brown, who is again off to a fast start with 1,381 yards and 15 touchdowns on 113 carries, adding another 178 yards and two touchdowns on eight catches.
Brown is an AJC Super 11 selection and a consensus 3-star running back amongst the recruiting services. In June, he committed to Purdue, choosing the Boilermakers from the five Power 5 offers he currently holds. If he continues his dominance of the competition, his recruiting could take another significant leap between now and either of the national signing days.
Woolridge can’t speak highly enough of Brown.
“Keyjuan Brown is amazing,” Woolridge said. “I mean, sometimes we block it well, and it looks good. But even when we don’t block it well, he can make something out of nothing. I love the kid. He’s even a better person. Great kid. Kind heart. Always looking out for others. I don’t have anything bad to say about Keyjuan. He’s just a great kid.”
After North Cobb Christian, the Hornets play B.E.S.T. Academy (0-5-1, 0-3), then close the regular season Oct. 29 against Washington (2-4, 2-1) following a bye.
About the Author
