On Friday, October 7, the NC Warrior football team traveled to Powder Springs to take on the fifth-ranked McEachern Indians in the first region game of the season. After leading 7-0 at the half and building a 10-0 lead, the Warriors eventually ceded their second loss of the season, yielding 17 unanswered points in heartbreaking fashion.

Both teams, as expected, played a tough, physical, gritty game, with each team relying on big runs and suffocating defenses. Both teams almost completely failed to move the ball in the first quarter, with the Warriors going three and out on their first three possessions and only gaining four total yards, with their rival Indians gaining merely 36.

The Warriors began the scoring off of a Trey Urquhart fumble recovery, rolling out a few big runs and a couple easy completions on the way into the red zone, where receiver Drew Tejchman broke free for a wide open score in the back of the end zone with 8:40 left in the second quarter. Both teams drained the clock for much of the rest of the quarter before NC regained possession with 1:57 left, but controversially decided to run out the clock and take a 7-0 lead into halftime.

Both teams again struggled to move the ball coming out of halftime, before the Warriors marched down deep into McEachern territory but eventually settled for a Will Horton field goal, which managed to sneak through the corner of the uprights. The Indians later managed to drop the NC lead to three with a touchdown drive that included a questionable fourth down conversion and pass interference call, but culminated in a 17 yard touchdown pass from Bailey Hockman to receiver Genuine Potts.  

The Indians then stripped senior returner Trenton Johnson on the ensuing kickoff to tie the game at ten with 1:43 left in the third quarter. After throwing an interception to set off the McEachern scoring in the third quarter on a deep jump ball, the NC offense never fully recovered, failing to threaten points at any other time in the game and never giving the defense sufficient chance to rest. The Indians sealed the game with 4:31 left in the fourth as running back Paris Brown broke three tackles en route to taking a counter handoff 63 yards for a diving touchdown.

After last season’s 35-0 embarrassment, the Warriors certainly felt better about this season’s loss, but a senior class that had not beaten McEachern since freshman year felt highly disappointed and distraught over the loss. The loss almost completely eliminated the Warriors chances of winning the region, as the winner of this game has seized the region for each of the last several seasons, and North Paulding, at this point in the season, appears the only team with any chance at knocking off the Indians for the remainder of region play.