Braves open region play at home, facing Cross Creek

Published 8:48 am Wednesday, September 4, 2024

When it comes to the new Class AAA football alignment in the Georgia High School Association, not many eyes throughout the state are on Region 4. It could be that wide open.

Therefore, any game could be the one to decide the region championship, whether it’s in late October or early in September. That’s what one might witness this Friday at Braves Stadium when Baldwin High kicks off the new region schedule at 7:30 p.m. It’s not the first time the Braves were grouped in a region with Augusta area schools, and up first are the Cross Creek Razorbacks in the first meeting since 2019 (which was the final of four straight seasons for them playing each other in Region 3-AAAA).

Cross Creek will come to Milledgeville with a better record to start the 2024 season at 1-1, but it’s the Braves who might be carrying more momentum despite the 0-2 mark. Each team last played on Aug. 23, and that was not a good night for the Razorbacks against Burke County losing 52-6. Baldwin, however, put together a strong finish at home against the Northside High Eagles only to come up one point – and perhaps one inch – short in a 13-12 final score.

“We fought hard,” said first-year coach Kevin Patterson after an early Labor Day practice. “We played the right way … finally woke up in the fourth quarter. It was one of those games where penalties hurt us, kind of self-sabotaged ourselves with drive-ending penalties and letting some drives they had continue. Some of those calls were questionable, but I’m not a coach who’s going to use the refs as an excuse. My thing is, next time let’s not put it in the officials’ hands. Let’s not make it close enough.”

Several aspects of Baldwin’s game showed vast improvement from the Aug. 17 loss to Perry, two most notable being the punting game that flipped field position on the Eagles more than once and line of scrimmage play that led to more rushing yards on offense and defensive stands forcing Northside to kick field goals.

“Never want to lose the matchup up front,” said Patterson. “We are going to go as far as the big guys take us. Northside, we worked extremely hard on the tackling part defensively. We worked extremely hard on controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides. That’s why you saw what you saw against Northside.”

It was Sadur Salahuddin scoring with 32 seconds left in the game from seven yards out to get Baldwin within one of the Eagles. He also scored in the fourth quarter on an 80-yard punt return.

The Baldwin defense came away with at least three quarterback sacks in that contest and one pass interception by Labrayden Burden.

Two games down and Baldwin plus the rest of the region got a Labor Day weekend bye week.

“It was very productive,” said Patterson. “We got some guys back who were out. We worked on ourselves the first part of the week, correcting mistakes. We gave them a taste of what we are going to see this week from Cross Creek.”

Statistics show that the Razorbacks get more yards and points from the passing game than the running game. Patterson said this team looks talented and is trying to get its program going much like Baldwin. Cross Creek went 4-15 in the past two seasons under coach Ezzard Horn.

“The kids have been focused on us,” said Patterson. “We are going to respect our opponent. We are trying to be 1-0 every week from here on out. We are trying to get our seniors a chance to play playoff games at home.”

Where Baldwin football still needs its biggest improvement going forward is in the conversion game. More touchdowns would also be good, only three so far, but the Braves are 0-for-3 in going for two in two games. Patterson certainly knew going for two was the thing to do after Salahuddin’s last-minute run two weeks ago. They also tried it after the punt return, and he said they blew a great chance when Northside wasn’t lined up right against the ‘swinging gate.’

“That’s on us for not executing,” he said. “The last one, the kids wanted to go for the win. I thought we could get it in. I told the kids from Day 1 I came here to win. We had the momentum. Thought the timing was right. The play was there (a halfback option pass), but just came up a yard short. Both of those, if I had to do it again, I would still go for two.”

The coach is also trying to find somebody who can make a 20-yard PAT kick.

“We had more kickers show up last week, so that’s a good thing,” said Patterson. “We have to be consistent at the kicker spot. I told them if you want me to kick the extra-point, you have to give me confidence. That starts with making kicks at practice. We are addressing the issue. We intend to be able to kick extra points this week.”