Chattahoochee's 24-14 Win Over Alpharetta Propels Cougars to Top 10

The game was only thirty five seconds old when the Alpharetta Raiders began thinking their homecoming game against Chattahoochee would be something special.

It took only four plays for the Raiders to jump out to a quick 7-0 lead before most of the sellout crowd could settle in their seats. All four of the plays were passes; the last, from quarterback Matt Robinson to wide receiver Chad Christopher, covered the final twenty yards of a lightning-fast sixty yard drive.

The dream of a homecoming upset soon ended when the Cougars scored the next 24 straight points to win their seventh game of the year against just one loss. The final score was 24-14, but the game wasn't that close. Alpharetta scored a meaningless touchdown with only seventy-six seconds left in the game to make it respectable.

Even after watching his Cougars fall behind very early in the game, Chattahoochee head coach Terry Crowder said there was no reason to get too worried. "That wasn't the time to panic," he said after the game. "I was waiting to see how we responded. The kids didn't panic, the coaches didn't panic, and we got ourselves back where we needed to be."

The panic may come if Chattahoochee loses its big tailback Gary Grace for any length of time. The Cougars go-to guy hobbled off the field after the game with ice packs taped to both legs beneath the knee.

"Everybody's hitting him low, and his shins are banged up," said Crowder. Grace says he knows why he keeps getting hit in the shins. "If they hit me high, they can't stop me. I can run right through it."

With Grace banged up, senior tailback Elton Ford took up most of the workload. The 205 pounder ripped off touchdown runs of 21 and 28 yards, in addition to making big hits from his defensive back position.

Quarterback Brendan added a one-yard plunge on the first play of the fourth quarter to close out the Cougars scoring.

The win improves the Cougars record to 7-1 on the season, and 3-0 in region play.

Next up for the Hooch, a Friday night home game against Centennial, 30-23 winners over Northview.