The first three football games between two could-be natural rivals in the northern half of Whitfield County weren’t much of a contest.
Coahulla Creek High School sprang to life in 2011, and, with it situated just seven miles away from the Tunnel Hill campus of Northwest Whitfield, a lot of would-be Bruins would instead become future Colts.
The two schools met for the first time on the football field in 2018, and Northwest Whitfield banished the upstart challengers to the northern kingdom handily in three straight seasons, putting up a combined score of 82-19.
It took a few years, but that natural rivalry is finally starting to blossom.
Coahulla finally took one off Northwest in 2021, scoring a 31-25 win in triple overtime in Tunnel Hill two years ago. The Bruins struck back with a 35-31 shootout win in Varnell a year ago.
Now, the ball is back in the Colts’ court. Coahulla Creek makes the short trip within the county to face Northwest Whitfield tonight at 7:30.
“We’re excited. It’s been an awesome atmosphere and an awesome game the last couple of years, and that’s something our program and our school and community has needed and has been hungry for for the last few years,” said first-year Coahulla Creek head coach Drew Carter said.
Carter, who earned his first win with a 42-13 victory over Murray County last week, was previously the offensive coordinator at the school.
“It just makes it a lot of fun every way that you look at it,” he said.
“I really hope people show up,” Northwest head coach Josh Robinson said. “It’s going to be a good football game, and it has been for the last few years.”
Northwest opened the year with a 38-0 win over Pepperell last week.
“We’re definitely going to get their best effort, and we’ve got to come out and have our best effort,” Robinson said.
A lot has changed for both teams since the battles of 2021 and 2022. Owen Brooker started at quarterback in the last four games in the series for Northwest and Kace Kinnamon started the last three for Creek. Both are now gone to graduation, and Gavin Nuckolls and Chase Ward have stepped in for the Bruins and Colts, respectively.
Carter is the new coach at Coahulla after the resignation of Danny Wilson, who led the Colts to a 7-4 record and the school’s first ever playoff appearance a season ago.
Carter knows the Bruins well, considering he quarterbacked Northwest during his time in high school before his 2007 graduation. But Carter said he won’t be thinking about his time in the orange and blue come game time.
“I try not to make it about me,” Carter said. “The game itself is big enough without me adding anything else to it. It’s just about the kids.”
Robinson’s been the head coach at Northwest since before Coahulla Creek was founded.
His Bruins cruised to victory in week one, pulling several starters midway through the third quarter. Northwest, despite winning the Coahulla game last year and starting 4-0, finished 5-5 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Carter and the Colts led just 6-0 at halftime over Murray County in the opener before exploding in the third quarter.
“Our guys settled in and quit making those little mistakes coming out of halftime,” he said.
Carter said the big second half helped build some confidence for his new-look Colt squad heading into tonight’s showdown.
“I see a lot of excitement between the two communities,” Carter said. “I don’t know if Friday night can get here quick enough right now.”