The Bowdon defense came up big Friday night as the Red Devils got back to .500 with a 14-13 victory at Greenville.

With Bowdon (2-2) holding on to a one-point lead, Greenville (2-1) had two chances late in the game to take the lead. On their first attempt, the Patriots had a first down at the Bowdon 7-yard line, but the Red Devils recovered a fumble two plays later on their own 5.

Then, with 24 seconds left in the game and Greenville at the Bowdon 15, the Red Devils forced the ball loose and sophomore linebacker Jordon Loveless recovered the ball to hand the Patriots their first loss of the season.

“I thought our defense played about as well as they have all year,” Bowdon coach Dwight Hochstetler said.

Junior running back Ivan Glenn, who had a 7-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, injured his knee in the second quarter and missed the remainder of the game.

Hochstetler said Glenn visited the doctor yesterday and that the injury doesn’t appear to be too serious.

“He should be ready to go next week,” Hochstetler said. “He’s going to have a little pain, but it’s something that he can overcome and he should be good as new in a couple weeks.”

Villa Rica wins kicking game

Going into Friday’s game at Northgate, Villa Rica coach Rob Cleveland said one of the keys to defeating Northgate would be to win the kicking game.

The Wildcats (3-0) easily won that aspect of the game, which they they won 24-0. Both teams attempted one field goal in the game that led to big momentum shifts. Northgate (1-2, 0-1 Region 2-AAAA) missed a 22-yard field goal on its first possession of the game 22 seconds into the second quarter with Villa Rica leading 7-0.

With the final few seconds running off the clock in the second quarter, Villa Rica kicker Will Carden made a 37-yard field goal to send his team to halftime with a 10-0 lead. The senior also kicked three PATs in the game.

“We spent a lot of time on it because in the past that’s how they can beat you,” Cleveland said. “We knew we had to win that phase of the game and I felt like our special teams coaches got our specials teams ready and did a great job with that.”

Tigers honor fallen soldier

The Temple football team is honoring Sgt. Michael Hardegree, 21, who was killed in Iraq on Sept. 10, by wearing an American flag sticker and donning Hardegree’s initials on the back of their helmets.

Hardegree’s father, Stan, is in his first year teaching at Temple High School. Michael Hardegree was from Villa Rica, where his father taught prior to coming to Temple to teach American literature and composition communications.

“Any time something like that happens in the community, it affects everybody and our heart goes out to Stan and his family,” Temple coach Seth Rogers said. “It’s just a good way for us to honor him and Mike.”

Stan Hardegree also served in the military, retiring from the Army as a major.

“We’ve got kids on this football team that are going to go into the military when they graduate, so, you know, it’s just a good way for us to honor his memory,” Rogers said.

Blue Devils continue to roll

Bremen won a match-up between two unbeaten teams at Darlington, 24-14, to improve its record to 4-0. The Blue Devils, who are ranked No. 7 in Class A in the latest coaches’ poll, got off to 4-0 starts in 2004 and 2005. In both years Bremen won its first eight games before falling to region-rival Bowdon.

Facing a Darlington (3-1) team that had only given up 11 points in its first three games, Bremen built a 17-0 lead midway through the third quarter. After the Tigers pulled to within three points, the Blue Devils used a 1-yard quarterback keeper from Clayton McIntosh with 5:34 left to take a 24-14 lead and make it a two possession game again.

Step in the right direction for Mt. Zion

It will go down as another loss, but there were some positives for Mt. Zion (0-4) to take away from its 37-14 loss at Fellowship Christian (4-0).

For the first time this season, the Eagles scored two touchdowns in a game and they did it against a team that had allowed just 12 points in its first three games combined.

“We made them punt the first time they got the ball and played as good of a first quarter as we’ve played all year,” Mt. Zion coach Bill Bailey said.

The Eagles scored both of their touchdowns in the third quarter on passes from Christian Heard to Chris Farmer.