Dwight Hochstetler stayed up much later than usual on Friday night ... and well into Saturday morning — but it was well worth it.

Not only did the Bowdon High School football coach have to hop on a bus at 1 p.m. en route to the 7:30 evening kickoff in Chickamauga, he then had to wait out a 90-minute weather delay before the opening snap of the second quarter after his Red Devils built a 14-0 first-quarter advantage over Gordon Lee.

Finally, just before 11 p.m., the 33-0 contest was over, which at point in time the 32nd-year coach couldn’t have told you what time it was.

“Lord, I don’t know,” Hochstetler wondered when asked when the game officially wrapped up. “I don’t have a clue.”

Nobody said 300 wins would come easy.

All the more reason for the late-night celebration, as the Red Devil players hoisted Hochstetler on their shoulders following the game in triumph of his milestone victory, one he’ll not soon forget.

“Yeah, I tell you, I was shocked,” Hochstetler said. “But the kids really got involved in this 300 stuff Friday night. They really wanted to celebrate.”

In a classy move by the folks at Gordon Lee, they left the final score on the scoreboard with 300 encapsulated on the game clock, as players, cheerleaders, fans and parents spent roughly 30 minutes taking pictures and honoring the future Hall of Fame coach.

And after a long bus ride back to Bowdon, Hochstetler and his staff made copies of the game tape to swap with Trion for next week. He finally arrived back home around 3:40 Saturday morning for a little shut-eye.

A few hours later, he would wake up and drive to Rome for the customary film exchange to prepare for next week’s Region 6-A tussle with Trion.

Just another tireless day of work in the life of a coaching legend.

Wild times in 6-A

Just when it looked like longtime rival Bremen was going to help the Red Devils on Friday night, Darlington once again proved to be a thorn in Bowdon’s side, as the Tigers stormed back from a 21-0 first-half deficit to stun the Blue Devils in a 35-28 come-from-behind victory in Rome to improve to 3-0 and stay atop the region standings.

That leaves 2-0 Trion in second place, while one-loss Bowdon and Bremen are right behind it.

And while Hochstetler would have loved to see the Blue Devils give Darlington a region loss, he noted that all his team can do is focus on the Bulldogs, who come to Warren P. Sewell Field in Week 8 sporting an unbeaten region record in their own right.

“Well, you know, we’re just worried about ourselves. Trion is 2-0 in region play and their coach said they’re going to bring a bunch of people down here,” Hochstetler said. “They’re still undefeated in region play, so it’s still a big ball game for both of us. Trion had two weeks to get ready for us. It’s going to be a big challenge for us to get up again and be mentally prepared.”

It ain’t over till ...

Bremen and Mt. Zion saw fourth-quarter leads slip away on Friday night, as the Blue Devils got outscored 22-0 in the second half of their seven-point loss to the Tigers, while Mt. Zion led 21-10 in the fourth quarter before Walker got a pair of late touchdowns to spoil what would have been the Eagles’ first region win since 2005.

In both instances, turnovers proved to be the culprit. Mt. Zion threw interceptions on back-to-back possessions that led to a pair of Wolverine scores for the decisive points, while Bremen turned the ball over five times in all — three interceptions and a pair of fumbles.

Bremen will host Mt. Zion next week where both teams will be looking to bounce back from tough losses.

Individual versus team

There was a lot of talk about how Banneker had six Division I recruits suiting up on Friday night at Sam McIntyre Field against Villa Rica, which doesn’t have any in its senior class.

Still, Wildcat coach Rob Cleveland will take his bunch any day of the week, as it ran the Trojans out of town with the 30-19 thumping, putting itself in the Region 5B-AAAA driver’s seat at 3-0 with three sub-region games remaining.

And Cleveland’s post-game speech to his players said it all.

“I told you six great players couldn’t beat a great team,” he said.

Not too shabby, themselves

Cleveland said the character of his team has shined brightly since the onset of sub-region play after going 1-2 in the non-region schedule. Going back to what he called Villa Rica football, Cleveland put it on the onus of his seniors to get the team back to the playoffs after losing 26 of them to graduation a season ago.

Thus far, this year’s senior class is something special in its own right.

“We’ve known all along our team, you know, had a lot of character and had a lot of heart. And, you know, we lost a couple games early in the year, but we knew we were going to start out slow because we graduated (26) seniors last year and we had a lot of new faces,” Cleveland said. “But we knew the potential was there. And we knew by the time we hit the (sub-region) schedule, we’d hit our stride and have a good football team.”

Strip and scoop

Carrollton made both a defensive and special teams turnover in its win at Haralson County, as Allen Reynolds forced a fumble on a first-quarter kickoff to which Josh Barge recovered and took 25 yards to pay dirt for the Trojans’ third score of the night in the 40-0 affair.

Midway through the second quarter, Trojan linebacker Aaron Brown recovered a C.J. Meeks fumble and ran it in 14 yards for a touchdown as the Carrollton defense held the Rebels to just 72 yards of total offense and four first downs, while forcing four turnovers.

“Yeah, I thought our defense played really well. We had a lot of good takeaways,” Carrollton coach Rayvan Teague said. “We had a couple of scores — a strip-and-score, a scoop-and-score. That was big for us.”

With an open week coming up before the Oct. 23 Central contest for the Trojans, Teague is hopeful of finally getting healthy — especially on the lines of scrimmage — as he gave his team the weekend off, as well as Monday’s holiday.

He said he’d love to be at full strength for the first time all season for the showdown with the Lions, which could wind up deciding the sub-region title.

Lion-watching

Following Central’s 29-6 drumming of Cedartown on Friday, it sets up a huge game next week at Cartersville for the Lions, where they can cement their chances of playing for the sub-region title the following week when they host Carrollton.

And while Central coach Mike Ledford certainly isn’t looking past a struggling Purple Hurricane ball club, next week the Lions have an opportunity to snap a nine-game losing streak to Cartersville, dating back to 1987.

And you can bet there will be a large Carrollton contingent keeping their eye on that game since the Trojans are off next week.

Shooting for 3-0

While the date Oct. 23 is circled on plenty of calenders throughout the city and county, highlighting the Carrollton-Central showdown, Ledford isn’t going to let his team lose focus of next week’s game at Cartersville.

Lion junior running back/defensive back Dee Lewis said a good week of practice leading up to the road trip is critical.

He considered that the key in Friday’s 23-point win over the Bulldogs.

“I mean, we pretty much knew that we could come out and beat them,” Lewis said. “We worked hard at practice all week, and that’s what it takes to win. We had to show them how we do it.”

Central senior tight end Tee Meigs, who had six receptions for 118 yards and a touchdown on Friday by halftime, said Cartersville is the only thing on the Lions’ radar right now.

“It feels great. We’re ready to go into next week,” Meigs said. “Hoping to be 3-0 next week.”

Times-Georgian Sports Reporter Clark Leonard contributed to this story.