Walnut Grove Destroys Loganville, Wins Rivalry Game for First Time in School History

On Friday, August 23rd, 2024, Walnut Grove Football and Loganville’s Football teams played on Loganville’s home field. WGHS dismantled them, 48-19, and won their first game vs. Loganville in school history. 
by Drew Caraway, Sean Clift, and AJ Diaz

(picture by hudl.com)

Game Recap
Walnut Grove stormed into Loganville on a mission. The team has never won against Loganville. However, this past Friday night, the team made history. 

The Warriors beat the Red Devils, 48-19, on their home turf. The offense looked incredible. The team ran for seven total rushing touchdowns, and Emadd Howard rushed for 305 yards and four touchdowns. 

Emadd stated, “Yeah I will probably get to like 3000 if I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t wanna be cocky, but I will probably get like 2000+,” when regarding his total yard count for the rest of the season. A big mark that hasn’t even been done in NFL or College Football history. However, if he continues averaging 235.5 yards per game, for the rest of the season, he will finish with a little over 2,350 yards, an incredible record-breaking mark. According to MaxPreps, as of 8/27/24, Emadd is second in the nation in total rushing yards and leads Georgia in total rushing yards and total touchdowns. 
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Jake Moss, who leads the team in tackles (MaxPreps), was asked about how this momentum can carry into the rest of the season. “... we can definitely use this game to go through the season because we haven't beaten Loganville in school history, and we haven't beaten Monroe in school history. So Appalachee this upcoming Friday, our coaching staff hasn't beat [their] varsity [football team]. So we [the team] can use this motivation going into these games coming up and region games.” The Warriors gained a lot of momentum, stated by multiple teammates, from this win. 

Nick Pope, Linebacker, says, “It was cool since it was our first time beating Loganville. I was, like, trying to catch the ball. I was… nervous and then once I caught it… I got, like, a hype boost, which made me happy. It's big because, you know, we don't really like Loganville, and they are our rivals, so it's big.”

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Rivalry History
Walnut Grove and Loganville are “Cross-Town Rivals,” due to their distance apart from each other, only being 7.8 miles away. This was the first matchup between the two since November 5th, 2021. 
The rivalry between the two teams started in the 2012-2013 season, with Loganville winning in week 2, 32-13. The teams played every year, apart from the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons, and Loganville won every year. The closest game was in the 2017-2018 season, where Loganville won 21-17. But, the future is bright for this rivalry. 

Although the two teams are in separate divisions, they still plan to play each other in the upcoming seasons. 

Walnut Grove will play one more 5A school this season, with Apalachee High School, a 3A school, in Monroe Area High School, then continue to play 4A schools for the remainder of the season. 
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The Warriors don’t want to stop at just beating Loganville. They want to beat everyone. The Warriors host Apalachee High School, this Friday, August 30th, at Warrior Stadium. Come out and support your Warriors!

* Kickoff at Friday, August 30, 7:30 p.m. *