article by Crissy Froyd
The Bowdon Red Devils have built quite the legacy, bringing home a state championship title every year from 2022 to 2025. But a lot has changed with former head coach Rich Fendley departing to Rockmart High School after eight seasons at Bowdon.
It’s a new era now under head coach Jamie Abrams, who had been with the program, and with several new faces from outside the program also now in the fold. They’ve been up against the odds between those transitions, in addition to graduating several veteran starters and functioning with an offensive line that is much smaller in physical size than some of their previous units.
Friday night, the Red Devils headed into their second game of the season with a need to get back to the right side of the win column after suffering a disappointing 38-19 road loss to the Blue Devils of Bremen.
The defense settled in after struggling with some early pass rush issues at the beginning of Callaway’s first possession, which ended with a punt after senior linebacker Lucki Bailey sacked Cavaliers quarterback AJ Williams.
The Bowdon offense had its big moments on its first possession but was hindered by multiple penalties that affected the team’s ability to get to the end zone, despite drawing near. Still, the Red Devils were able to hit the scoreboard first with a 45-yard field goal that made it 3-0 with four and a half minutes remaining in the first quarter.
It would not be long before Bowdon’s offense returned to the field after Callaway fumbled the kickoff return, which was recovered by senior standout Dylan Bailey. That was the start of yet another scoring drive for the squad, set up favorably at the Cavaliers’ 39-yard line after Bailey’s heroics, and capped off by a touchdown run and two-point conversion run by quarterback Connor Daniel.
It took Callaway until over halfway through the second quarter to put any points of its own, and it’s important to note that the Cavaliers had the multitude of penalties committed by Bowdon to thank for some of the positive offensive bursts they had on Friday night.
That was the story of Callaway’s second time with the ball in their hands, capping things off with a 32-yard field goal to cut Bowdon’s lead to 11-3, four minutes ahead of halftime after the Red Devils defense held stout near the goal line.
It was all of the true hope Callaway would have for the rest of the contest, though, failing to score again.
While the Cavaliers continued to struggle to find anything resembling consistency, the Red Devils just kept doubling down more on their efforts. Well, to be fair, “doubling down” may be something of an understatement.
Bowdon really busted things open midway through the third quarter, opening up their possession with a huge kickoff return by Dylan Bailey that allowed the Red Devils to get to work at the Callaway 30-yard line.
Daniel quickly closed that gap to the end zone with a run up the middle to the Callaway 6-yard line, keeping the ball on the following play to bring Bowdon to the half-yard line before running back Josh Chandler punched it in on the handoff.
Daniel would tack on two more touchdown runs as the team played near-perfect complementary football to finish with dominance in a game that marked the first win since Abrams became the new head coach.
It’s not about him, though, he says.
“It’s always good for the guys to reap the rewards for what they do all summer long and all week long,” Abrams said. “It is tough to be a high school football player… it doesn’t matter if it has anything to do with me or not.”
Moving forward, Abrams has a lot that he’s pleased with, and some things he would like to see change. The good news either way is that the season is still young.
“We had a couple wide-open shots in the pass game. We have to clean those up,” he said. “Offensively, I thought we ran the ball pretty well, but there are still things to fix. Defensively, not giving up some explosive plays, I thought, was extremely important for us.”
Bowdon will look to stay on the right side of the win column as the Red Devils continue the season with a matchup at Lamar County on Sept. 4. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
