By Charles Walker
Jim Rakestraw is now driving a football helmet around, or at least it looks like one.
Rakestraw, Druid Hills’ head football coach, used to drive a red Volkswagen, but he promised his team that if they went into the game with Southwest DeKalb undefeated, he would paint his car to match a Red Devil helmet.
And sure enough, after a 44 to 12 win over North Cobb last weekend, there it is. A football helmet with wheels.
On the back is a big 5 to 0, denoting Druid Hills’ record so far. And on the front there are five stars, one for each win.
But this is the big week, the week the Red Devils meet the Panthers of Southwest DeKalb, last year’s AA state champions.
SWD is also undefeated so far this year, so something’s got to snap Saturday night.
“We’re real excited about this week,” said Rakestraw. “Southwest DeKalb’s played some big games before, but this is the first big one we’ve played in a long time.”
And Dewey Alverson, SWD’s head coach, has been talking about Druid Hills’ offense. It is the finest offense they have seen in a long time, says Alverson.
“He didn’t include them,” Rakestraw pointed out. “They have a powerful offense and they have statistics to prove it.”
And the Panthers’ defense is no slouch either, having had only one touchdown scored on them this year.
“Their overall size is a big advantage they have,” said Rakestraw. “Being as small as we are, we work on our quickness a lot. We’re going to have to have some good effort for this game.”
Apparently, Druid Hills had a good effort against North Cobb.
“We felt like it was a good, tough game,” said Rakestraw. “Our boys really played well this week.”
Druid Hills totaled 433 yards offensively, 286 of those yards coming on rushing and 147 in the air.
David Middour connected on nine of 13 passes for 139 yards and Tommy Southard hit on one of two passes for eight yards.
Middour had an outstanding game, rushing for 46 yards on nine carries, besides passing for his 139 yards. And one of those passes was a touchdown to Randy Tanner.
So Middour amassed 185 yards all by himself.
David Adams rushed 13 times for 70 yards, Keith Honeycutt carried nine times for 65 yards and Southard ran 14 times for 62 yards.
Adams had one touchdown and Honeycutt and Southard had two each.
The Devils’ defense had a good night too, with Pat Kelley intercepting two passes, Richard McDermott intercepting two and Mike Cutting making six individual tackles to lead the team tackling.
“It was a good team effort,” said Rakestraw. “It was a good game to have just before we play Southwest DeKalb. They’re not as big as a lot of other teams, but they give a good effort.”
