The featured Week 3 matchup that will kickoff the Drive for the GHSA State Title’s circuit of top Friday night action will showcase at top 10 clash between Class 7A Carrollton and Class 6A Rome. This will be the 10th all-time meeting and Carrollton holds a slight 5-4 edge in the series, however, Rome has won four of the last seven prior to the first two meetings that occurred back in the 1990’s. Last year, Carrollton held on for a 23-6 home victory and the previous year Rome scored a 45-27. Rome has in fact won its last three home games against Carrollton.
In addition to both teams being headliners and title contenders in their respective classifications, this matchup will showcase a tremendous quarterback battle between Rome senior Reese Fountain and Carrollton’s five-star sophomore passer Julian ‘JuJu’ Lewis. Fountain is a four-year starter that has thrown for 6,725 yards and 60 touchdowns in his career and has offers from Georgia Southern, Samford, Jacksonville State and others. Lewis, earned the distinction as the top prospect in the Class of 2026 after leading the Trojans to last year’s finals and having historic success, as seen in his state championship game record passing performance of more than 530 yards.
Rome enters the game 2-0, while Carrollton is 1-1 after a last-minute loss to Class 6A No. 1 Hughes and last week’s 49-0 win over South Paulding. Rome’s season opened with a 34-0 win over Cass and a 56-8 win over Lithonia. Defensively, the Wolves’ starters have not allowed a single point this season and shut down the No. 9 ranked Colonels in that opener.
“This Rome team is a little different than the other three I was on,” Fountain told the AJC. “We have a strong leadership bunch in my senior class. It really shows. Our defense is tough. Very tough. The underclassmen we have are an important part of this team too, though. Vegas Harmon, Toot Stallings, Chance Arthur and Parko Smith are some big-time underclassmen for us, among others. I will say I personally believe we have the best WR group in the state. D.K. Daniel, Nic Hester, Toot Stallings and B.J. Jackson are the starters, but we have six or seven wide receivers who can flat play. Our offensive line is underrated. I’m telling you, they are ready to go, man. Chance and Javarius McDearmont and Joseph Butts are our three running backs, and all three can go.”
Carrollton’s sophomore running back Kimauri Farmer has rushed for three touchdowns in each of the first two games and the offense also featured Alabama-commit and 6-foot-6, 220-pound tight end Caleb Odom.
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