Friday’s 7:30 p.m. game between Cross Creek and Hart County will not take place, according to a news report from The Hartwell Sun.
The newspaper’s Facebook page put out a post Tuesday afternoon stating that Cross Creek was scratched as Hart County’s homecoming football game opponent Friday and within an hour after making that announcement, the Hart County Charter System then announced that Bulloch Academy would be the school’s new opponent.
Cross Creek head football coach Ezzard Horn told The Augusta Press Tuesday morning that he was awaiting an investigation from the Georgia High School Association and the Richmond County School System to determine how many of his players should be suspended and if any further disciplinary action was to be taken.
According to The Hartwell Sun report, that investigation wrapped up later Tuesday morning, yielding a decision just before noon.
“The Richmond County School System and the Georgia High School Association had to investigate the situation. After the investigation concluded, they mandated Cross Creek and Savannah to forfeit their upcoming games,” the Facebook post said.
That means, not only was Cross Creek forced to eliminate its game against Hart County, Savannah had to forfeit its game against Bulloch Academy, which is why Bulloch Academy was able to be a quick fill-in solution as an opponent for Hart County.
“We received an email this morning from the GHSA saying that they were going to make Cross Creek forfeit their game against us due to an incident that happened last week during their game against Savannah,” Hart County coach Cory Dickerson told The Hartwell Sun. “Shortly after that, I got on the phone with the GHSA and received more details about the incident…They then gave us a list of teams that could be possibly looking for a game.”
As of Tuesday evening, Hart County updated its football schedule on maxpreps.com, a nationwide website that provides schedule, roster and player information for high school sports teams across the country, to reflect the change to Bulloch Academy as its Friday Sept. 22 opponent, while Cross Creek’s maxpreps.com schedule remained unchanged.
Dr. Robin Hines, executive director of the GHSA, confirmed with The Augusta Press via email that the GHSA triggered the sanctions for both teams, and suggested that the local school systems were in agreement.
“The GHSA imposed the sanction,” Hines said. “I’m not aware of system sanctions, but I would say that the RCSS has always supported the association. We are grateful for their partnership.”
Attempts to reach Cross Creek head football coach Ezzard Horn, Cross Creek athletic director Lawrence Kelly and Richmond County athletic director Scott McClintock for comment weren’t immediately returned.
This is a developing story that will update as more information is available.
