Bobcats Open at Home With a 43-28 Win Over Stephens County

Gilmer opened the 2026 football season with a 43-28 win over Stephens County on Friday night in Ellijay, scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to break open a game the Bobcats trailed for most of three quarters. Kickoff was 7:30 p.m. at the high school on Bobcat Trail, the first home football Friday of the new school year and the first meeting ever between the two programs.

Peyton Chancey did the heavy lifting. He scored four touchdowns, including one with less than a minute left in the first half that tied the game at 14, and an 8-yard run in the fourth quarter that pushed the lead to 15.

Stephens County was not an easy first opponent. The visiting Indians did not trail at any point until the fourth quarter. Quarterback Branson Stowe threw two touchdown passes in the first half, a 10-yarder to Kaiden Harbin and a 27-yarder to Dallas Hague, and later added a 45-yard touchdown run of his own. Hague scored on a 3-yard run.

Then the fourth quarter belonged to Gilmer.

A pregame tribute to Rodney Walker

Fans were told to get to the stadium early, and there was a reason. Before the game, both schools honored the late Rodney Walker, the veteran Georgia high school coach who died in May at 79. Walker coached at Gilmer County from 1975 to 1978, then spent 1986 to 1993 at Stephens County, which made Friday's opener an unusual overlap of two programs he had led decades apart.

Where both teams stood coming in

Gilmer finished 6-5 last season and lost in the first round of the state playoffs. Stephens County went 6-6 and reached the second round. Neither team had faced the other on a football field before Friday.

The win puts Gilmer at 1-0, with 43 points scored and 28 allowed on the season so far.

Next up: Fannin County, at home

The Bobcats stay in Ellijay for week two. Kickoff against Fannin County is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, another 7:30 start and another home gate for anyone who has not made it out yet this year. Gilmer's first road trip is Sept. 18 at Rabun County, and region play in Class AAAA Region 6 does not begin until well into the fall.

Friday's crowd came out a few weeks into a school year that also brought the opening of Gilmer High's new $22.5 million Performing Arts Center. The building and the football stadium now sit on the same campus, and both were busy in August.

Full schedule and ticket information for Bobcat athletics is posted by the school district at ghs.gilmerschools.com/athletics. Schedules do shift, so check before you drive out.

For more coverage of Gilmer County teams and everything else happening around town, visit Ellijay Georgia Community Website, and tell us who impressed you Friday night by joining the conversation in our Community Forum. You can read more local sports stories or catch up on news from around the county in our community section.