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The Braselton News
Contact the sports department:
Phone: 706-367-5233
Fax: 706-367-9355
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
IB
Wednesday,
November 14, 2007
C.C. Hawks
finish 9th,
14th at state
The Mill Creek Hawks Cross
Country teams rounded out a suc
cessful season with a ninth place
finish for the boys, and a 14th
place effort for the girls in state
competition in Carrollton.
For the boys, Colin Convoy fin
ished sixth overall with a time of
16:19. Other runners included
Yabub Ismail with a 17:03, Stephen
Mayer with a 17:10, Austin Boetje
with a 17:41, Tim Heffner with
a 17:43, Cristian Niculas with an
18:02, and Brian Kennedy with
an 18:39.
For the girls, Alicia Connolly
ran a 20:23, Megan Steinocher ran
a 20:51, Brittany Westmoreland
ran a 21:49, Lauren Scott ran a
21:55, Hanna Hill ran a 22:16,
Ashton Wheeles ran a 23:12.27,
and Caitlin Austin ran a 23:12.52.
Mill Creek
basketball,
swimming
starts Sat.
Two sports get their start for
Mill Creek athletes this weekend.
Competition begins for the boys
and girls basketball teams, as well
as the Mill Creek swim team.
The Lady Hawks basketball team
gets their first crack at the court
in the Parkview Tournament on
Saturday. The girls are scheduled
to face off against Brookwood in
their first game of the tournament,
with tip-off scheduled for noon.
Last year, the Lady Hawks
defeated North Oconee, lost to
St. Pious, and finally defeated
Parkview in this same tournament.
That started the Lady Hawks to a
24-6 overall record, and 14-2 in
the region. Mill Creek would end
up finishing second in the region,
losing only to the number one
nationally ranked team, Collins
Hill.
The boy s ’ team will also be taking
part in the Parkview Tournament
on Saturday, as they’ll first take on
Riverdale at 5:15 p.m.
The boys won their first two
games in this same tournament
last year, defeating Tallulah Falls
and Riverdale before falling to
Southwest Atlanta Chrsitian.
The team would go on to finish
the season with a 13-10 record,
going 8-7 in the region for the
season.
The tournament runs Saturday,
Monday and Tuesday.
Also on Saturday, the Mill Creek
Swim team gets their start, against
Parkview at Mountain Park Pool
in Stone Mountain. The meet is
set for a 6:30 start time. Last year,
the team finished second in the
event, taking first in the girls 500
freestyle, and the girls 200 IM.
Football
Hawks ready for play-off trip to Kennesaw
Mill Creek to face off
against Harrison Friday
BY BRANDON REED
After a bye week, the Mill
Creek Hawks are rested, healed,
and ready to travel to Kennesaw
to face off against the Harrison
Hoyas in the first round of high
school football play-off action.
Despite a week off, head foot
ball coach Shannon Jarvis says
the team didn’t spend much time
idle.
“Last week, a lot of our focus
was on correcting some things,”
Jarvis said. “We still were not
happy with what we were doing,
and mainly we focused in on
details of our own game plan, as
far as both offense and defense.
We spent part of last week work
ing on either of our two opponents.
We knew we would either play
North Cobb or Harrison. Both
of them, on defense, has similar
schemes, so that allowed us to go
ahead and start working on either
one of them.
“It’s not that we focused in on
just one, but just little things that
we felt would hurt that type of
defense that we’d like to run.”
Friday night, the Hawks found
out they would be facing Harrison.
Jarvis said while this week has
been geared more towards the
Hoyas defense, the focus has
stayed the same.
“We spent more time on our
selves, probably more than you
normally would on a bye week,”
he said. “It’s not like we were
making a bunch of mistakes, but
there were just little things that
we thought we could do better,
both offensively and defensively.
It also gave our kids a chance to
get healed. We only had a few
periods of just live contact last
week. Obviously, we had to have
some. That’s where you get rusty,
when you don’t go full speed. We
gave them Friday off, and came
back Monday and had a good
practice. It looks like our kids’
legs are back under them a little
better. We’ll just try to get ready
for this week.”
Jarvis says his team faces a big
job going up against Harrison. The
Hoyas enter play-off action with
an 8-2 overall record, 6-2 in the
region.
But that doesn’t mean his team
is making any changes to their
approach Friday night.
“I told our kids that we don’t
need to change what we’re doing,”
Jarvis said. “It’s not like we need
our kids to play at a level they’re
not capable of just to beat them.
We feel if we can continue to
play like we have in the past few
weeks, we can play with a lot of
teams in the state. Harrison is a
great challenge for us, but still the
focus is going to be on ourselves.
“The good thing is we’re not
coming in and installing a new
offense or defense just for the
playoffs. Obviously, we’ve done
pretty well this year to make the
playoffs out of our region. The
focus has to be on us, and us con
tinuing to do what we do best.”
Jarvis says he and his team go
into Friday night’s match-up with
a lot of respect for the Harrison
program.
“We are very respectful of
Harrison. We’ve played them
before, and they have a good pro
gram. They’ve had a lot of success
since they opened up. Our hands
are full. We’ve got to play well.”
Jarvis says the team’s last game,
a 59-point rout over Duluth, was
huge for his team going into the
post-season.
“What can’t be lost in the win
against Duluth is that we got a
lot of players in, and a lot of
READY, STEADY, GO!
Mill Creek quarterback Zach Landis warms up prior to a recent game.The Hawks will face off against
the Harrison Hoyas Friday night in the first round of play-off games. Photo by Kristi Reed
kids played,” he said. “That helps
morale and it was a good boost
psychologically. Our kids execut
ed very well that night. I think
what we’ve focused on more than
anything is ‘here’s what you’re
capable of when we do execute.’
We did that against Peachtree
Ridge as well.
“That Duluth game, to me, as
far as morale, was an indication
of the maturity of the team. We’re
starting to play at our level, and
not worrying about the opponent
and how good, bad, or whatever
they are. That’s part of our chal
lenge this week with Harrison. It’s
not that we need to worry about
playing at a higher level with
Harrison. We need to just play at
the highest level we can play at,
and let Harrison worry about the
level they want to play at.”
Jarvis says getting his team to
play at their own level has been
something that he and his coach
ing staff have focused in on this
year, and it’s worked.
“Honestly, they’ve done a good
job here recently just worrying
about themselves and keeping that
focus. I knew going into the off
week, especially now as we get
ready to play, that my greatest
challenge is keep us, coaches and
everybody focused on the task at
hand.
“Bottom line, it’s a ball game
that I believe the team that tackles
the best and blocks the best and is
the most physical will win. Not a
lot of tricks win play-off games.
You block, tackle, get back to your
basics and execute.”
Jarvis says that focus is part of
the mindset he wants his players
to have when they hit the field
Friday night.
“I want to make sure we go up
there to represent this program and
this county, and more importantly
themselves well Friday night by
playing just like I said,” Jarvis
said. “We want to be physical, and
play through the whistle. We want
to get after them. That’s what got
us there.
“I want to make sure we play our
guts out. Then, when the smoke
clears, the scoreboard will take
care of itself.”
Kick-off in Kennesaw Friday
night is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Forecasts call for temperatures in
the lower 50s with little chance
of rain.
Auto Racing
Kelley grabs third World Crown victory at Peachstate
BY BRANDON REED
Racing legend Richard Petty once said only the last lap of the race
counted. The other 499 leading up to it was all just for practice.
Paul Kelley showed the true point of the sentiment Sunday, as he led
only two laps - the last two - on his way to his second straight World
Crown victory at Peachstate Speedway.
Kelley made the late pass on Canton’s Matt Hawkins, who led 244 of
the event’s 250 laps, to grab the victory.
“It’s awesome,” Kelley said after his third overall World Crown vic
tory. “We had a really good car, good crew, good tire guy. The crew
chief and everybody worked together. Thank the Lord.
“We had so many problems just trying to get here. Motor problems,
rear end problems, you name it, we had problems. But we got it all
shaken out, got here this weekend, and everything just fell right into
place.”
Victory came very close to not becoming a reality for the Snellville
driver. After running in the top five for the first 100 laps of the event,
Kelley’s crew made the decision to take only two tires during the event’s
first competition stop.
Kelley found himself losing more and more ground during the second WINNING PASS
Paul Kelley (23) passes leader Matt Hawkins (22) with two laps remaining, and would hold off all chal-
See WORLD CROWN on page 3B lenges to grab the win, and a $10,000 payday. Photo by Brandon Reed
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