Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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 $10,000 payday. Photo by Brandon Reed TangerTown Centre Value Shopping at its BEST! A PA JOHN S * HiBBETl SPORTS * S5 CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORI • WESTP0INT HOME * OLD NAVY ■■ AND MORE Commerce, Georgia * I-85, Barks Crossing. Exit 14$ * 706-335-3354 * Mon-Sat 9-9, Sun 12-6 www.taigemjtfet.cori ■ buy direct tram over 100 brand name outlets Enjoy our WEEKLY OFFERS Paper Factory OUTLET PARTY (TORI S5 OFF your purchase of $25 or more. Some restrictions apply. See store for details. Valid at the Tanger Town Cenire location only. Offer expires 11/13/07 Ron Worth 60-70% OFF all spring & summer merchandise some fall up to 50% OFF Offers valid with coupon al the Tanger Town Centre local ion only. Offer expires 11/18/D7