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Houston BatlyJjmmtal ' TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2006 The Home Journal s SANDLOT " 1 "M WTO BUBT" ON DECK High school Basketball Today ■ Warner Robins at Peach County, 5 p.m. ■ Dooly County at Perry. 6 p.m. ■ Northside at Houston County, 6 p.m. Friday ■ Windsor at Westfield, 6 p.m. Saturday ■ Westfield at Central Fellowship, 4 p.m. High school swimming Friday ■ Warner Robins at Landmark Christian. 5 p.m. Saturday ■ Houston County/Northside Invite, 9:30 a.m„ at Fort Valley State University High school wrestling Today ■ Perry at Dublin. 5 p.m. ■ Creekview and Houston County at Northside. 5 p.m., in Tabor gym High school football Friday ■ Marist at Northside. 7:30 p.m. COMING Wednesday: Houston County's swim team swam to a first-place finish at the Chatham County Invitational held this past weekend in Savannah. As far as Warner Robins' swim team, its girls finished sec ond yet again (but beating 18 other teams to get there). Also look for a story on the Perry wrestling team and their results at the Baldwin tourney. IN BRIEF Warner Robins Rec to hold Christmas camp The Warner Robins Recreation Department is regis tering boys and girls ages 7-12 for Holly Days Christmas Camp to be held Dec. 21 through Jan. 4, 2007 (Christmas holidays for Houston County Schools), Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, 2007. Experienced camp coun selors, campers are well-super vised, structured program. The cost is $75 for city residents; sllO for county residents and $l4O for out-of-county. Call the department at 478- 929-6946 for more information. YMCA offers special sign-up promotion The YMCA is currently offer ing a special promotion where they are giving away one free month of gym membership to all new members. The center offers: gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, fit kidz. dance and much more. A family membership consists of an SBS joiner's fee plus the first month of S4B. Under the promo tion, you pay SBS and the first month is free. The offer will expire Dec. 31. Museum to host its annual walk/runs The 11th annual Museum of Aviation Foundation marathon, half marathon and 5K run/walk will be held at the Museum of Aviation Jan. 13, 2007. All three courses are USA Track and Field certified and all threes are also run on Robins Air Force Base. Runners and walkers whose registrations are postmarked by Jan. 5, 2007 are guaranteed, according to the release, a “quality colorful long sleeve shirt on race day.” A variety of trophies/awards will be offered. Entry fees are SBO for a relay team, S4O for the marathon, S3O for the half marathon and $lB for the 5K run/walk. For more information call June Lowe or Mary Lynn Harrison at (478)-923-6600 or email MaryLynn.Harrison@museum ofaviation.org. On-line detailed race information can be found at http://robinspacers.org or www. museumofaviation.org. Northside earns title shot; Warner Robins falls short to Peachtree Ridge By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer St. Pius X may have had the last say in terms of scor ing points Friday when Dylan Knight threw a 16- yard touch down pass to Joey Flint in the corner of the Georgia Dome end Northside 20. St. Plus X 17 zone with 1:17 left to play in one GHSA Class AAAA semifinal contest. But Deonta Jordan of Northside High had the last big grab of the football, snagging the obvious onsides kickoff on his 46-yard-line. St. Pius X would never see that football again, and for Northside it was a tight 20- 17 victory and a berth in the state championship game for the second year in a row. This time, though, the 14-0 Eagles will only have to go a few blocks down Davis Drive to McConnell- Talbert Stadium this coming Friday to face Marist for the school’s first football cham pionship ever. “We have to expect tough times, hard times,” said Northside coach Conrad Nix after the win in Atlanta. “Things don’t go your way all the time exactly like you think it will. You have to keep playing. It’s a four quarter game. We can score points in the fourth quarter just as easily as the first.” Northside scored points in the first and fourth peri ods thanks in large part to mistakes by the St. Pius X Golden Lions, a team that came back from 20 points down the week before to beat Thomas County-Central and earn the right to play the Eagles. The Eagles were clinging to a 13-10 lead in the third quarter when St. Pius X took a punt and mounted a drive from its own 34- yard-line. Knight, a junior, rolled on 3rd-and-9 for a big completion to Flint on the Northside 47. The Lions, which already had a few multiple-play series against the Eagle defense, plowed up to the 26 when Will Asip, running outside, dropped the football. Sophomore linebacker Eric Fields took the football off the artificial grass and went down to the 42 with 18 seconds left in the period. Early in the fourth, Eagle quarterback Marques Ivory, who had five of his previ ous six passes go incomplete, found big tight end Brett Moore over the middle for 30 yards to the Lion 8. It was on 4th-and-goal from the 1 when Tijuan Green, mov ing laterally in the power I set, scored his third rushing touchdown with 8:27 left. Freshman Devon Pike made the PAT kick, and Northside led 20-10. On St. Pius’ next drive, Fields and Jordan forced the Lions into an early passing situation. On third down, it was Jonathan Tinsley throw ing the halfback option. But the tipped ball fell in Mario Armstrong’s hands for a 31- yard return to the Lion 39. “The turnover was a big thing,” said Nix, whose team had all the takeaways but no giveaways. “The lack of us not putting things away, missing a field goal, not getting it in the end zone another time ... maybe we should have done better on that.” After the Armstrong pick, Green took a sweep 17 yards to the 18. See TITLE, page lB Sports v & • T r' yVjJ: ■|pfr ENI/Gary Harmon Northside quarterback Marques Ivory fights for yardage in the Eagles’ AAAA state semifinal win over St. Pius X Friday in the Georgia Dome. iljf 1.1 ENI/Gary Harmon Nick Bass battles for yardage. g|L &W mg: & j ENI/Gary Harmon Demon defenders Laron Scott (34) and Brian Buford bring down a Peachtree Ridge runner. In, out SECTION B By MA TTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer For one opening drive, it looked like typical Warner Robins High football. But for the rest of the night Saturday in the Georgia Dome, as Demons head coach Bryan Peachtree Ridge 13, Warner Robins 7 Way put it afterwards, “Nothing.” Peachtree Ridge High held Warner Robins to two first downs after falling behind 7-0 and crawled its way back to win 13-7 in a Class AAAAA semifinal contest in Atlanta. It put an end to the Demons’ quest for a second state championship shot in the last three years. “We just quit executing,” said Way after the game. “After we fumbled the foot ball on about the 30 (in the first quarter) - I thought we were moving it pretty well, and then after that we jumped offsides two or three times, we missed handoffs two or three times, we did not execute any facet of the offense the last three quar ters. “It’s not from a lack of effort, but a lack of concen tration.” The Demon offense was on the field for 13 plays in the second quarter while the defensive unit lined up for 38 Peachtree Ridge snaps. Still, Warner Robins was ahead on the scoreboard until there was 10:04 left to play in regulation time. The Demon defense squelched one faked-punt try by the Lions of Suwanee, held them to a field goal after a drive to the 5-yard-line and had a fumble recovery on the 5 from linebacker Brian Buford. “They played well, just had to play too much,” said Way about his defensive unit. “Peachtree Ridge has a good football team with an outstanding running back. The quarterback made plays with his feet and No. 6 (Sidney Haynes) made some big catches for them. “The defense played well enough for us to have a chance to win. Offensively we lost our composure and never got it back.” The night started out well for Warner Robins, first with Laron Scott blitzing from his cornerback post to sack Peachtree Ridge quarter back Zack Graham and with Xavier Jackson returning a punt nine yards to the Lion 46-yard-line. The senior quarterback for Warner Robins who wears No. 7, Mark Wright Jr., dis played the kind of action seen in the Georgia Dome by another No. 7, Falcon Michael Vick. Wright did a play-fake and immediate ly saw wide-open running room. He took off for a gain of 22 yards to the 17. From there, Dewayne Jackson, Jeremy Grant and Ant wan Hamilton each got their share of carries up to the 2. The Demons would call timeout while facing 4th-and-goal at the 1. Way sent in the full house back field, and the football went to Jackson for a touchdown at 6:38 of the first. David Clark upped the lead to 7-0 on the PAT. Peachtree Ridge tailback Brandon Davis was on his way to a 35-carry game. He alone got the Lions out of a hole on their 9 to the Warner Robins 49. But Justin Cowart See SHORT, page iB