Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007 4B Perny boys cposs country team qualifies fop state By DON MONCRIEF Journal Managing Editor There will be two teams - two “boys” teams, that is - competing in the state tournament Saturday in Carrollton. In addition to Warner Robins - both the girls and boys teams for it (in case you didn’t read this past Saturday) - Perry also qualified its boys team w > . > w pi -• ml Wk ■ ■ bf I ■gML J| B ‘ Perry Head Football Coach Andy Scott talks to the players prior to their start against Northeast this past Friday. The Panthers will host Jackson, a team they beat during the regular season, Friday. Rematch Panthers host familiar foe in Jackson By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer There may not be a high school football coach any- where who relishes the idea of playing the same team twice in one season, especially a team you beat the Jackson at Perry, Friday, 7:30 p.m. first time around. But Perry High and head coach Andy Scott face that situation on Friday at Herb St. John Stadium. It’s the Region 4-AAA play-in round for the GHSA Class AAA state tournament, and the Panthers, No. 1 seed from the south sub-region, takes on Jackson High, which got into the play-ins after finishing in a three-way tie for third in the north sub region. Jackson comes to Perry at 3-6 overall, but jumped to 2-3 in sub-region play after beat ing winless Eagle’s Landing 28-0 last Friday. Spalding and Ola also finished 2-3, but Ola was 0-2 against regular season games against south sub-region clubs. Spalding beat Jackson 14-0 to get the No. 3 north spot and a trip to Peach County High this coming Friday. As alluded to earlier, the Perry-Jackson game com ing up is a rematch from a Sept. 21 contest held in Butts County. The Panthers won that game 28-16 in what became the first of several come-from-behind victories in 2007. Another big comeback for Perry was last week’s 39-35 triumph against Northeast that secured the top seed of the south sub-region. for the state tournament. The Panthers - with the top four “teams” in the region qualifying - finished third at the Region 4- AAA meet held this past Thursday. Spalding was first with 48 followed by Eagle’s Landing with 49. Then came Perry with 93 and Ola (score unknown). Leading the way for the Panthers was Jesse Yeomans, a sophomore Perry rallies past Northeast By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Andy Scott hopes there will be six more comebacks pulled off in the final seconds. Casey Hayward’s seven-yard touch down run - which was pretty much a race between him and a couple of Northeast High defenders to the left near corner of the end zone - with six seconds left in >: ‘V'' „ ■ ■’ ■ vTjfjHflH* m ''ll - A jMfrl '* M w * ENI/Gary Harmon Panther linebacker Kanorris Davis takes down a Northeast runner during their game this past Friday. “I think Jackson has gotten better throughout the year,” said Scott after Monday’s practice that ended under the lights for the first time this season. “They’ve played good peo ple, just had a difficult run, and I don’t think they’re as bad as their record indi cates. Coach (Mike) Parris does a great job. B h . BASKETBALL ■■■ D Li Li .• who finished in 17:32. Next for Perry was Geremy Skeen, followed by Matt Phillips, Nick Wood and Elias Hall. Those were the runners that counted toward the team’s score. Others who cross for the Panthers were Brandon Montgomery in sixth and Terrell Wimbush in seventh. As far as Perry’s girls, they fin ished sixth with Bethany Loggins regulation Friday lifted the Perry High football Panthers to a 39-35 win against the Northeast Raiders at Herb St. John Stadium. It was no ordinary win for Perry, for it clinched the Region 4-AAA south sub region championship at 4-1 (6-3 overall). Northeast came in with one sub-region loss also, and a loss to the Raiders would See RALLIES, page ioB “We just have to finish what we start.” Since Sept. 21, Jackson, in addition to the two touchdown shutout loss to Spalding, lost by one touch down to north sub-region champion Henry County, but that was a 21-14 final. There was also a field-goal loss, 24-21, to north No. 2 seed Mary Persons. “They are always very athletic,” said Scott about the Red Devils’ improve ments. “They have a run ning back who is very explo sive. The biggest thing that has hurt them is penalties and turnovers, and I’m hop ing they continue to strug gle with that. But if they come in here and don’t turn See HOST, page ,"/( crossing first for them with a time of 24:02. “We ran some real good races,” summed up first year Head Coach Brett Hardy. “We’re just not as quite as fast as Eagle’s Landing and Spalding. They’ve got some pretty solid runners ... Kids run ning in the low 16s and that’s hard to compete with. “But, we’re excited about going INSIDE: Eagles avoid upset; Bears fall WR Ming iop 7' results By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Warner Robins High needs not just one, but two Lowndes at Warner Robins, Friday, 7:30 pm. off berth from Region 1- AAAAA. The Demons must beat first-place Lowndes High at McConnell-Talbert Stadium and Colquitt County High must beat Tift County High in order to extend Warner Robins’ season. One or the other isn’t any good, as Tift County - right now tied with the Demons at 2-3 in the region - owns the tiebreak er edge on Warner Robins by virtue of a 20-13 win at McConnell-Talbert on Oct. 26. That loss was the third in a row (all region games) for the Demons, which snapped the streak last Friday by routing Colquitt in Moultrie 35-7. Lowndes can certainly emphasize with the notion of no postseason football, for in 2006 the Vikings - two-time defending Class AAAAA champions at the time - missed out on the Senior Night A win gives WF 'OB momentum By DON MONCRIEF Journal Managing Editor It was kind of a catch -22. On one hand, Westfield really wanted Sherwood to beat First Presbyterian Day this past weekend. No, Sherwood at Westfield, Friday, 8 p.m. If not, they really, really wanted Sherwood to lose bad. One, a win would give the Hornets a slim, and with FPD having to play Deerfield this weekend, better than average shot of still making the playoffs. However, if that wasn’t to be the case a demor alized Sherwood visiting Westfield on Senior Night for this Friday’s 8 p.m. kickoff wouldn’t be half bad, either. As it stood, the Hornets got neither. FPD beat the Eagles but not by a whole lot, 34-20 to be exact. No matter. Westfield still carries with it the momen tum of its 24-17 win over Southland, also from this past weekend. The bad thing about that game said Hornet Head Coach Ronnie Jones, was HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL Saturday.” Part of that excitement, Hardy explained, was being a part of what he had heard was the spectacle itself. He wasn’t all too keen about the information he had received Monday morning that they would be running in the last race of the day - based on hotel reserva tions he had already made - but he See STATE,page $B playoffs. Warner Robins had something to do with that when it beat Lowndes on the road on the final week of the regular season and jumped all the way to second in the region. But one year later the Vikings have the region championship all sewn up at 5-0, 8-1 overall. And Lowndes is on an eight game winning streak after losing 9-0 to Harrison on opening night. “They have tremendous team speed,” said Demons head coach Bryan Way. “They were very young last year, but a lot of those players are back with expe rience. There’s no substi tute for that. They are still relatively young, but coach (Randy) McPherson does a good job of getting them ready to play together.” As is usually expected from Lowndes, Way said McPherson runs the most basic of offenses and defenses. “We have to play sound fundamental football,” he said. “They are not going to do anything fancy or unexpected.” To beat Lowndes, Warner Robins must contend with two of the best players in 1-AAAAA. Darriet Perry broke the school’s career rushing record (which See RESULTS, page j )B results fin ishing in its favor on Friday in order to get the fourth and final state foot ball play- it was too close - 17-7 until there was about two-three minutes left - too late. “I had really hoped to be able to play some of the younger kids,” he said. “Now that’s it’s getting toward the end of the year, you try and get as many people involved (for the experience) that you can.” One he did get involved - not having much choice - was James Wurster, a ninth grader, at quarter back. That’s because Casey Young, Jones said, “got a bruised muscle in his leg.” His status for this weekend is still to be determined. “We’ll just have to wait and see the first of the week,” Jones said. As it stood, Wurster did all right for himself. He was 5-8 of passing with no interceptions while the Hornets overall had 66 yards . passing. They also had 223 yards on the ground, no fumbles and cut down on penalties in the redzone, the last of which Jones said he was pretty happy about. As far as Sherwood, Jones said that close score against FPD was no fluke. “They’ve been close with everybody,” he said. “They haven’t come out on the winning end mainly because they See WIN, page <)B I they real ly, really, “really” wanted Sherwood to beat the Vikings this past weekend.