Page 10 - Wednesday, March 2, 2022
The Sylvania Times
thesylvaniatimes.com
T At
%
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3b At 4*
SCHS goalie Julia Dews
(1) picked up a save on
this free kick by Claxton's
Melissa Vaqueno. The
SCHS wall of Grace
Cataffo, Sarah Mescher,
Shay Sasser, and Mazlin
Blessing watch the ball
soar overhead. Madison
Powell is stationed in front
of the net. (photo by Jamie
Warren)
4—0 in n
-Burton Kemp
With an overall record of 7-1 the
SCHS soccer Lady Gamecocks of
Terry Markovcic, ranked seventh
in the latest Eurosports poll, rolled
to a pair of Region 3 A victories last
week to improve to 4-0 in region as
they fight to defend their 2021 title.
On February 22 the Red and White
went to the Pecan Grove in Claxton
and came home with a 4-0 win
while at Kelly Memorial Stadium on
February 25 there was an 8-0 victory
over Bryan County.
Yesterday, March 1, the team
made the 100+ mile trek to Darien
to face the other undefeated team
in Region 3A, McIntosh County
Academy’s Lady Buccaneers, in a
battle for first place. The contest will
finish, the first round robin of region
competition for SCHS. Not playing
nearly the matches that Markovcic
puts on the schedule, MCA was 4-0,
2-0 in 3 A play. Metter will be here
this Friday and SCHS will travel to
AAA Harlem for a nonregion game
on March 8.
Through the weekend the standings
showed SCHS at 4-0, MCA at 2-0,
Metter at 1-1, Portal at 1-3 and both
Bryan County and Claxton at 0-2. A
Claxton-Portal matchup from Friday
was probably postponed due to
problems at Claxton High School.
The Friday matchup at Kelly had
the Lady Gamecocks demonstrate
absolute dominance as they outshot
the Lady Redskins by an amazing
55-0. BCHS goalie’s Skylar Lee’s
22 saves kept her team seemingly
in the contest for a long time. Fresh
man Kaylin Long got the team on
the board quickly at 37:17 when she
took a short Lee kick and put it in
the net. Emma Jones followed with
a pair of goals, one when a long Ma
zlin Blessing shot hit the cross bar
and rebounded straight to Jones and
the other on an assist from Blessing.
Those were the SCHS goals for the
first half.
In the second half the Red and
White began to exert itself with
Jones scoring another goal and
Long three more to give her a super
hat trick and Jones the hat trick.
Freshman Charlie Brannen also had
a second half goal. Blessing picked
up another assist and Adairis Gomez
also recorded one. Twelve different
players took shots on the day.
Tuesday’s trip to the Pecan Grove
saw a much improved Lady Tiger
squad battle SCHS to a 0-0 first half
draw. Five minutes into the second
half Madison Powell fed Long for
a goal to give the Lady Gamecocks
all they needed. Long scored twice
more, one on an assist by Emerson
Kullberg before Jones closed the
scoring late in the contest. Julia
Dews was credited with seven saves
in her first shut out of the week. She
has four on the season.
In an interesting note, the SCHS-
MCA contest matched the top two
scorers in the region in junior Jones
of SCHS and MCA junior Madi
McMahan. Both came in with 15
goals. A major difference is that
while McMahan scores75% of all
of her team’s goals, Jones scores
36% of the SCHS goals. The Lady
Gamecocks also boast the third,
fourth, and fifth leading scorers
in the region in freshman Long
(10) and juniors Shay Sasser and
Blessing. There is a lot more to
defend against the Red and White.
McMahan was the Region 3A cross
Senior Emerson Kullberg
(3) dribbles from in front of
the SCHS goal with Adairis
Gomez (4) along side.
Gamecock defender Marly
Moore is also pictured,
(photo by Jamie Warren)
Front row: Gatlin Scott, TJ Melvin, Jeremiah White, Hayden Skinner, BJ Carver, Rylan Robbins, Xander Kile Sec
ond row: Bryant Scott, Connor Thompson, Jared Dixon, Danny Thompson, Vasquez Lonon, Ren Brower, Ryan
Warren, Jake Pollock, Josh Oglesby, Elijah Williams (photo by Jamie Warren)
SC MS Opens Soccer
And Baseball Seasons
-Burton Kemp
Screven County Middle
School opened its spring sports
schedule last week with both the
soccer team of Gentri Wiggins
and the baseball team of Chad
Smallman opening their seasons
with nondistrict games. Both
teams returned to action earlier
this week and are in action this
afternoon with soccer hosting
Claxton and baseball hosting
South Effingham. All starts are
at 4:30.
For the Lady Gamecocks of
Wiggins the opening was a very
successful one with a resound
ing 7-0 win over Treutlen
County at Kelly Memorial Sta
dium. After leading 2-0 at the
half, SCMS pulled away with
five second half goals. Anna
Kate Withrow led the way with
four goals while Sadie Beth
Sell had two and Mica Shipes
one. Shipes also picked up two
assists, Sell one, and Withrow
one. Caroline Kullberg was the
goalie.
Wiggins said “it was a great
first game” and that 20-of the
team’s 21 girls got playing
time with the only player not
participating out with an injury
for another month.
The baseball Gamecocks went
to Ebenezer for their opener.
While soccer dives into its Dis
trict games starting with the sec
ond game, the first three games
for baseball are with three much
larger middle schools from
Effingham County. The opener
by the river was used by Small
man to get as much playing
and pitching time for as many
players as possible. According
to Smallman that is pretty much
the plan for the three Effingham
games.
“These games give our coach
ing staff the ability to evalu
ate the players in live action
before our region games start,”
Smallman stated. “We preach to
our players to minimize errors,
make the smart play and have
our pitchers minimize walks
then it will give us a chance to be
successful.”
On Monday, March 7, of next week
baseball will open District play with
Toombs County here while soccer
will play its third District game by
hosting Metter. Earlier games for
soccer at Toombs County (2/28)
and Claxton (3/2) were also District
contests.
Recreation Department N@ws
SCRD Spring Sports
There are some spots still available for Spring Baseball, Softball, and T-Ball. Call the
Recreation office at 863-2388 to find out which leagues have spots available.
12U Boys State
The Screven County 12U Boys All-Stars will be representing District 1 at the G.R.RA.
State Basketball Tournament March 4-5 in Claxton, Ga. Players for Screven County
are Keith Bames, Jr., Percy Flowers, John Daniel Hall, Javion Harper, Brayden Lanier,
Cleve Mingle, Isaiah Robinson, Luke Sowell, Ka’Jay Tyler, and Chase Wells. Coaches
are Raymond Tyler and Ky’ Jon Tyler. State bracket can be found at www.quickscores.
com/grpa.
Baseball drops a pair
of close games
-Burton Kemp
Dropping a pair of close games
last week, the SCHS baseball
Gamecocks of Jim Randall
Doyle fell to 2-4 on the season
with all of their losses coming
by two runs or less. Jefferson
County will be here this March
2 afternoon and will be the last
game of the week. On March 8
Bryan County will be here for
the Region 3A opener. The Jef-
fco game tonight was originally
scheduled for Louisville but the
teams traded home dates last
week.
After a pair of one run losses
the previous week, last week
saw the Roosters fall 5-3 to
homestanding Jefferson
County’s Warriors and then 3-1
to visiting Toombs County on
Friday evening. The Toombs
loss was especially frustrating
as the bottom of the seventh
saw SCHS load the bases with
no outs down 3-0 and then
have them still loaded with one
out and the ran count at 3-1.
Equally frustrating were the two
unearned runs pushed across by
the Bulldogs in the top of the
first.
That Friday seventh against
Toombs saw Bryant Scott and
Connor Thompson start the
inning with singles followed
by a Xander Kile walk. From
that situation only a one out BJ
Carver walk plated a run. Two
strikeouts and a ground out
accounted for the outs. SCHS
managed but four hits with two
of them in the seventh. A lone
error that came with two outs
and two on in the first led to two
of the three Toombs runs. Ren
Brower started and was the hard
luck loser while Gatlin Scott
entered in the fourth.
A trip to Louisville to face
Jefferson County also ended in
a frustrating loss. SCHS got a
pair of runs in the first on a pair
of hits (Jared Dixon and Bryant
Scott), a walk to Jake Pollock,
and Ryan Warren reaching on
an error. They increased their
lead to 3-0 when Pollock sin
gled in Kile in the second. The
Gamecocks scored no more and
had already recorded four of
their six hits. In fact over the
final five innings no Rooster
runner reached second base.
Jeffco scored two in the fourth,
one unearned, and then took
the lead with three in the sixth,
two unearned. Pollock took
the loss, pitching into the sixth
and probably deserving a better
fate. Dixon relieved one batter
into the sixth. The Gamecocks
went three up and three down
in the seventh, all by strikeout.
This week there was also a
scheduled trip to East Laurens
yesterday March 1. Also a
scheduled February 23 contest
in Augusta against Westside
was cancelled to be made up if
a date can be worked out.
A group of Gamecock baseball players: Xander Kile, Ryan
Warren, Elijah Williams, Jake Pollock, Danny Thompson, Ren
Brower, and Connor Thompson recently pitched in at the New
ington United Methodist Church to load a truck with supplies
bound for tornado victims in Mayfield KY. (photo supplied)
Centerfielder TJ Melvin stretches for a fly ball
against Washington County on February 19
(photo by Jamie Warren)
Senior lefty Ren Brower delivers a pitch against Toombs
County in Friday night's 3-1 loss to the Bulldogs,
(photo by Jamie Warren)
Tennis has
rough
trip to Savannah
- Burton Kemp
With two weeks since their
last match, the SCHS tennis
teams of Kyle Reynolds went
to Savannah’s Bacon Park last
Wednesday and lost a pair of
4-1 matches, the Lady Game
cocks to St. Vincent’s and the
Gamecocks to Benedictine.
Earlier this week the Red and
White took on AAA Burke
County and AAAAAA Eff
ingham County. On this Fri
day and Saturday the teams
will participate in the Veter
ans/Bleckley County Middle
Georgia Tennis Tournament.
The Middle Georgia Tour
nament field includes SCHS,
SEB, Bleckley County, Perry,
Early County, Telfair County,
Taylor County, and Stratford
Academy. After play in the
tournament SCHS will be
gin region play and early on
it will become obvious why
Reynolds’ early schedule in
cludes much larger programs.
Opening region opponents
are Jenkins County in Millen
on March 8 and Metter here
on March 9 and both are, like
the rest of 3A, weak.
Savannah’s Bacon Park has
enough courts for all play
ers to hit the courts at once
thus speeding up the ending.
Both SCHS teams had their
chances to win but did not.
This was especially true for
the Lady Gamecocks who got
a win at number two singles
from Lyla Johnson (6-4, 6-2)
but lost a match tiebreaker,
a pair of set tiebreakers, and
three 5-7 sets. Beyond John
son s scores were
Emma Webb (6-3, 1-6,
2-10), Samantha Fore
hand (6-7 (1), 5-7),
Madison Scott/Garyn
Howard (5-7, 5-7), and
Kathryn Davis/Emma
Rose Griner (6-7 (5),
1- 6). St. Vincent’s is in
Private Region 3A.
For the boys against
AAA Benedictine the
win came at number
three where Mason
Forehand claimed a
6-3, 6-3 win but there
was not another. Both
doubles were extreme
ly close with River
Reynolds/John Bo
swell losing 4-6, 5-7
and Zach Thompson/ Josh
Patel losing 0-6, 6-4, 7-10).
The other singles’ scores
were Attison Lee 5-7, 2-6 and
Thomas Milner 3-6,
2- 6). Both Lee and
Forehand were playing
in their first matches
since the end of basket
ball.
In the Middle Geor
gia Tournament SCHS
and SEB will play
in the opening round
with the outcome of
that match determin
ing the next opponent.
Both are paired with
the Bleckley County -
Perry match. All Satur
day matches will be at
the 22 court Houston
County Tennis Center
in Warner Robins. Both
will play at 11:00 am Satur
day morning.
Senior River Reynolds, one part of
the Gamecock number one
doubles team
(photo by Dana Doss)
Sophomore Lyla Johnson is
2-1 at number two singles,
(photo by Dana Doss)
