thesylvaniatimes.com
The Sylvania Times
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 - Page 9
JPO
[J
Burton Kemp
It was absolutely not as
planned. The Lady Game
cocks had not lost a region
soccer match since 2019 and
were 18-0 in 3A matches
over the past two seasons.
Both of those points came
to an end on the grass of
Kelly Memorial Stadium on
Senior Evening last Friday
with a stunning 2-1 loss to
Claxton. Nevertheless the
second consecutive region
championship became a real
ity with that game. The Red
and White still own every
potential tiebreaker with any
team. Also, with a win over
Portal yesterday, there was
an outright region champion
ship.
With the final regular season
soccer match having been
scheduled for yesterday,
the Lady Gamecocks must
now wait until April 18 to
play again, this time in the
state playoffs. Their first
round, April 12 contest, will
not happen as Region 1A
has no teams. On April 18
they will host the winner of
GMC (Region 7 #3) versus
either Manchester or Macon
County. Earlier in the season
the outcome of our contest
on the 18th was a foregone
conclusion, not after last
week.
Speaking of region win
ning streaks; let’s talk
Lady Gamecock tennis. As
they play for their second
consecutive Region 3A
championship in Claxton this
afternoon, maybe as you read
this, they are no doubt facing
the host Lady Tigers. Last
week SCHS defeated Clax
ton 3-2 to secure the number
one seed for this week’s
tournament. Realistically
this afternoon’s match could
go either way. Their final
regular season region record
was 5-0. Now we enter the
post season.
When was the last time the
Around
the horn
1 j
A TITLE IN HAND FROM LAST
WEEK, MAYBE TWO IN THE
HAND THIS WEEK
Lady Gamecock tennis team
lost a regular season region
match? It was March 25,
2004 to Appling County.
The Lady Pirates also de
feated SCHS for the region
championship later. Fast for
ward a few weeks in 2004.
Both Appling and SCHS
made the state semifinals
with the Lady Gamecocks
stunning the tennis world
with their defeat of seven
time defending state cham
pion Westminster to advance
to the state championship
where they lost to Lovett.
Appling lost to Lovett in
the semifinals In this entire
century the Lady Gamecocks
have lost three regular season
region matches (one per year
2002-04), all to Appling
County and in each case,
both teams advanced to the
Final Four.
This week’s top actual sports
story is the soccer team
winning a region title. Next
week’s top actual sports story
should be a pair of region
championships from the ten
nis teams.
A blast from the SCHS past
came out last week. Coach
BG Roberts passed away at
89 almost two weeks ago. I
write a few more details in
another place in the pa
per. Coach Roberts came
to SCHS when the public
schools in Screven County
totally integrated in 1970.
That was my eighth grade
year by the way. Before
that he was the Head Coach
of the Central High School
football Lions, the only
coach they ever had. In fact
he coached many sports at
the old CHS. Of course with
graduation in the spring of
1970, Central High ceased
to exist.
For years and years I said
that I was going to find
Coach Roberts (of course
he wasn’t lost) and sit down
and put together as much
as possible on the athletic
program at Central. I never
did. I have done so, so much
on SCHS and its predeces
sor Sylvania High. There is
a story to be told from the
other side of town as well.
BG Roberts was the man
who could have told that
story and I feel very sure that
he would have been glad to
have told that story. For me
there is an old saying, he
who hesitates is lost. This
time what is lost is history.
Two weeks ago it was long
time Brave Freddie Freeman
who exited the professional
sports scene in Atlanta for
Los Angeles. Last week it
was longer-time Falcon Matt
Ryan who exited the same
scene for Indianapolis. Like
Freeman, Ryan was loyal to
his team to the end. I have
fussed and fussed on many a
Sunday afternoon when Ryan
threw a pic down the stretch
and could not move out of
the way of a rusher. Matty
Ice was a long time ago. His
exorbitant salary (and that
of Julio Jones) prevented the
Falcons from signing big
name free agents of late and
there just wasn’t that much
return on that investment.
A couple of parting thoughts
on the exit of Matt Ryan- for
the past couple of seasons
the Falcons have been
terrible. No professional
caliber offensive line. This
past season no professional
caliber true receivers. Read
that to mean no one blocked
for him and no one got open
in the limited time he had to
throw. Just like the Braves
and Dodgers play this com
ing season, so do the Colts
and the Falcons. Things
could be interesting.
Lady Gamecock
Adairis Gomez (in
white) prepares for a
shot
on goal against Bryan
County, (photo by
Dana Doss)
Sophomore Gracen
Kullberg (21) drib
bles while a Bryan
County
defender races to
catch her. Fellow
Lady Gamecocks
Madison Powell (28)
and
Marly Moore look
on. (photo by Dana
Doss)
SOCCER UPSET BY
CLAXTON, STILL
CLAIMS REGION TITLE
at 2-2, SCHS at 2-4, and
Portal at 0-6. The Game
cocks have most cer
tainly had the toughest
early schedule with two
of their series against the
top two teams.
Against Westside the
Red and White took the
early lead on perfect
baseball- Jared Dixon
doubled, moved to third
on a sac bunt by eventu
al winning pitcher Ryan
Warren, and scored on a
sac fly by Bryant Scott.
Jake Pollock was the
starter and pitched into
the fourth, allowing a
single run. Elijah Wil
liams handled the rest of
SEE LOST page 10
-Burton Kemp
Despite a stunning upset at the hands of the visiting Claxton Lady Tigers on March 25,
the SCHS soccer Lady Gamecocks of Terry Markovcic nevertheless claimed their second
consecutive Region 3 A championship last week. Portal was here yesterday for the final
regular season contest of 2022 and the Red and White will not be back in action until
Monday, April 18 and the second round of the state playoffs when the winner of a first
round playoff match between the #3 team from Region 7 and the #2 team from Region 5
come to Kelly Memorial Stadium.
Through last weekend the 3A standings had SCHS at 8-1, MCA at 7-2, Claxton at 5-2,
Metter at 3-5, Portal at 2-6, and Bryan County at 0-9. The Lady Gamecocks owned the tie
breaker over MCA and Claxton as well as the tie breaker in the event of a three way tie.
MCA and Claxton met on Monday for what will most likely decide second and third while
Metter and Portal also met on Monday in what will most likely decide fourth place and the
final state playoff spot.
A Friday loss to Claxton was a continuation of the two previous games last week. In each
case SCHS missed several open shots and allowed opponents to “hang around” on the
scoreboard. In each case the final outcome, especially against CHS, was considerably
closer than the original score from the first region round robin. Claxton did more than
hang around.
While the contest at Kelly Memorial with the Lady Tigers was still scoreless the Lady
Gamecocks missed three seemingly easy one on one shots, each time merely kicking a soft
“grounder” directly to the goalie. Claxton broke through off a comer with 22:34 on the
first half clock but SCHS quickly tied the game on a long range shot by Mazlin Blessing
less than six minutes later. There were be no more points for the Red and White on 11
more shots, at least two directly in front of the goal.
Claxton score the game winner with 23:04 remaining as they blew straight down the
middle of the field for their winning points. SCHS outshot CHS 17-11 and Julia Dews
and eight saves, several of the spectacular variety. The game was senior night for Rhianna
Boddiford, Grace Cataffo, Emerson Kullberg, Emily Lariscy, and Sarah Mesecher.
The big win last week came on March 21 in a battle between a pair of top ten teams with a
2-1 win over visiting MCA in what was an extremely physical contest. The Lady Game
cocks scored twice in the first half and no more despite outshooting the Lady Bucs 27-10.
Emma Jones scored first off of a crossing pass from Blessing at 27:02 before Cataffo was
set up by a Kaylin Long comer at 14:40 of the first half. The Red and White had several
scoring opportunities but were unable to capitalize. MCA scored with 15:11 remaining in
the game following a free kick just outside the box. Dews had four saves.
On March 22 the team journeyed to Pembroke to take on last place Bryan County, a team
they defeated 7-0 the first time around. When Jones scored just 14 seconds into the game it
seemed like the goals were going to come faster than on February 25. They didn’t. Jones
scored again at 33:10 but the next score did not come for 45 minutes when Cataffo used
an assist from Blessing at 28:06 remaining. The 3-0 score there was the final. For 80
minutes the Red and White outshot Bryan 32-2 but could not pull away. Dews had one
save.
GAMECOCKS DOWN AA WESTSIDE,
LOST TOUGH PAIR TO METTER
-Burton Kemp
TJ Melvin prepares to uncork one in action against Class
A defending state champion Metter on March 22. (Photo
by Jamie Warren)
The baseball Game
cocks of Jim Randall
Doyle pushed across
four runs in the bottom
of the fifth to upset visit
ing AA power Westside
on March 23rd 5-3 and
then allowed defend
ing Class A state cham
pion four in the top of
the sixth to fall 5-4 on
Friday night, also in Syl
vania. Now done with
Metter for the season
in 3A action, the Game
cocks have a pair of re
gion games with ECI
this week as the team
has but one more nonre
gion game between now
and April 22.
For fans of the positives
the big game last week
was Westside, but there
were also a pair of much
improved performances
against Metter to look
at including the heart
breaking loss last Fri
day evening. Through
the weekend the region
standings showed Met
ter at 4-0, Bryan County
at 5-1, the trio of ECI
, Jenkins County, and
MCA all at 3-3, Claxton
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