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The Sylvania Times
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 - Page 9
MONDAY
Following their dominant 7-1
second round win over Georgia
Military College at Kelly Me
morial Stadium on April 18 the
reward for Terry Markovcic’s
Region 3A champion soccer
Lady Gamecocks was a trip
to Silverbacks Park in metro
Atlanta to face the defending
state champion and Region
6A champion Atlanta Classical
Academy Lady Cavaliers on
April 25. The winner of the
match faces the winner of Re
gion 8 champion Social Circle
and SCHS region foe Metter
(Region 3 #4) in one of the two
semifinal matches. That match
will be tomorrow, April 28 at
the home of the highest surviv
ing seed or the winner of the
GHSAcoin flip.
After gaining a bye in the first
round of the Class A state play
offs by virtue of Region 1 hav
ing no soccer teams, the Lady
Gamecocks hosted GMC’s
Lady Bulldogs (Region 7 #3)
who came to town following a
forfeit by Manchester (Region
5#2) in their first round contest.
For the Lady Gamecocks the
match represented the fourth
consecutive trip to the Sweet
16 as they sought a third con
secutive Elite Eight spot. The
Red and White scored quickly
when junior Mazlin Blessing
hit a long range shot two and a
half minutes into the game and
the home team never looked
back.
Putting together easily their
best game of the season the
home team realistically put
the game away when junior
Shay Sasser hit another long
range shot with 21:46 left in
the half. As GMC managed a
goal with just: 16 remaining the
Sasser win proved the winner.
The Lady Bulldog goal came
against virtually an entire sec
ond team defense.
Defender Madison Powell (28)
prepares to dribble down field
with MaKenzie Mitchell (6)
following and Sara Mesecher
(20) staying to defend, (photo
by Dana Doss)
SCF1S built its halftime lead to
5-0 with goals by freshman Kay-
lin Long (15:51), senior Emer
son Kullberg (11:37) and fresh
man Charlie Brannen (8:11)
off a comer from Blessing. The
second half saw goals by Long
(22:08), and junior Erin Thomp
son (2:37) before GMC’s cos
metic score. Freshman goalie
Julia Dews had saves on seven
of the visitor’s 13 shots. The
Lady Gamecocks took 19 shots.
In the matchup in Atlanta were
featured the third ranked team
in the state (both Maxpreps and
Eurosports) in the 11-3 Lady
Cavaliers and fourth ranked
(Maxpreps)/ fifth ranked (Euro
sports) 14-2 Lady Gamecocks.
Classical reached the quar
terfinals with wins over Lake
Oconee Academy 8-0 and John
son County 11-0. A season ago
Classical, the Region 6 runner
up, defeated its region foe Ar-
muchee (Region 6 #1) for the
state title. In the semifinals they
defeated Towns County, who
had previously defeated SCHS
2-0, by a 4-1 margin.
Freshman goalie Julia Dews (1), with seven
shutouts this season, prepares to uncork a
targeted throw while GMC’s Emma Evans
and Lady Gamecock Marly Moore (13) head
down field. GMC broke the shutout with just
:16 remaining, (photo by Dana Doss)
GMC goalie Raeley Wolfe goes as
high as possible but cannot bring
down the long arching shot of Shay
Sasser (15) to give SCHS an insur
mountable 2-0 lead on their way to
their 7-1 win. This goal came at the
21:46 mark of the first half, (photo
by Dana Doss)
■
With a pair of shut out wins over visiting Marion County on April 21, the
Gamecock and Lady Gamecock tennis teams of Kyle Reynolds, each the 3A
champion, advanced to the GHSA Class A quarterfinals once again. The Elite
Eight matchup for each will come against the winner of an April 25 doubleheader
between Johnson County (4A #2) and Trion (6A #1). The quarterfinal match
must be completed by May 3 and will be at the home of the highest seed. Should
Trion win a GHSA coin flip on Monday decided the home team. It is possible for
one SCHS team to end up on the road while the other is at home.
Last week the tennis boys, the 2021 state runners-up, were most impressive with
5-0 and 4-0 wins and a set lead in the only individual match not completed. On
Thursday the Red and White started the match
with a 1-0 lead as MCHS had no number two
doubles team. The number one doubles team
of John Boswell/Jeremiah Stuart topped num
ber one singles Attison Lee in the race for the
second win with Lee getting the third. Both
were 6-0, 6-0. Thomas Milner managed to fin
ish his 6-0, 6-1 win before Mason Forehand
was pulled up 6-3 and the second set not hav
ing started
For the Lady Gamecocks, in the state playoffs
every year this century which has had playoffs,
the trip will mark the 19th time since 2000 the
team has made it at least this far. Only in 2019,
2016, and 2012 has the team failed to advance
beyond the Sweet 16 but there were some quiv
ers on Thursday. The wins came easy with
Emma Webb winning 6-1, 6-2 at number one
and the doubles teams of Madison Scott/ Garyn
Howard (6-1, 6-1) and Samantha Forehand
(6-0, 6-2) also winning easily. The other two
matches, which were both pulled, had Lyla
Johnson at 6-2, 3-6, 1-1 and Emma Rose Gri-
ner at 0-6, 2-5.
In less than an hour the Gamecocks disposed
of their opening round opponent Baconton
Charter on April 19. Baconton, the fourth seed
from Region 1A elected to make the five hour
trip to Sylvania where as Pelham, the fourth
seeded girls’ team from the same region, elected to forfeit
rather than make the trip. Baconton and Pelham are both in
Mitchell County. Lee quickly set the tone winning 6-0, 6-0
in 40 minutes followed by the almost simultaneous wins by
Milner (6-0, 6-0) and the number two doubles of Josh Patel/
Stuart also by 6-0, 6-0. River Reynolds/Boswell and Fore
hand finished at 6-0, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-0 respectively.
As for the possible quarterfinal opponents, both the Lady
Gamecocks (4-1) and Gamecocks (3-1) defeated Johnson
County in the second round of state in 2021. Trion was
the Region 6A runner-up in boys and girls a year ago. The
boys lost 3-0 in the second round to a Telfair County team
the Gamecocks defeated 3-2 the following round while the
Trion girls lost to Commerce in the second round. The Lady
Gamecocks are now 14-7
and the Gamecocks 12-9.
First off for the Lady
Gamecocks in their 3-0 win
over Marion County was
the number one doubles
team of Madison Scott (L)
and Garyn Howard who
defeated Marion's Mollie
Johnson and Kaylie Zamar-
ripa by a 6-1, 6-1 margin,
(photo by Dana Doss)
Following his 6-0, 6-0 win Gamecock number
one singles play Attison Lee shakes hands with
Marion County's Anthony Titow. (photo by
Dana Doss)
First off in their
team's 4-0 win over
Marion County last
week was the number
one doubles team of
Jeremiah Stuart (red
left) and John Bo
swell who defeated
Will Howard and
Landen Morrison
6-0, 6-0. (photo by
Dana Doss)
Lady Gamecock
freshman Kaylin
Long goes one on
one with GMC
freshman goalie
Raeley Wolfe on
April 18. Long won
the dual and scored
with 22:08 left in
the game, (photo by
Dana Doss)
-Burton Kemp
-Burton Kemp
DEFENDING STATE
CHAMPIONS ON
TENNIS TEAMS ROLLS
PAST MARION COUNTY
SOCCER FACED
Around
the horn
3
Let’s Touch Base on a
lot of Things
Burton Kemp
I can’t think of one or
two big topics for this
week. The GHSA did
nothing to help private
schools at the expense
of public schools, espe
cially we small public
schools. We have won
all of the region cham
pionships that we are
going to win this year.
The only question now
is how deep we can go
in the state playoffs. As
a school we have won
six region/area cham
pionships this year.
Not bad. Anyway, here
we go Around the Horn:
Spring football will start
on May 2 and Ron Dun
can will begin finding
the right people to put
in the right positions.
There will be new faces
on the practice field, a
lot wearing helmets and
a few doing the coach
ing. With a lot of in-
eligibly among students
there will be those sup
posed to be in pads miss
ing and there have been
some coaches move on
to new jobs and they
will be missing. There
will not necessarily be
new faces filling those
slots as of yet. “One of
the great things about
what we have done has
been the ability to keep
this staff together,”
said Duncan. “It’s un
heard of, but sometimes
change is good.”
Remember a year ago
when a boys’ golf team
suddenly appeared, went
to the 3A tournament,
got third at that tourna
ment, and then finished
tenth in the state tourna
ment. Only one mem
ber of that team gradu
ated so everything was
set to maybe move up
in the standings. Right?
Wrong! The region
tournament date for this
year happens to fall on
the date that finds one
potential golfer taking
an AP exam and another
three taking East Geor
gia College finals. Nei
ther of those academic
events is going to get
moved for the Region
3A golf tournament. Oh
well.
Speaking of the stand
ings for the Georgia
Athletic Director’s Cup,
SCHS currently leads
Region 3A over ECI
265-202. The Lady
Gamecocks, who won
the 3 A cup last year, lead
ECI 171-149, while the
boys are second to Met
ter 144-94. The girls
will win their second
straight; both tennis and
soccer have advanced to
the quarterfinals, worth
70 points each. The
boys will not catch Met
ter. The Tigers will ad
vance deep in both base
ball and golf while our
boys will advance deep
in only tennis. Overall
in region, SCHS will
probably finish second
to Metter again. On
the strength of the girls
successes the SCHS
program ranks ninth in
the state with the boys
being 20th and the girls
being seventh. If only
we could get something,
other than wrestling
and tennis, out of our
male athletes. That
would be nice regard
less of the GADA Cup
or not.
Up in Lynchburg VA
Kara Canetto is heat
ing up. In her last six
games (through Sun
day) she is 11-17 and
has raised her average
to .331. A 2021 First
Team All-Atlantic
Sun player, included
in her streak is a 2-3
night against #11
Duke. Liberty is cur
rently 35-13 and 18-0
in ASun
tl 3 Vfest Ogeeehee Street. Sylvania. Georgia 3D4G7
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