About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2022)
thesy lvaniatimes .com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, November 9, 2022 - Page 11 SPORTS “Winning isn’t everything-but wanting to win is.” — Vince Lombardi 1/1 TT 'MTfiffiB, OTM ri/i rd 1 LIE l/i r\Jl LT§ €WmW©KD m With an extra day to smooth their feathers after a 44-0 Thursday night loss to homestanding Metter’s Tigers in the Class A Region 3 Di championship, the Screven County gridiron Gamecocks of Head Coach Ron Duncan will host the 4-A Di third seeded Crawford County Eagles this Friday in the first round of the GHSA Class A Distate playoffs. The game will represent the first state playoff game at Kelly Memorial Stadium since November 24, 2017 and a quarterfinal loss to Rabun County. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 and the Roosters will have on the line a ten game unbeaten streak in first round games at the local stadium under the current 32-team playoff format. Coming in at 8-0 last week in the title tilt in Metter’s home stadium dubbed The Jungle, the Gamecocks hoped to pull the upset against the highly favored and three time defending region champions. It did not materialize. After an exchange of punts to open the game Metter scored on their next six possessions to lead 44-0 at third quarters’ end. Included within their drives were seven plays of 20 yards or longer. On the night the Roosters were held to 95 total yards with their deepest penetration being the Metter 37. Against the Dirty Bird defense, which had allowed 32 points in their first eight games, the MHS Wing-T had 415 yards rushing and 473 total yards. In contrast to Metter, the Region 4-A Di third seeded Crawford County will come into Sylvania with a 3-7 record but fresh from a stunning 39-28 win over Miyon Fulcher (21) and Luke Bohannon (12) try to bring down a Metter runner (photo by PJ Richards) 40-point favorite Temple last Friday in what was a battle for third place. Crawford, which hails from Roberta though the county seat is Knoxville, does not bring a storied history to town, at least not in the 21 st century. Their glory years were 1994-98 when they won their lone region championship (1996) and played in a pair of Class A semifinals but there has been just one state playoff game since 1998. A fourth seed from Region 7A a season ago (and loss to Macon County) ended a 23 year playoff gap. The Eagles’ season opened with four straight losses to ACE, Taylor County, Wilkinson County, and Central Fellowship Christian Academy of Macon as they gave up 192 points in those games. Their two nonregion wins followed over GSIC (0-10) 60-0 and Twiggs County (2-8) 44-20. After a 41-22 loss to region foe Heard County, they fell to Brookstone 48-21 in a non region contest and then 4A champion Lamar County 36-14. There is the common opponent in GSIC which cannot be used as an indicator of anything. Friday the Maxwell computer made them 40 point underdogs in their Friday matchup with Temple (4-6) that was for third place. CCHS showed just how meaningless the prediction was. For nine games Crawford’s offensive success started and ended with 6-4, 210 senior quarterback Judd Pinckney who has passed for over 1,500 yards. Through their first nine games the Eagles had rushed for fewer (1,347) yards than SCHS (1,433) and their leading rusher Terrel Ashley had 674. They run from TaCorey Grant tries to wrestle the ball away from Metter fullback Antwan Coney (photo by PJ Richards) a spread offense. Last Friday Head Coach Craig Puckett added a wrinkle that early on Temple was unable to stop. He took leading rusher/receiver (34- 604) Ashley, put him in the “wildcat” formation, and ran him nine straight times on the opening drive. The Dirty Birds will have to stop this new wrinkle. By night’s end the Eagles totaled better than 400 total yards, well over 200 on the ground. Defensively CCHS runs from a four man front most of the time. With the regular season done for SCHS, freshman Andre Michaud leads the team in carries and rushing with 96-576 (6.0) and seven scores. Miyon Fulcher (48-193), Jake Pollock (35-141), Justin Smith (36- 133) and Dalton Kay (25-125) are other rushers over 100. Pollock is 43-76-4 for 667 yards and six TDs. TaCorey Grant (18-212) and Dylaun Adams (17- 394) are the leading receivers. Defensively Adam Lingerfelt is the leading tackier, being in on 57 (18-39 with 5 tfl)). Other leaders are Vasquez Lonon (17-33 with 6.5 tfl), Smith (17-30), Michaud (17- 26 with 11 tfl), Jemiah Stewart (11-20 with 6 tfl), and Miyon Fulcher (13-18 with 10 tfl). Quarterback Jake Pollock carries the ball in action in Thursday's Region 3-A championship game (photo by PJ Richards) AROUND THE HORN If you have been out and about the universe trying to negotiate a trade deal with some high level Ferengi dealer and just got back in town, then you may not know that the Screven County football Gamecocks host a first round state playoff game against Crawford County this Friday. Now you know. Do you also know that the Roosters have been very successful in first round matchups at Kelly Memorial Stadium? Hopefully that bodes well for this week. How about some state playoff history from Kelly Memorial Stadium? Under the current format of 32 teams into the playoffs, which began in 1996, we have made the playoffs 19 times including this Friday. Of those 19 trips, this will be the 11 th first round game in Sylvania. We are 10-0 in the first ten home games. Only two of the previous games have been as a number two seed (2003 and 2015). We have beaten Dodge County and Jefferson County twice each and boast one win each over Jackson, Bacon County, Monticello, Bryan County, Toombs County, and Washington County. All but Jackson and Monticello have been in our region at some point in my adult life. Crawford County will add to that short list of totally new faces in Sylvania for the first round. On the other side of the coin, unfortunately we are 1-7 in first round games on the road. The one win came in the first year of this format and that was the 56-42 win in Eastman KELLY MEMORIAL STADIUM HAS BEEN REALLY GOOD FOR EARLY ROUND STATE PLAYOFFS Burton Kemp over Dodge County. We were a number three seed then as we were in 2007. For the other six we were a number four. So you know, there is a pretty good chance that we will not be able to make a regular broadcast of the game Friday night on our Gamecocktv. As of lunchtime on Monday, there will definitely be an audio-only broadcast. It will be on YouTube like normal, just no picture. Once you hit the playoffs if any school involved in a playoff contest is a member of the National Federation of High Schools Broadcast Network that school “has exclusive rights to any state playoff event it wishes to put on its network.” Why are we not a member? To watch a game an individual must have a subscription. That subscription is $11.99 per month or $79.99 per year. As of yet we are not comfortable forcing folks to pay that in order to watch the Gamecocks. Gamecocktv is free. Sometimes I think that folks forget that. Get to the game Friday. The unbeaten ranks went from 22 to 19 at regular season’s end. Troup, Lambert, and Screven County fell from those ranks. Among the preseason favorites (by the GHSFD) to go undefeated who did were Cedartown, Colquitt County, Prince Avenue Christian, Darlington, and North Oconee. There were the only five who entered with a better than 90% chance. The team with the least chance was Thomas County Central (5.1%). Remember we had a 3.7% chance. Swainsboro, number two ranked, had a 13.2 % chance. Worthy of notice is that last Friday night’s game in the Pecan Grove was scheduled to be the last football game there. It has been the home of the Claxton Tigers for 76 years. As a historian it is an awesome place. It is like taking a step back in time. You can feel the history. Football when not everyone wore a helmet. When they had a helmet it certainly did not have a face mask. My dad played there when it was brand new in 1946. As a radio guy, web cast guy, a coach, a camera guy, a visiting fan, and most anything else, the stadium is horrible. According to Claxton officials, their flag football and soccer teams will continue to play there. The 3-Av. 4-A playoffs did not evolve into the GHSFD predictions when Crawford County beat Temple. It is Metter (44-0 over SCHS) hosting Temple (39-28 losers to Crawford) and SCHS hosting Crawford. 4-A champion Lamar County (42-0 over Heard County) will host Claxton (40-19 losers to Bryan County) and Heard County hosting Bryan County. I mentioned Jeffco last week and their playoff chances. In double overtime they beat East Laurens 47-41. The continued their playoff streak that dates to 2002. WE PRINT T-SHIRTS, HATS & SIGNS ! ALSO VISIT OUR NEW CHILDRENS CONSIGNMENT SHOP
