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Page 4 - Wednesday, December 20, 2023 The Sylvania Times thesylvaniatimes.com
SPORTS
WRESTLERS EXCEL IN DUBLIN’S
SHAMROCK SCUFFLE
LADY GAMECOCKS
STREAK TO 9-1;
CHRISTMAS BREAK ARRIVES
Down a pair of starters, the SCHS Lady Gamecocks
of Stephanie Davis nevertheless whipped homestanding
Southeast Bulloch’s AAAA Lady Yellow Jackets 46-17
last Saturday night to raise their record to 9-1 as they hit
Christmas break. Now officially off to the second best
start in SCHS history, the team will begin the meat of its
Region 3-A D1 schedule beginning with their next game
on January 5 and a trip to Pembroke to face the currently
unbeaten Lady Redskins of Bryan County. On January 6
SCHS will host nonregion Burke County before hosting
defending region champion Woodville-Tompkins’ Lady
Wolverines on January 9.
Trailing only the 2006-07 Lady Gamecocks of Jennifer
Acree, who started at 11-0 for the best start ever, the 2023-
24 version of the Red and White will now get to see their
response to the rigors of eight region games over their next
scheduled 12 games. Playing without junior Rayven Tyler
(ankle) and senior Aliliah Scott (flu), SCHS started rather
slow in Brooklet on Saturday night. Leading but 9-5 after
the first stanza, a 17-1 second quarter ended any thoughts of
an upset loss to winless SEB. Despite a horrible night from
the field and the foul line, the Lady Gamecocks prevailed.
Junior Olivia Jackson had 19 points. 13 rebounds, and eight
steals, while freshman Jaliah Roberts had 15 points to go
with nine rebounds, and seven steals. It was Jackson’s first
double-double. Kayla Oglesby had 11 boards.
Their return engagement with Jenkins County’s Lady
Eagles on December 15 proved a lot more difficult than the
contest in the Harold Lee Scott Gymnasium. That first game
was close until the early third stanza as SCHS led but 24-19
at intermission. Friday in the JCHS gym the game was close
until the final buzzer. The Red and White led by a nearly
identical score at the half, 21-18, but the homestanding
Blue and White came back this time to lead 41-38 after 24
minutes. The Gamecocks put on the pressure in the final
quarter to take a 46-42 win. In the crucial fourth Scott had
seven as did Roberts. On the night the latter had 19 and
the former 16. Tyler sat out
with an injury. Roberts had
another double-double as
she also pulled down 12
rebounds. Kadence Morris
had nine rebounds, Jackson
seven, and Oglesby six.
The last home game of the 2023 calendar year on
December 12 against Portal’s Lady Panthers was never
close. Less than 20 seconds into the game Scott had hit a
three-pointer and a very short time later Tyler hit for one
as well. By first quarter’s end the count was 27-7 SCHS.
A quartet of Lady Gamecocks broke double figures led by
Tyler’s 15. She was followed by Jackson’s 14 to go with
five rebounds, Roberts’ 12 to go with seven rebounds,
and Scott’s 11 to go with five rebounds. Still the Lady
Gamecocks were under 50% from the foul line at 8-20.
With a lineup limited to just eight
wrestlers, including two in one weight
class, the SCHS wrestling Gamecocks of
Griffen Greene had their best tournament
of the year in Dublin at the traditionally
bracketed Shamrock Scuffle last Friday
and Saturday. Missing several key team
members due to injury and illness, the Red
and White finished fifth from among better
than 25 teams. In a far cry from recent
tournaments, only one participating school
was larger than AA. The Roosters return to
the mat tomorrow and Friday in the Rumble
on the River in North Augusta SC. On
December 30 the team will be in the one-
day Bulldog Bash at Harlem High School.
Freshman Jason Newman was under the
spotlight at the end of Saturday as he won
the title in his 126 class by going 5-0 and
pinning GMC’s Nathan Mills for the title.
Along the way to the title match he pinned
Cain Williams of Irwin County, Harold
Park of Bulloch Academy, Bradley White
of East Laurens, and Jordan Sullivan of
Twiggs Academy. Right behind Newman
was senior Jemiah Stewart (190) who took
silver, losing to Telfair County’s Samuel
Grimes in the title match. Stewart went 1-1
in the prelims with a pin of Kelvin Serrant
of Dublin before being pinned by Jake
Brooks of Treutlen County. In the finals
bracket he won 11-1 over East Laurens’
Marquex Harris, 6-4 over freshman
teammate Breylon Daniels to put him up
against Grimes in the final.
Junior Kody Cochran (215) and freshman
Matt Sowell (144) each gained third place
over the weekend. Cochran went 4-2 during
the tournament, pinning Irwin County’s
Ahmad Fears for third. Sowell went 4-1,
pinning Irwin County’s Bob Merritt for
the bronze. Senior Jason Zheng (165) and
freshman Breylon Daniels each finished
fourth, each going 4-2 over the two days.
Daniels started 3-0 before meeting Stewart
in the semifinals. In the battle for third
place he lost to Treutlen County’s Jake
Brooks by a 2-0 score. It was Brooks who
also defeated Stewart in the prelims. Junior
Isaac Maust went 2-2 at 150 and sophomore
Brody Taylor went 0-2 at 175.
ABOVE: Pictured are the grappling Gamecocks who
participated in Dublin High School's Shamrock Scuffle.
Kneeling are Isaac Maust and Jason Newman. Standing are
Head Coach Griffen Greene, Assistant Coach Bo Viness,
Brody Taylor, Jason Zheng, Kody Cochran, Wyatt Sowell,
Jemiah Stewart, Breylon Daniels, and Assistant Coach John
Maust (photo by Anita Cochran)
RIGHT: Taking a season-high fourth in the 165 class over
the weekend was senior Jason Zheng (photo by Nikki
McFarland)
BELOW: Freshman Wyatt Sowell (144) went 4-1 and
took third place in the Shamrock Scuffle (photo by Nikki
McFarland).
LEFT: Lady Gamecock senior Aliliah Scott
drives to the lane (photo by Francina Sanders)
BELOW: Freshman Candice Scott picks up
Claxton's Zarriana Harden on defense (photo
by Francina Sanders)
TOUCHING ALL THE BASES
Burton Kemp
Unless otherwise noted all
articles in Sports are written
by Burton Kemp, Sports
As you read this week’s column, think this thought if
you want; today is my deadline for next week’s copy. It is
understandable as the deadline for getting copy to the printer
is this Friday. Everyone needs a Christmas holiday. There
will be no up to date sports (as up to date as is allowed by a
weekly) next week. There will be only history and another
version of Around the Horn on the page. Expect a wrap up
of SCHS athletics for the calendar 2023 year. But here I go
all over the place today with some thoughts on this and that.
GHSA state championships were last week from
Mercedes Benz. Did you happen to watch the Pierce County
v. Rockmark contest for the Class AA state title? Our old
region foe Pierce won 48-45 in three overtimes. It was
a game that was a lot of fun to watch. In addition to the
changing leads and all of the drama there was the fact that
the Pierce quarterback carried the ball 53 times. According
to the stats on the GHSFD he ran or passed on 61 of his
team’s 64 plays. Of course everywhere the quarterback is
the storyline. In my mind the real story of the game is the
offensive line and the backs who never carried the ball, but
instead blocked for the quarterback. When pretty much all
your offense does from the first snap until the last snap is
run quarterback right, quarterback left, and quarterback up
the middle and you score seven touchdowns (he did throw a
scoring pass), someone is doing some phenomenal blocking.
Give those guys up front each a game ball!!!
Writing that phrase QB left, QB right, and QB up the
middle reminded me of something from 30 years back.
Remember the 1994 state semifinal football game at Kelly
Memorial? One of the Bluebloods of GHSA athletics was
here. Of course that was the Lovett Lions. It was Saturday
night, December 10 and the Roosters routed Lovett 43-14.
Audrell Grace rushed a mere 19 times for 278 yards and
five touchdowns. Counting 51 yards passing, SCHS had
almost, but not quite, 500 yards of total offense that night,
on less than 50 plays. Audrell touched the ball less than 40%
of the plays. It was something that someone wrote on that
old Georgia Sports Vent (a lot of trouble and hurt feelings
over stuff written there) that has always stuck in my mind.
Someone wrote about Lovett and the respondent, obviously a
Gamecock fan, said “All we did was run Audrell Grace right
and Audrell Grace left and y'all couldn’t stop it.’’
Want to understand the problem that some folks (like
me) have with private schools playing against public
schools? Prince Avenue is a great example of the answer
to that question. Did you watch that team that went up
against Swainsboro last Monday for the Class AD-1 state
championship? Did you see the players on both sides of the
ball they rolled out? It is unbelievable that so much talent
exists at a school so small. Remember that they won the title
in 2022 as well. Here is the problem, Prince Avenue, which
will be playing in AA next year, has an actual FTE of 310
students. Of the schools in our next year’s region, Portal has
an actual FTE of 314. ECI’s is 327. Jenkins County’s is 328.
In terms of warm bodies in desks, PA would be the smallest
school in Region 3-A D2. How can any public school with an
actual school district ever put that roster together in a school
with so few students?
The NFL, maybe as well as all sports, is strangely fickle
sometimes. Last Thursday night the now Las Vegas Raiders
defeated their oldest of rivals, the now Los Angeles Chargers,
by an NFL (maybe AFL too) unimaginable 63-21 margin.
The score was 63-7 at one point. Just the week before the
Silver and Black had lost a horrible to watch (I didn’t) 3-0
(remember our horrible-to-watch 3-0 playoff loss to Pelham
three years ago?) contest to the Minnesota Vikings. Back
on October 1, the Chargers defeated the Raiders 24-17.
Thursday’s loss was so bad that Charger management fired
both the head coach and the general manager. The Raiders
did the same thing earlier this season. It cost them $85
million to terminate those contracts. The cost to the Chargers
for their head coach was a mere $4 million.
Did anyone else get the feeling that the GSU Eagles did not
want to play in the Myrtle Beach Bowl? Did anyone else
get the feeling that they did not want much to play the last
part of the season? Back to back 6-7 finishes. No backup
quarterback?
LET US PRINT YOUR
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