About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 2024)
thesy lvaniatimes. com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - Page 3 LADY GAMECOCK SOCCER OPENS STRONG Opening with a 5-3 win over a Savannah Christian team that owned a 14-0 all time record against them on February 5, the SCF1S Lady Gamecock soccer team of Terry Markovcic went on to defeat Johnson County 8-1 last Friday to start the season at 2-0. Starting at 2-0 for the ninth time in the past ten seasons, the Red and White go to Soperton tomorrow to face Treutlen County and will host Bryan County in the Region 3-A D1 opener on February 22. The 2023 opener was quite a match for the local fans who braved the uncomfortable conditions. Three times SCHS trailed SCPS and three times the Lady Gamecocks came back before finally taking the lead for good with just :17 remaining in the first half. At that point two-time First Team All-Region junior Kaylin Long put in a long range line drive to make the score 4-3 and the Red and White never trailed again. Along the way Long knotted the game at 1-1 (36:52) on a penalty kick. Freshman Anna Kate Withrow tied the game at 2-2 (19:27) after dribbling from near midfield. Maddison Mitchell again tied the game at 3-3 (7:32) off an assist from Long. Then, with the clock running down in the half came Long’s long range boot. Over the final 40 minutes both teams had several chances to score, but not until 13:55 remained did the home team score again. It was Withrow with another assist from Long that iced the game. Two time All Region goalie Julia Dews had seven saves. For long-time SCHS soccer fans the 5-3 win over Savannah Christian was quite meaningful. While the teams have not met since the 2010 season, they met twice annually (save for 2007) between 2003 and 2010. At that time classes AA and A played together in areas. The Lady Gamecocks, unlike all other bracketed sports on campus, were forced to play with St. Vincent’s, Savannah Country Day, and Calvary Day. For much of that time SCPS was a regular region game in other sports. Over that span the Lady Gamecocks were 0-14 against the Lady Raiders, scoring a single goal in those 14 games. In 2003 Courtney Hixson scored in a 12-1 loss. Friday’s win over visiting Johnson County carried with it little suspense as the Red and White scored four goals in each half while the Lady Trojans scored on their only shot of the game. The freshman Withrow had four goals, with the quartet of Mitchell, Annasto Dotschay, Long, and Lilly Doss having one each. Assists went to Long (2), Charlie Brannen, Sadie Beth Sell, and Mitchell. As the Savannah Christian goalie looks up, SCHS freshman Anna Kate Withrow celebrates her first varsity goal ([photo by Dana Doss) Left: Yes the ball is still live. Lady Gamecock Maddison Mitchell (6) tries to get the ball from under Lilly Doss (14) and continue play (photo by Dana Doss). 2024 SCHS LADY GAMECOCK SOCCER NUMBER NAME GRADE 2 Anna Kate Withrow 9 5 Kaleigh Nesmith 9 6 Maddison Mitchell 10 8 Sadie Beth Sell 10 10 Annaston Dotschay 10 11 Charley Brannen 11 14 Lilly Doss 11 17 Kaylin Long 11 18 Sadie Forehand 10 20 Rosa Campbell 9 21 Gracen Kullberg 12 26 Alyssa Foxworth 10 27 Emma Warren 11 29 Peyton Zeigler 9 GK 1 /2.3 Julia Dews 11 Savannah Christian's Lydia Amick (6) grimaces as Lady Gamecock Charlie Brannen's kick sails by (photo by Dana Doss) WRESTLING SENDS SIX TO MACON FOR STATE FINALS With six wrestlers qualifying for the state finals in the Macon Centreplex beginning tomorrow and finishing on Saturday, the SCHS Gamecock wrestlers of Griffen Griffen showed quite well for themselves this past Saturday. A very impressive feat on the day in the Class A Sectionals at Social Circle was that all of the eight participating SCHS wrestlers picked up at least one victory. The Class A finals matches in Macon will begin at 9:30 each morning (Thursday-Saturday). Single day passes are $15 with all-tournament passes being $35. Tickets are available at GoFan! only. On the day freshman Wyatt Sowell (144) went 4-1 and finished third as did senior David McFarland (157). Fourth place finishes went to freshman Jason Newman (126) who went 3-2 and senior Ryder Rankin (138) who went 2-2. Senior Jason Zheng (165) claimed fifth with a 4-2 record while senior Jemiah Stewart (190) went 3-3 and got sixth. Each qualified for the Macon. Of Sowell and McFarland, the former lost to the runner-up while the latter lost to the champion. To take third Sowell pinned Clayton McCrea of Jasper County, defeated Nathan Smith of Mt. Zion-Carrollton 16- 12, was pinned by Cale Prater of host Social Circle, pinned Jackson Gresham of Temple, and pinned Ronny Marlow of Heard County. McFarland pinned Alex MacKenzie of Whitefield Academy, defeated Aiden Carroll of Temple 17- 0, was defeated by Cade Parent of St. Francis 10-2, pinned Jaden Handsom of ECI, and pinned Lane Moran of Heard County. Of the others advancing to Macon, Newman picked up wins over wrestlers from Jasper County, Bryan County, and Pepperell. Rankin won over Mt. Vernon and Temple. Zheng had wins over Chattahoochee twice, Jasper County, and Heard County. Finally Stewart had wins over Whitefield Academy, Mt. Vernon, and Washington-Wilkes. Also in the brackets were junior Isaac Maust (150) who went 3-2 on the day with wins over Temple, Mt. Vernon, and Pepperell. He claimed seventh. Also picking up a win was senior Bo Doss (132) who picked up a win over Temple. Senior David McFarland (157) Senior Jason Zheng (165) Senior Ryder Rankin (138) Senior Jemiah Stewart (190) Freshman Jason Newman (126) Freshman Wyatt Sowell (144) AROUM0 THE 0&RN SOCCER GAINS A BIG WIN, BASKETBALL POSSIBILITIES, THE CHIEFS IN THE RAIDERS’ HOME, AND MORE Burton Kemp Unless otherwise noted all articles in Sports are written by Burton Kemp, Sports Editor Soccer defeated Savannah Christian in their season opener last week. A lot has changed since the Lady Gamecocks and the Lady Raiders last met on April 20,2010 at Kelly Memorial Stadium. On that date more than a decade ago the visitors scored a 3-0 win over our team. It was the 14th time the teams had met since 2003, the inaugural season of SCHS varsity soccer. SCPS won all 14 of those matches, 13 by shutout. Over those years the Lady Raiders outscored the Lady Gamecocks 93-1. When last Monday happened, in my mind, we had never scored on SCPS. I repeated, that to a lot of folks. I was wrong. On April 15, 2003 Courtney Hixson scored in a 12-1 loss. Twelve consecutive shutouts followed. Again a lot has changed. Savannah Christian has not won a playoff game since 2017. We have been to the quarterfinals three times in the last four completed seasons. We have won three consecutive region titles, going 27-1 in region play. We are playing who we should be playing - our regular region rivals for all other sports. They have been playing who they should be playing - for a time only private schools and, of late, much larger schools. Things are as they should be, not as they were in the first decade of this century. We might get run-ruled 10-0 when we go to Savannah on April 11 for the regular season lidcloser. I don’t know. For now we own a win over SCPS and it can never be taken away Unfortunately the win means nothing in 3-A Dl. By the time this is published we will know the results of the first round of the region basketball tournament. It was played at the Harold Lee Scott Gymnasium. We did figure out again last Friday in the game against Jefferson County just how poorly the gym is designed and how “nonfunctioning” it is with any type of crowd. Anyway, I am sure that yesterday the Lady Gamecocks coasted to a win over Claxton to assure themselves of their fourth consecutive state playoff berth. With a win tomorrow or Friday in the tournament finals in Metter, they will pick up just their eighth 20- win season in the 70+ seasons of SCHS. The boys hae never had one. The Gamecocks did have a great chance to get a win yesterday and assure an advance to state as well. It would be just their seventh ever. Hopefully playing at home helped. A Super Bowl thought. The Kansas City Chiefs were playing in the brand new palace of the Las Vegas Raiders. Did Darth Raider roll over in his grave? The Raiders - Chiefs rivalry goes back to the early days of the AFL. The Al Davis (aka Darth Raider) - Lamar Hunt rivalry began in 1963. Hunt, principal founder of the AFL, was the original owner of the Chiefs. Davis began with the Silver and Black in 1963 as the Head Coach and eventually became the managing general partner. Davis always blamed Hunt, very instrumental in the AFL-NFL merger, for Pete Rozell being the first commissioner of the consolidated AFL and NFL and not him. Did you know that in the first year of the AFL (1960) the Raiders and the 49ers shared Kezar Stadium? Though the two teams have never shared a conference, the short distance between the two cities (across the San Francisco Bay from each other) created a natural rivalry between the two. It is true that Las Vegas is a long way from San Francisco. I have not mentioned this but the GHSA finally did something about the problems associated with Dooly County’s treatment of the Jenkins County football team and the Jenkins County fans during their November 17, 2023 playoff game in Vienna. The amount of the fine will not be disclosed until the end of the year. An article by Joe Brady also reported that Dooly County has a recent history of rule breaking as they were fined three times in 2022 and two previous times in 2023. Three of the fines involved ejections, unsporting behavior, and fighting. Now that we will reside in Class A D2 beginning next fall and Dooly resides in Region 4, Class A D2, we could make a trip there.
