About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2022)
Wednesday, October 19,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3B Spooky food recipes as Halloween approaches Halloween is right around the corner! Of course that means candy sales are up and parents everywhere are making sure their little goblins have costumes ready to go for the big night of trick-or- treating. This is the perfect time to head to the kitchen to whip up some spooky food. Here are some fun recipes that your chil dren or grandchildren are sure to love. Mummy Dogs • 1 can crescent dough • 3 slices American cheese • 12 hot dogs • 2 tablespoons melted butter • Dijon or yellow mustard Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Separate the crescent dough into 4 rectangles. Pinch the seams to secure. Cut each rectangle into thin strips. Cut the cheese slices into 4 strips each. Place a hot dog on top of a strip of cheese and then wrap the crescent strips to look like bandages around the hot dog and cheese. Place on parchment paper and then brush with melted butter. Bake for 15 min utes until golden brown. Use a tooth pick to dot mustard on for the eyes. Serve with more mustard for dip ping. Vampire Cookies • 1 tube chocolate chip cookie dough • 1 can vanilla frosting • Red food coloring • Mini marshmallows • Slivered almonds Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll cookie dough into 1 1/2 -inch balls and place them on baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool completely on a rack and then cut in half lengthwise. Add a few drops of red food coloring to vanilla frosting, stirring to combine. Spread a thin layer of now red vanilla frosting onto each cookie half. Place mini marsh mallows around the round edges of half of the halves of cookies. Place the remaining cookie on top and then stick slivered almonds on each side to create fangs. "Dirt" Pudding • 2 packages instant chocolate pudding • 3 cups whole milk ■ 2 cups heavy cream ■ 14 cup powdered sugar ■ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ■ 1 (14 ounce) package Oreos, crushed and divided Gummy worms In a bowl, whisk together pudding mix and milk. Let sit for 5 minutes. Using an electric mixer, combine heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream and 1/3 of the crushed Oreos into the pud ding mixture. Divide into clear glass es and top with more crushed Oreos and some gummy worms. Monster Eyeball Truffles • 1 (14 ounce) package of Oreos • 1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened • 1 cup finely chopped Snickers bars • Vi cup Reeses Pieces, chopped • 1 'A cups white chocolate chips • 2 tablespoons coconut oil • Green gel food coloring • Candy eyeballs • Purple sprinkles In a food processor, pulse Oreos until fine. Pour into a bowl. Add cream cheese and mix to combine. Add Snickers and Reeces Pieces. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a small cookie scoop, form “dough” into small balls and place on parchment paper. Freeze until hardened, about an hour. Combine white chocolate chips and coconut oil and microwave for a few minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Add 10 drops of green food coloring and stir to combine. Dip frozen cookie balls in chocolate mixture and arrange on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press a candy eyeball onto the topside and then add purple sprinkles . Freeze for 30 minutes. "Eyeball" Meatball Pasta • 1 pound ground beef • !/2 onion, minced • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 14 cup parsley, minced • 1 egg, lightly beaten • 14 cup Panko bread crumbs • 1 teaspoon salt • Vi teaspoon pepper • 1 pound spaghetti • 1 Vi cup favorite marinara sauce • Sliced black olives • Mozzarella slices, cut into small rounds • Parmesan, grated Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine ground beef, onion, garlic, parsley, egg, Panko, salt and pepper. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 min utes, until cooked through. Meanwhile, cook pasta in plenty of salted, boiling water until done. Drain. Top each cooked meatball with a round of mozzarella cheese and top with an olive slice to resemble an eye. Toss cooked and drained pasta with marinara and then top with meatballs and sprinkle with parmesan. Marshmallow Spiders • 6 marshmallows • 48 pretzel sticks • 1 cup white chocolate chips • 1 teaspoon coconut oil • 16 candy eyes Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, add white chocolate and coconut oil. Microwave until melted, stirring every 30 sec onds. Dip pretzels into white choco late and place on parchment paper and refrigerate until firm. Use white chocolate to “glue” the candy eyes to the marshmallows. Dip the bottoms of the marshmallows in the white chocolate. Press the pretzels into the marshmallows to make the spider “legs.” Freeze for 20 minutes or so. Ghost Bagel Pizzas • 8 mini bagels, split in halves • Vi cup favorite marinara • 8 slices mozzarella • 4 black olives, chopped into small pieces Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut mozzarella slices into ghost shapes, or use a small ghost cookie cutter. Spread marinara onto bagels. Top with cheese ghost. Bake until melty, about 12 minutes. Use olive pieces to make eyes. ADLEN ROBINSON Columnist Lady Tigers’ season ends in region tourney By Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com In an elimination game at the Region 7-3A tour nament, Dawson County softball’s junior pitcher Layne Bailey stood on the mound laser-focused on helping her team put up a fight against a strong White County team who had beaten the Lady Tigers twice already this season. Bailey — and the defense behind her — did exactly that, making clutch play after play to keep the Lady Warriors at bay. Whether it was catcher Bryce Greenwood throw ing a runner out at second base to help keep White at one run or a lineout catch by Calleigh Lamb that she turned into a dou ble play, the defense was ready to assist Bailey in any way they could. With every play made, the Dawson dugout became louder — and belief spread that an upset win was possible. “I told [the players] when we got out there that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team come as far as this team has,” head coach Justin Rickett said. “Two weeks ago [White] beat us 17-0.” The only problem was that the Lady Warriors were able to keep Dawson limited on offense through a combi nation of their own clutch plays and missed oppor tunities by the Lady Tigers. After scoring one run in the first inning, White stayed in front until the fourth inning when the bats got warm for Dawson. Freshman Sadie Dotson hit an opposite-field dou ble that was followed up by a Greenwood single. Sophomore Micah Burruss drove Dotson in with an RBI groundout. Dawson would have multiple scoring opportu nities after that but came up just short on capitaliz ing. From flyouts to groundouts to sharply hit line drives, every ball found a line directed right at the defense. Yet the score would remain stuck at one run apiece, as Bailey became more locked down the further the game pro gressed. Eventually, the game reached extra innings after neither team could bring a runner home. Dawson had the first major chance, placing runners on first and third in the top of the eighth inning. A dropped pop fly gave speedster Ace Cochran a chance to score, but a strong throw by the opposing shortstop got to the catcher in time. Bailey continued into extra innings with no sign of fatigue, continuing to pile on the strikeouts. One last chance present ed itself for the Lady Tigers in the ninth inning, with the go-ahead run on base with two outs. A long fly ball hit by Lauren Kurtz fell just short of hit ting the wall, with the out fielder catching it with lit tle room left to run. An opening triple by the Lady Warriors in the bot tom half of the inning put Dawson on the ropes, and on the next at-bat, White would hit a walk-off RBI hit to end the Lady Tigers’ season with a 2-1 defeat. For Rickett, the team’s resolve to win the previ ous tournament game against West Hall and the overall improvements made since a difficult start to the season was a testa ment to the team’s charac ter. “From where we’ve come from to come to the region tournament and play three games that were all walk-off games...I’m so proud of these kids and the way they fought and battled,” Rickett said. “We hit the ball hard and [White] did too. We gave up the one run but [Bailey] kept them right there until the ninth.” The head coach also credited the support of the parents and community for helping support and uplift the team during the season. “Anybody that was in the ballpark tonight can tell you that high school sports matter and they will continue to matter,” Rickett said. “Eve never seen a community like the Dawson community get behind a team when it’s playoff time. They did it last year, they did it again this year and I’m looking forward to them doing it again next year.” FROM 1B Football stood at 24-17 and momentum had firmly shifted to the Wolves. With their backs against the wall, the Tigers came out on the next possession with an immediate response. Glass rolled out and found his trusty receiver Dominic LeBlanc for the second time in the game — this time on a 72-yard connection to tie the score at 24 with nine minutes remaining. After regaining posses sion in good field position following a poor punt, the Tigers looked determined to finish the game off. A 35-yard pass from Glass to Sawyer Bearden set up Dawson around the 6-yard line, with Glass eventually pushing the pile forward on the goal line to score. Wesleyan would make progress on their next drive and would head well into Tigers territory. But with around 50 sec onds left in the game, Kevin Haymond came up with a fourth-down sack to help Dawson seal a sixth win of the season and maintain an undefeat ed record in region play. Before the scoring fren zy from both teams in the second half, Dawson had scored on a screen pass from Glass to LeBlanc followed up by Kade Moledor touchdown run that was set up by a deep pass to Hunter Casserleigh. With just over a minute left, Wesleyan caught the Dawson defense off guard and used a 50-yard pass to help fuel a scoring drive to cut the deficit in half going into halftime. The Tigers fumbled the ball to begin the second half to set up a Wesleyan field goal, with the Wolves later taking a 17-14 lead on another long pass. Dawson hit a chip shot field goal to tie the game before both team would trade scores in the fourth quarter. Next week, the Tigers will host their regular sea son home finale against Gilmer. The Bobcats most recently faced an upset loss to Pickens, leaving them at a 2-2 region record. A scrappy race horse from the mountains One of my favorite days is always the first Saturday in May when hundreds of private jets land in Louisville, Kentucky, and limousines arrive for a ride over to beauti ful Churchill Downs. The Kentucky Derby has delivered some of the best sto ries in sports history. Winners become losers. Losers become winners. And, on rare occasion, a hero emerges to inspire the world to believe that, on any given day, anyone can win. Seabiscuit, a star that inspired two movies and a mon strous bestselling book, brightened American hearts in the darkest days of the Great Depression. On Derby Day, I start watching at 11 a.m. and, although no woman loves hats more than I do, it’s not the remark able creations that draw me. It’s the stories behind the animals. I listen to them all then decide which horse I will be cheering. In the last Derby, an owner, family and trainer, were grinning ear-to-ear early that morning. “It’s hard to believe we’re here!” The horse, Rich Strike, had not made the race. They were preparing to load him when another horse had to be withdrawn from the 21-horse field. Rich Strike was entered with less than 60 seconds of entry time left. It wasn’t just their childlike enthusiasm that grabbed me. I saw something familiar that felt like home. They weren’t expensively dressed nor spoke in sophisticated language. We country folks can spot each other from across a crowded, hay-filled bam. They were off to the races and Rich Strike was last — but he was my horse and I was sticking with him, training my eyes to focus on him in a mashup of bobbing hats and long legs. It wasn’t looking good. Rich Strike was running 17th as he came out of the final turn. Then, magic happened. He gritted his bit. His eyes fired up wildly and his skinny legs took off in a ran that looked more like a bumble than a gallop. It wasn’t finesse. It was determination. The other horses trotted gallantly, elegant ly. Not Rich Strike. Again, something looked wildly familiar. “Tink, look at that horse stomp. It looks like a back- woods boy who is runnin’ away from the mountains as fast as he can go.” I’ve rewatched his astounding, history-making victory dozens of times. I know that run. I know that desperation. I know that disregard for the rules or a refusal to bow to the higher classes. I’ve witnessed it many times. As it turned out, there was a stark Appalachian story in Rich Strike’s past. His trainer, Eric Reed, is the son of a man named Herbie who, too, is much loved in the racing world. His son insisted that his father, his hero, share Victory Lane. They cried. Again, I saw a kinship I felt I shared with them as though they were blood related. Three weeks later, Tink found a story in Sports Illustrated and forward ed it to me. It explained my intuition. Herbie grew up in dirt-poor hopelessness, in the cruel Appalachians. His mother died when he was five then, at age 9, he hitched a ride on a cattle buck and left behind the hollers where his bloodline ran deep like a vein of rusted silver. “I came up by myself,” Herbie Reed told the magazine. At 14, he was working in the horse business then, later, teaching his son about the magnificent beasts who seem simple but, yet, are so complex. What I saw that day was the truth — Rich Strike had been ingrained with a scrappiness that only a mountain survivor can fathom. I know because I am the daughter of a man much like Herbie Reed. He ran from those mountains at the age of 13, racing at a full gallop into a better life. Desperation has a different gait than discipline. That’s how I was able to recognize our people in that horse. Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should). Visit www.rond- arich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter. FROM 1B Elliott as far as 13th before spending the majority of his day right around where he finished. He could hardly be blamed for already having Miami on his mind post race. “I just did a really bad job,” Elliott said. [We were] obviously missing something at a place like this to compete with the gentlemen who know what they’re doing. Homestead’s definitely dif ferent but I need to re-eval- uate myself in general to have a shot next week.” Despite picking up just 16 points from the race, Elliott remains third among the eight remaining playoff drivers. He now sits one point behind Ross Chastain, who finished in second behind Logano at Las Vegas. Elliott is nine points clear of Denny Hamlin, who is currently the final driver above the Championship 4 cut line. Below him are William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell. Bell, who won at the Roval last week, had his Vegas run cut short after becoming caught in the crossfire of a retaliatory move made by Bubba Wallace on Kyle Larson. Elliott and the No. 9 team will look to bounce back at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Dixie Vodka 400 on Sunday, Oct. 23. The race will be at 2:30 p.m. on NBC. FROM 1B Volleyball even the season series at two matches apiece. “I didn’t think that we kept our energy level con sistent throughout the three sets,” Porter said. “We put a lot into that first set [and] the emotions were really high. I thought we played a good second set [but] once we lost the lead we weren’t able to get it back.” Dawson would then defeat Gilmer 25-13, 25-20 in an elimination match to clinch a state playoff spot and play Thursday. The Lady Tigers, now with a 26-17 record, travel to Dacula to play Hebron Christian Academy. The winner of that match will face either Sandy Creek or Coahulla Creek.
