About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2019)
Inside this section: Classifieds & Legals c Section October 10, 2019 Dragons take down region foe Raiders Last Friday night the Dragons continued in their quest for the 2019 playoffs by defeating another region opponent in Southeast Whit field. To open the game, Pick ens kicked off to the Raiders and then sent the defense out on the field looking to stop a solid Raider offense. They did just that, forcing a punt and putting the ball into the hands of the high-powered Dragon offense. The offense moved the ball deep into Southeast territory before stalling out and sending the kicking team on the field. Juan Sanchez connected on a 26 yard field goal and gave the Dragons a 3-0 lead to start the game. The Raiders once again gained possession, but this time they were able to drive the ball into scoring range. From 31 yards out the Raiders went to the air and found a wide re ceiver open down the hash for their first score of the photo/Eddie Donato Quarterback CJ Stretcher drags a defender into the endzone. The senior Quarterback accounted for six total touchdowns, three rushing and three through the air. night. The first quarter would Just four plays into the the first of six touchdowns on come to an end with the second quarter, CJ Streicher the night. The Dragons Dragons trailing 7-3. would find the endzone for would not surrender the lead again. On the ensuing Raider possession, the defense would hold strong and force a three and out. Two plays later, Streicher would call his own number again this time for a 77 yard touchdown run. The defense took the field and came up big for the Dragons. On a fourth down attempt in Pickens territory, Dylan Arp would come up with a big-time sack to give the ball back to Pickens at midfield. The offensive unit wasted no time in taking ad vantage of the change in pos session. Streicher went through the air to find Mykel Hand for the 37 yard touchdown. This would prove to be the final score of the half. Pickens went into the locker room with a 24- 7 lead over the Raiders. The Dragons received the ball to start the second half, but were unable to get any thing going on their first See Dragons on Page 2C Chandler Smith meets his goals in Indiana Chandler Smith went to Lucas Oil Raceway Indiana this past weekend for his final ARCA Menards Series race of 2019. Heading into the weekend the goals were set, win the race, win the lap led championship for his sec ond consecutive year and win See Smith on Page 2C Jr. High volleyball wins championship Pickens Jr. High School Nettes Volleyball won the school’s first Mountain Middle School Volleyball League tour nament at the end of September. Submitted by PJHS Volleyball After finishing the regu lar season with a record of 8-2 and tied for first in the region, the PJHS Nettes traveled to Lumpkin County on Saturday, Sept. 21 to compete in the 2nd Moun tain Middle School Volley ball League Championship Tournament. At the end of the tournament, they were the champions! The first match was against Clear Creek. The team won in two straight games, 25-12 and 25-13. The second game was against Fannin, a team they had split matches with dur ing the regular season. See Volleyball on Page 2C For details, please visit thejoyhouse.org, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Annual Golf Tournament" in the events section. Primitive weapons deer season opens October 12 The week- long primitive weapons deer hunting season opens Satur day, Oct. 12. Last year, al most 30,000 hunters took to the woods with muzzleload- ers, bringing in more than 5,000 deer, according to the Georgia Department of Nat ural Resources’ Wildlife Re sources Division (WRD). “Dust off that smoke pole, or your stick and string, and hit the woods because the primitive weapons season is a great time to hunt, and we are already seeing bucks ex hibiting pre-rut patterns,” said Charlie Killmaster, state deer biologist with the WRD Game Management Section. “Share Your Passion! Re member to find time during the season to introduce some one new to hunting and share your love of the outdoors with others.” Over one million acres of public hunting land is avail able to hunters in Georgia, in cluding more than 100 state-operated wildlife man agement areas. Many areas offer special hunts through out the season, including primitive weapons hunts. Dates and lo cations for hunts are avail able in the 2019-2020 Georgia Hunting Seasons and Regulations guide (http://georgiawildlife.eom/h unting/ regulations). Youth, under 16 years of age, may hunt deer with any legal deer firearm during Primitive Weapons Season, including during any wildlife management area primitive weapons hunts. “Oh, and with all the media coverage on deer dis eases lately, let’s cut through the confusion and talk facts,” says Killmaster. “To date, neither chronic wasting dis ease (CWD) or tuberculosis have been detected in Geor gia deer. However, there are circumstances where wildlife See Hunting on Page 2C Sports Fanatic By Tommy Gartrell Columnist Big Trouble With a 1-4 record to start this NFL football season, the Atlanta Fal cons find themselves in big trouble. Short of a miracle which could only be nine plus win finish, the will be considered by most fans as a total fail ure. The most significant part of this poor start is not exclusively the losses. The team looks bad too. Excessive penalties in dicate a lack of concen tration and discipline by the players during the first three games killed several promising drives. This issue reached a peak of 16 penalties three weeks ago. They were re duced to only seven in the last two contests, but the margins of loss increased. During the last game against Texas, the Fal cons were throttled 53- 32. Their inability to sustain offensive drives and total lack of a reliable running game is embar rassing. During the off season, the organization spent millions of dollars and two first round draft selections on offensive lineman, but the team cannot gain a yard or two at the goal line. The defense which was gutted by injuries last season is for the most part, healthy. Head coach Dan Quinn who built a reputation as a defensive guru at Seattle now per forms double duty as de fensive coordinator too, but the defense looks lost. At the least, it is awful and at best bad. Fans, journalists and radio personalities openly and loudly ask for Quinn’s firing and offer a bevy of justifications for his exit. Still, owner Arthur Blank insists that he still believes in his coaching staff. "Obviously, the coach ing is not where it needs to be. They're challenging themselves, questioning themselves, examining everything they know how to examine. That's all they can do is work re ally hard at it, take this as seriously as they can, and feel the pain,” said Blank on Sunday afternoon. In public, the owner must support his people, but in private, I wonder. I can only guess that Blank will hold his public position until the last Monday morning of the year. In the past, this owner has repeatedly ex pressed his reluctance to fire a coach during the season. However, unless the team improves dramati cally, I just do not see more than three or four possible victories among the remaining schedule. Inevitably, there will be a coaching change whether sooner or later because this team and the organization as a whole is in big trouble.
