About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2022)
EH Sports ■ n IV A LIST AND SELL WITH NEIGHBORS! Joel Neighbors Jane Neighbors 770.894.7970 770.893.7653 August 25, 2022 &More f#qj Jnite.. . ountry' REALTORS (B Kids News, Church News in this section. Talking Rock Realty 0MLS 1=1 NEMLS GEORGIAN/! LS L ESTATE SERVICES TALKINGROCKREALTY.COM • 678.454 PHS Volleyball hosts first home games The high school hosted Murray and Cass this past Thursday for their first home game. The varsity defeated Murray in three sets but fell short to Cass. Sydney Wolfe, Madi son Powell, and Lilly Wendt lead the varsity in kills. The JV won both matches against Murray and Cass. Mckayla Coul ter served her team the win against Murray and Aspen Darby made big plays against both teams. The varsity travels to Woodstock this weekend for a tournament. Dragons fall in season opener 27-15 The Dragons opened their season this past Friday at Sonoraville High School in a wet and soggy game that had an hour and a half start time delay due to lightning in the area. Kickoff originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. did not happen until right at 9 p.m. Once play began the Dragons received the open ing kickoff and stalled offen sively on their first drive. The Sonoraville offense took the field and was able to convert some key 3rd downs and go down to score and kick the PAT to make it 7-0 Phoenix. Pickens responded with a long drive of their own inside the 5 yard line before failing to convert the drive into points and turning the ball over on downs at the Sono raville 3 yard line. From here Sonoraville was able to drive the ball down the field in part to some defensive miscues, and costly penalties by the Dragons. After scoring their second TD, Sonoraville was up 14-0 going into the 2nd quarter. After receiving the following kickoff, the Dragons fumbled the ball back to Sonoraville giving them a short field to go up 20-0 after the PAT at tempt was blocked by Kaleb Nicholson. This would be the halftime score for the Drag ons. Pickens found a way to come out with some fire in the second half, getting sev eral key defensive stops in a row and finally finding a way to get into the endzone by a 52 yard jet sweep touchdown run by senior Colby Brooks with 3:20 to go in the 3rd quarter. The score was then 20-7. The Dragon defense rose up to make a big stop on Sonoraville at the start of the 4th quarter, however a very Fighting in the trenches, the Dragons’ Charlie Gibbons. 5 ™ ru photo/Robin Dunn Colby Brooks, #1, and the Dragons squad on the tackle in the season opener. costly penalty on a fake punt attempt by Sonoraville at their own 25 on 4th and 18 gave the Phoenix a 1st down. This was an extremely costly penalty because it would’ve given the Dragons a first down at the Sonoraville 27 with over 10 minutes to play. The Dragons were able to stop Sonoraville from scor ing and get the ball back, but on a spread punt formation that the Dragons put QB Sam Streicher back to kick, Stre- icher was hit and punted the ball only 10 yards. No rough ing the punter call was made. From here Sonoraville was able to hit a fade ball in the comer of the endzone to go up 27-7 with five minutes and some change to play. The Dragons received the kickoff and marched down the field aided by a long reception to Kadyn Hampton from Stre icher, and capped off by a short TD ran by Miguel Salto. The two point conver sion attempt was good mak ing the score 27-15. The Dragons attempted an onside kick with just over two minutes to play and al most recovered it, but after bouncing off one Sonoraville player it fell into the hands of another one. The defense was able to get a kick stop and allow the offense to try and work a two minute drill. Un fortunately, the Dragons were unable to come away with any points and the final score was 27-15 in favor of Sono raville. Other standouts from the game included- Marcus Pike, Isaiah Williams, Bryson Callahan and Aiden Baum on offense. On defense Trevor Morgan and Mason Powell had solid performances. The Dragons look to bounce back this week with another non-region game at North Murray High School scheduled for a 7:30 kickoff. Go Dragons. See more game photos on page 7B Will Hall runs through the rain and gloom for the Drag ons cross-country team. Racing Across America Race Recap - Go Bowling at The Glen Cross Country season outlook with Head Coach Donny White How do you think the move to Region 7-AAA will im pact the potential success of your team? Cross Country doesn't fol low a traditional regular sea son region schedule like the other fall sports. Our season consists of several invita tional meets (races) where as many as 40-50 high school teams from all classifications compete. We will see most of our region teams at some of these large invitational races, but it won't be until the re gion meet at the end of the season that we'll compete solely against region teams. Having said all of that, I think we're going to be very competitive against the teams in our new region. Which teams in Region 7- AAA are on your radar as solid programs to compete against in region? What is it about them that gets your attention? I would say Wesleyan is certainly a team we'll be watching throughout the sea son. They have a solid girls' and boys' team, and we will get a chance to compete against them in September at a large meet hosted by Ken- nesaw Mountain High School down in Acworth. It'll be fun to see how we match up. See XC Report on 7B By Alex Korowotny Racing Sports Correspondent Watkins Glen has been an awesome track in last the 10 years with great racing and very memorable finishes. Like the fantastic 2012 finish between Kyle Busch, Ke- selowski, and Marcos Am brose or 2018 with Elliott barely holding off Truex, who eventually ran out of fuel on the final lap, and scoring his first ever Cup se ries win. So did this race de liver and provide another great Watkins Glen race that we will remember for years to come? The race started at 5:01 p.m. with Elliott on pole after being delayed for 2 hours due to lightning and rain making the track too wet for the driv ers to race on. Elliott led the first three laps before Mc Dowell overtook him on lap four to take the lead. Drivers started to pit on lap seven to put on dry tires since the track was now starting to dry due to the rain stopping and the drivers racing on the track. Briscoe ended up being in the lead at the end of stage and would win Stage 1 because he was one of the first ones to pit and had a fast car in this race. Stage 2 started on lap 24 with Gilliland in the lead after Briscoe and other driv ers up front decided to pit. Logano passed him for the lead four laps later when Gilliland had a broken axle which effectively ended his See Racing on SB Sports Fanatic By Tommy Gartrell Columnist The Newest Kid Despite various in jured players, the Braves keep winning due in large part to talented rookies. The newest addition to the roster, could be the best one yet. Surely, you noticed the mustache mania sur rounding 22 year old fire balling starting pitcher Spencer Strider. The dis tinctive mustachioed right hander is 7-4 with a 2.95 era and 151 strike outs in only 100 innings. Then, there’s 21-year- old center fielder Michael Harris II. The Georgia na tive dazzles defensively and his performance at the plate gives every indi cation that he is indeed a legitimate “five tool”player. That over used term refers to a baseball player who can play great defense, has a strong throwing arm, ex traordinary speed afoot, hits for a high batting av erage and hits for power. With 13 homers, 43 RBI, 15 stolen bases, a .286 batting average and a .505 slugging percentage through only 77 ball- games, he looks like a budding superstar. Either Strider or Har ris will absolutely win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. No body else is even in that conversation actually. What about the tall kid at second base with the infectious smile? His name is Vaughn Grissom and ordinarily, he plays shortstop. Due to Ozzie Albies’ foot injury and a hamstring injury Orlando Arcia, the At lanta organization ele vated Grissom directly from AA ball to the Big Leagues. His impact was immediate too. On August 10, at iconic Fenway Park in Boston, he became the first player in history to belt a homerun and steal a base in his MLB debut. Since that night, Grissom shows every indication that he too is a “five tool” player. Many fans asked if he was the son of form Brave Marquis Grissom, but this young man from Orlando, Florida is no re lation to the man who squeezed the final out of the 1995 World Series. He could perhaps be more dynamic and a big ger fan favorite already. Through only 13 games, the six foot, three inch Grissom totals 18 hits, 13 runs, three homers, nine RBI, a cou ple stolen bases with an astronomical OPS of 1.092. Unless his num bers fall off a cliff, expect him as a fixture in Atlanta for years to come. Once Albies returns, we could see Grissom play some left field in the short term. Shortstop re mains his primary posi tion though. Would the long-term spot for him be in left field? Ever position is filled See Gartrell on 5B
