Newspaper Page Text
Page 12 — Wednesday, October 5, 2022, The True Citizen
® SPORTS
Bears face defending champs Thursday
BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
Fortunately for most of the
state, Flurricane Ian skirted the
majority of Georgia last week.
But the storm still managed to
wreak havoc on many of the
high school football games
scheduled for last Friday night.
Burke County was expected
to travel to Jesup to begin Re
gion 3-AAAAplay against the
Wayne County Yellow Jackets.
Instead that game must now
be rescheduled for some time
between now and Nov. 4.
With Wayne County out,
head coach Eric Parker and
his staff put their focus on the
defending AAAA state cham
pions of Benedictine Military
School. The Bears will travel
to Savannah this Thursday to
play the Cadets. Kickoff is set
for 7 pm.
“When we found out
Wednesday that we weren’t
going to be able to play, we
went out and got to get a little
work in [for Benedictine],”
Parker said.
The Bears, off to their first
5-0 start since 2017, will have
their work cut out for them
against the Cadets. Benedic
tine began last season with
two losses before winning 13
straight on their way to the
AAAA championship.
Currently, Benedictine is 3-2
and unbeaten at home so far
this season. The Cadets’ two
losses were to Christopher Co
lumbus (FL) and Ware County,
both strong teams of their own.
Both Benedictine and Burke
County are ranked in the top
10 in AAAA with the Bears in
front of the Cadets in most of
the polls around the state.
“They’ve gone out and
played some really good
teams,” Parker warned in look
ing at Benedictine’s two losses.
“They’re explosive. They’re
good as always, really good
skill guys. The quarterback’s
real good, so they can score a
lot of points in a hurry. That
puts a lot of pressure on us
defensively. Hopefully we’ll
be able to slow them down a
little bit,” he added.
The match-up is being
played on Thursday due to
Benedictine having to share
Memorial Stadium with other
Savannah-area schools. Parker
said the extra practice day last
week helped to even out this
week’s odd timing.
“We’ll get our customary
four days and then go have to
play them. It’s kind of a catch-
22. You hate to be off schedule
but we ended up needing that
break. We were kind of banged
up, beat up so we’re not ex
actly a 100 percent healthy;
but we’re a lot better than we
were a week ago at this time,”
he said.
Parker hopes to have the
senior weapons of Marshall
Flowers and Kohen Rogers
back this week. The two were
both injured late in the game
against Statesboro two weeks
ago.
“They were both back in
practice [Monday]. Just how
effective they’re going to be, I
don’t know. I think they’ll both
try to give it a go but we’ll just
have to see what we can do and
what we can’t.”
EBA celebrates success during Homecoming
In front of a record crowd,
Edmund Burke Academy start
ed the Homecoming game
September 28 with a bang as
Grant Mobley returned the
apening kick-off for a 91 - yard
touchdown.
As the game continued,Mo
bley passed for 120 yards and
a touchdown and rushed for 75
yards and two touchdowns. He
also had an interception late in
the game.
EBA dominated with the
59-0 win over the Memorial
Day School Matadors out of
Savannah.
The win included impressive
play by multiple Spartan team
members.
Owen Redd had five recep
tions for 107 yards and three
touchdowns. Aiden Hickman
ran for 52 yards and two touch
downs
Connor Syms had seven car
ries for 80 yards and one touch
down. Braydon Tindall had
ane catch for 49 yards and a
touchdown. Marc Owen passed
for 36 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Harrison McClelllan had two
sacks for a loss of 20 yards.
William Hood had five tackles
- one for a loss and one inter
ruption and Cade McGill had
six tackles with one for a loss.
EBA’s annual chicken-que
resulted in more than 2,500 dis
tributed with over 125 student,
parents and teacher volunteers.
The 2022 Chicken-Que was
a success after being paused
since 2019 due to COVID-19.
Mary Benton Sylvester was named
Edmund Burke Academy 2022
Homecoming Queen.
Lto R Homecoming Court picture: Leila Eastmead, Ellee Mobley, Zaylee Baker, Kelsey Jaquess,
Mary Benton Sylvestser, Marlee Mobley, (2021 Queen) Avery Wiggins, Avery Chance, Carleigh
Woods, and Emma Hirschauer
NEW COURSE OF ACTION
During the second race of the season October 3
at Edmund Burke Academy, the students lowered
their times by at least 30 seconds. “While we may
not have many runners, we do have some quality
runners,” said Coach Daniel Hannah.
Abi Wilcher placed third in middle school girls divi
sion that included competitors from eight schools.
Ben Cates placed ninth and Lucas Reindl placed
eighth. EBA hosted six schools during the Sep
tember 19 cross country meet. “Hosting our first
middle school and varsity meet at EBA on our new
course was an exciting experience for our runners
and staff,” said Hannah. “Over 100 runners got to
experience our course on a fairly hot day and we
had some solid times posted by several middle
school and varsity runners.”
Middle school student Abi Wilcher placed fourth.
Middle school boys Lucas Reindl placed third,
while Ben Cates placed sixth and Jackson Wallace
placed fourteenth. Varsity runner Blake Howard
placed seventh.
The next race EBA will host is October 12.
BCHS IN CROSS COUNTRY MEET
The Burke County High School track team ran in its
second cross country meet of the year last week. This meet
took place at Screven County High School on September
27. Schools that competed were Screven, Jenkins County,
Metter, and Savannah. Some of Burke County’s students
who ran and finished in the top twenty were Janiya Walker,
Ruby Wade, Aaliyah Williams, and Asia White for the girls
and Robert Heath, Caleb Ellison, Natiyron Porter, Nick
Brown, and Malachi Hughes for the boys
Lady Bears softball
team splits games
Brannon Braddock
Jbraddo4@gmail.com
The BCHS Lady Bears soft-
ball team played two games
last week, and they managed
to stay just positive at 12-11
on the year. The good news is
that their win this week was a
region win, moving them to 2-4
overall in that aspect.
On Monday, the Lady Bears
hosted neighboring Edmund
Burke Academy for their se
nior night. Here, seniors Ar-
liyah Crumbley and Alyssa
Rabun were honored for their
high school softball careers.
Unfortunately, though, the girls
couldn’t secure a win. Fielding
errors allowed the Spartans to
take an early lead. This 0-2 lead
quickly turned to a 0-5 lead
by the fourth quarter. By the
bottom of the sixth, the Lady
Bears had driven in two of their
own runs, but they were unable
to mount a comeback victory.
Both of Burke County’s RBIs
were driven in by Paige Sul
livan, who had an impressive
three-hit day. Plate discipline
played a key role in the out
come of this game as the Lady
Bears didn’t draw a single
walk. One must acknowledge
the playmaking ability of the
Spartans as well. They made
many key defensive snags
including what was sure to be
an RBI double by senior Alyssa
Rabun. Defensively, Ashlee
Ray and Arliyah Crumbley
split time on the mound, com
bining for a total of twenty-
seven first pitch strikes and six
strikeouts.
The Lady Bears’ away
match versus New Hampstead
on Thursday was moved to
Wednesday in anticipation of
hurricane Ian. Burke County
used this game as an oppor
tunity to release some pent
up anger, mercy-ruling their
opponents in the fourth inning.
In an overall 17-3 victory, the
Lady Bears looked and played
like a playoff-ready team. Of
fensively, Arliyah Crumbley
led the way with four hits and
three RBIs. Ashlee Ray, while
only having a pair of hits,
drove home a team-leading
four runs. Maliah Blomstrom
and Braylin Fare had three hits
apiece and a handful of RBIs
between them. Plate discipline
also played a big role in this
game as multiple Bears drew
walks, including Alyssa Rabun
who joined in on the “run fun”
with three RBIs. Defensively,
Ray and Crumbley split time
on the mound. Ray also threw
four strikeouts.
As Burke County’s soft-
ball season draws to a close,
this week is probably their
biggest week of the season.
By the time this story is pub
lished, they will have played
an away region game against a
strong Southeast Bulloch team.
Southeast Bulloch is 12-7 on
the year and their last meeting
with Burke County ended in a
17-0 victory, but winning this
game is a must for the Lady
Bears. Today, October 5, the
Lady Bears face off against
Screven County at home, and
tomorrow, Burke County has
their last region game of the
season against Islands at home.
Both of these games start at
5:00 pm.
All this and more
Need A...
Business Card
Invitation
Brochure
Logo
Form
Ticket
Poster
Letterhead
Let Us Help
CITIZEN
GRAPHICS
Design ■ Print ■ Mmtlslif
Inside the True Citizen Building
629 Shadrack Street
Waynesboro, GA
706-554-2111