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SPORTS
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
Unties
gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 9, 2018
ATLANTA UNITED | MLS Cup Final
Five Stripes win MLS Cup
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Finally,
Atlanta has another team it
can call champions.
Josef Martinez and Franco
Escobar scored goals, Brad
Guzan came up with a couple
of clutch saves and Atlanta
United gave the city its first
title since 1995 with a 2-0 vic
tory over the Portland Tim
bers in the MLS Cup final
Saturday night.
Cheered on by the largest
crowd in franchise history,
United captured the crown
in just its second season to
set off a huge celebration in a
city that has known so much
sporting heartbreak. Owner
Arthur Blank got to lift the
trophy, just under
three years after his
other team, the NFL’s
Falcons, squandered
a 25-point lead in
an epic Super Bowl
collapse.
Martinez, capping
the greatest goal-scor
ing season in MLS
history, put United
ahead in 39th minute.
Escobar added an insurance
goal in the 54th, turning the
final minutes into a raucous,
flag-waving celebration and
sending coach Tata Martino
out with a title in his final
game as coach. He’s report
edly headed to
Mexico to take over
as that country’s
national coach.
Atlanta reveled in
its first title since the
Braves won the 1995
World Series — a
gap of 8,442 days, for
those counting.
After a surprising
run in the playoffs,
the Timbers were denied
their second MLS champion
ship after winning the cup in
2015.
Since major league sports
came to Atlanta in 1966, the
only other team to win a
championship in one of the
five major sports also came
on the soccer pitch. The
Atlanta Chiefs claimed the
title in the North American
Soccer League’s inaugural
season in 1968.
While that team laid the
groundwork, Atlanta United
carried the sport to unprec
edented levels in North
America. The team shattered
the MLS attendance record a
■ Please see UNITED, 2B
TODD KIRKLAND I Associated Press
Atlanta United forward Josef Martinez (7) beats
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jeff Attinella (1) to score a
goal during the MLS Cup championship soccer game,
Saturday in Atlanta.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
CRAIG RUTTLE I Associated Press
Heisman Trophy finalists, from left, Dwayne Haskins,
from Ohio State; Kyler Murray, from Oklahoma; and
Tua Tagovailoa, from Alabama, pose with the tophy
during a media event Saturday, Dec. 8, in New York.
Murray beats
out Tagovailoa
for Heisman
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Kyler
Murray replaced a Heis
man Trophy winner by
becoming a Heisman
Trophy winner.
The Oklahoma quar
terback won college
football’s most presti
gious individual award
Saturday night, edging
Alabama’s Tua Tago
vailoa and setting up a
College Football Playoff
matchup of Heisman win
ner versus runner-up.
The fourth-ranked
Sooners play the top-
ranked Crimson Tide in
the Orange Bowl semi
final Dec. 29 in the sev
enth bowl matchup of
Heisman winner and
runner-up, and first since
second-place finisher
Vince Young and Texas
beat Reggie Bush and
Southern California in
the 2006 Rose Bowl.
This season, Murray
stepped into the starting
job at Oklahoma held
by last year’s Heisman
winner and first overall
NFL draft pick, Baker
Mayfield. Oklahoma
is the first school with
have Heisman-winning
quarterbacks in consecu
tive seasons and the fifth
overall with winners in
back-to-back years.
“This is crazy,” Mur
ray said in his accep
tance speech. “This is an
honor, something that I’ll
never forget. Something
that I’ll always cherish
for the rest of my life.”
Unlike most seasons,
the winner was far from
a foregone conclusion,
but Murray (517 first-
place votes and 2,167
points) ended up with a
fairly comfortable mar
gin of 296 points over
Tagovailoa. Ohio State
quarterback Dwayne
Haskins, the other final
ists, was a distant third
with 783 points. Three
more quarterbacks fol
lowed: Will Grier of West
Virginia, Gardner Min-
shew II of Washington
State and McKenzie Mil-
ton of Central Florida.
Murray was named on
92 percent of the Heis
man ballots, third most
all time. Tagovailoa’s
1,871 points received was
the most for a runner-up
in the 84-year history of
the Heisman.
Tagovailoa was the
Heisman front-runner
for most of the season,
but Murray surged late
as the Sooners turned
to him and its offense to
bailout a leaky defense
down the stretch. Mean
while, Tagovailoa picked
a bad time to have his
worst game of the season,
throwing two intercep
tions in the Southeastern
Conference champion
ship against Georgia and
leaving early with a
sprained ankle.
Murray’s first season
as a starting quarterback
in college is set up to also
be his last. The junior has
already signed a $4.66
million contract with the
Oakland Athletic after
he was selected in the
first round of the Major
League Baseball draft in
June. Listed at 5-foot-10
and 195 pounds, Mur
ray is small for an NFL
quarterback but talented
enough to be an intrigu
ing prospect if he ever
decided to give it a try.
Oklahoma’s late-sea-
son Heisman campaign
for Murray harkened
back Bo Jackson, the
1985 Heisman winner
who went on to star in
both the NFL and MLB,
and his Bo Knows Nike
ads.
“I’d like to do both
(baseball and football)
if possible,” Murray said
Friday. “But I don’t know
how possible that is. ”
Draft analyst Dane
Brugler of The Athletic
called Murray a potential
top-50 NFL draft pick.
“The NFL hasn’t had
a 5-10 or shorter quarter
back have sustained suc
cess in a long time, but
Murray has a rare skill-
set with his arm talent,
mobility and instincts,”
Brugler said.
El IG El SCHOOL WRESTLING I Hall County Championship
Troj ans take county title
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
North Hall’s Hayden Cook pins East Hall’s Drew Highfield during the final day of the Hall County wrestling championship
at Gainesville High School on Saturday, Dec. 8.
North Hall wrestlers combined to go 104-8; good enough for
first place at Saturday’s Hall County Championship meet
North Hall’s Cody Smith pins East Hall’s Dylan Lee during the final day of the
Hall County wrestling championship at Gainesville High School on Saturday,
Dec. 8.
BY NATHAN BERG
nberg@gainesvilletimes.com
Coming off a Class 3A state cham
pionship, North Hall’s wrestling team
has started off this season with a bang,
keeping its hot streak alive with a
first-place finish in the Hall County
Championship on Saturday. The Tro
jans won all but three weight classes,
sweeping every classification from
152 pounds to heavyweight.
The team also produced Outstand
ing Wrestler for Hall County winners
in Matthew Glenn for 106 pounds to
145 pounds and Dalton Battle for 152
pounds to heavyweight.
And while North Hall’s regular lead
ers continued their stellar seasons at
the meet, the less experienced Trojan
athletes stepping up is what pushed
the team over the top of earning it the
county title.
“We’re very fortunate this year that
our guys competed very well,” North
Hall coach David Nichols said. “We
had a couple kids that were kind of
unexpected in the lineup who were
able to get in there that hadn’t been
wrestling in our varsity lineup that
competed very well for us, so we were
very pleased with that.”
Nichols pointed specifically to
Christian Contreras and Ali Rogers
as less experienced members of the
squad who filled in to help get the
win. Contreras — wrestling at the 120
pound weight class — went 5-3 on the
day after not wrestling in a varsity
match all season previously to Satur
day. Rogers, a freshman, also went 5-3
at 113 pounds.
“Being a female wrestler is tough
in a varsity lineup in a mostly boys
sport,” Nichols said of Rogers’ perfor
mance. “... I was really proud of her.”
Outside of Rogers and Contreras,
nearly every other North Hall par
ticipant went a perfect 8-0 to win indi
vidual state titles. Dawson Thompson
went undefeated with eight pins at 106
pounds, while Jacob Pedraza did the
same at 126 pounds.
“He’s been great for us all year,”
Nichols said of Pedraza. “We expect
him to really compete for a state title. ”
Damon Cambell was 8-0 with seven
pins at 132 pounds, while Glenn kept
his season-long undefeated streak
alive, going 8-0 with eight pins and
winning an individual county title as
well as Outstanding Wrestler for Hall
County for 106 to 145 pound weight
classes.
Hayden Cook was 7-1 on the day,
losing only to the eventual state cham
pion at 145 pounds.
“He wrestled a great tournament,”
Nichols said. “Just came up a little
short.”
North Hall won county titles at
every other weight classification
— from 152 to heavyweight — with
nearly every wrestler from that
threshold onward going undefeated at
the event.
Cody Smith went 8-0 with seven pins
at 152 pounds, while Hunter Adams
was 8-0 with six pins at 160 pounds.
Dalton Battle won all eight of his
bouts, including a county title clinch
ing match against East Hall’s two-time
state placer.
The performance was good enough
to earn Battle Outstanding Wrestler
for Hall County for 152 pounds to
heavyweight classifications.
Logan West went 8-0 with six pins at
182 pounds, while Logan Hawthorne
was 8-0 with eight pins at 195 pounds.
Seth Carlton also won all eight of his
matches with pins at 220 pounds.
Bowie Eisenberg was 7-1 with six pins
in the heavyweight classification, but
because his one loss came against an
opponent with fewer total wins at the
weight class, Eisenberg won the indi
vidual county title.
Nichols said that while winning
the yearly tournament is certainly
an honor, merely competing in it
is enough to make the Hall County
Championship one of the team’s favor
ite events of the season.
“We always look forward to com
peting in this tournament because the
camaraderie among the athletes,” he
said. “A lot of them train together in
various training facilities in the off
season, so there’s friendships there.
The guys look forward to all being in
the same gym together, and I look for
ward to seeing all the other coaches.
We all respect each other and value
the direction that each coach is going
with the program. We just look for
ward to coming together and compet
ing in this tournament.”
Behind North Hall, East Hall was
the runner up at the event. Chestatee
finished right behind the Vikings to
take third place.
