About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2023)
2C Midweek Edition-April 19-20, 2023 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com SPORTS FRIDAY’S HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER PAYOFFS Top-ranked Johnson boys top Central-Carroll in first round BILL MURPHY I The Times Johnson faces Central-Carroll in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs April 14 at Billy Ellis Memorial Stadium in Oakwood. HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL BILL MURPHY I The Times Cherokee Bluff’s Ty Corbin celebrates his grand slam against North Hall on April 3 in Gainesville. Bluff, Branch and North Hall are all looking to finish strong Top-ranked Bears going after Region 8-4A championship Knights will battle Holy Innocents’ in second round BY BILL MURPHY bmurphy@gainesvilletimes. com Johnson’s boys soccer program is set on making history. So, a first round playoff win against Central- Carroll on Friday doesn’t do much to satisfy its lofty goals. However, the fash ion in which the nation’s third ranked Knights (17-0) got it done in the postseason opener was certainly pleas ing to their coach Frank Zamora. No. 1 Johnson had a strong offensive attack early, putting four shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of the match. The defending Class 5A state-champion Knights built a quick two-goal edge with a strike from Juliann Pimentel in the 14th min ute and never looked back en route to a 9-0 win at Billy Ellis Memorial Stadium. “Winning in the first round is always good, right?” Zamora said. “Build that momentum going into the next game. We came out with a game plan and executed it. We played well and scored often, which feels good.” With the win, Johnson will host Holy Innocents in the second round on Thurs day in South Hall. “This gives us motiva tion and confidence to keep going into further rounds,” said Pimentel, who finished the match with two goals. “This is what’s expected of us to get this type of results. BY DAVID FRIEDLANDER For The Times East Hall rebounded from a late game-tying goal in their first-round Class 4A state playoff match against Cedartown to ultimately prevail on penalty kicks Friday night at Valhalla. After the visiting Bull- Now we want to keep it going.” The ease with which Johnson won was especially impressive, given that senior captain Jorge Sando val didn’t play, due to what he said were ‘family issues,’ but he was in uniform and on the sideline with his team for the match. “It feels great to see the boys out there performing well and make the commu nity happy and all our fans happy,” said Sandoval. With the win, Johnson is making its sixth con secutive appearance in the second round of the state playoffs and is now riding a 23-game win streak. Midway through the first dogs tied the game in the 76th minute to force extra time with the game tied 1-all, and eventually a shootout, goalkeeper Kenny Barrera-Paz made a save in the ninth round of penalty kicks to lift the fifth-ranked Vikings (13-3) into the sec ond round. Jonathan Torres scored 30 seconds after the half, Johnson kept pepper ing shots on goal, with many going in the back of the net. In the 21st minute, Andres Galicia had a shot go off the cross bar of the goal and back into play, where Daniel Trujillo fin ished it off by kicking it in for the score. That same aggressive approach continued, even though the goalkeeper for Central-Carroll was having a respectable effort. Shortly before halftime, David Artega had a great shot that Central-Carroll’s goalkeeper deflected over the cross bar. And less than a minute later, Justin Silva sent a shot from the left wing about 20 opening kickoff to give East Hall an early lead, only to see Cedartown (7-8-1) rally to knot the game late in regulation. Both teams scored in the first eight rounds of the shootout, with Torres netting a ninth goal after Amado Valladarez, Yerli Mejia, Ainor Romero- yards out that hit off the side of the net. However, near misses didn’t deter the Knights from stacking up goals. In fact, it made them work even harder after a 5-0 lead at intermission. Late in the match, John son started to get fancy. Off a feed from the cor ner, Edgar Vazquez was able to tap it into the net midway through the second half. Jalil Chavez had his second and final strike of the night, scoring on a pen alty kick in the 61st minute. Also scoring for Johnson were Ramon Aguilar, Jordy Acosta and Junior Castillo. Aguilar finished with a pair of assists. Turcios, Oscar Barcenas, Barrera-Paz, Eden Castre- jon, Jairo Aldaco and Aeron Camacho were all success ful for the Vikings. That set up Barrera-Paz’s clutch save that advances East Hall into a match-up with Clarkson on Thurs day in Gainesville. BY DAVID FRIEDLANDER dfriedlander @gainesvilletimes.com Officially, the Georgia High School Association’s baseball playoffs don’t begin until next Monday. However, it can be accu rately said that three Hall County teams are already in postseason mode for all intents and purposes with the beginning of the final week of the regular season this Monday. The implications for all three are quite different, but No. 1 Cherokee Bluff (24-1), fellow Region 8-4A member North Hall (17-9) and Region 8-5A member Flowery Branch (17-10) are all entering play into series this week that have a direct impact on where, against which opponent or even if they will begin they playoffs next week. The middle question is the most paramount for Cherokee Bluff, the cham pion for the A subregion in 8-4A, which takes on fourth- ranked and B subregion champ North Oconee (22-3) in a best-of-three series for the overall region title, and the region’s No. 1 state play off seed. The Bears and Titans will play a doubleheader Tues day at Bluff Ballpark, with Game 1 beginning at 4 p.m. If the two teams split the doubleheader, an if neces sary Game 3 would take place Wednesday at North Oconee in Bogart. While both teams are already assured of a first- round home series in the state playoffs, there is plenty of incentive for them to win this series. That is why Cherokee Bluff coach Jeremy Kemp says his team will treat this week as a playoff series because - well, it really is. “You want to be at home as long as you can be (in the playoffs),” Kemp said. “Get ting that No. 1 seed at least means another (potential Tuesday’s results ■ For game results, go online to www. gainesvilletimes.com. home series). You’re going to be at home as long as you’re the higher seed.” Of course, the region play offs also gives both the Bears and Titans a chance to get used to a playoff-type atmo sphere, as well as test them selves in a number of areas to see if they are postseason ready. Perhaps the most impor tant area, in Kemp’s mind, is pitching depth even beyond their solid starting rotation of Braxton Beal, Brady Ste phens and Tucker Holton. With the continuing work of others like Jacob Vokal, Ben Crumpton and Jack Sparks, Kemp is pleased to have numerous options in various situations, includ ing in this week’s region playoffs. And with that series hav ing a nearly identical format to a playoff series, it will allow him to mix and match as those situations arise, especially with one big dif ference from a normal play off series. “I think for the first time in a while, we’re all healthy and fresh and excited about the opportunity to play a great baseball team in North Oconee,” Kemp said. “It is a little more complicated the (pitch count) rules are still regular season. They change them a little bit for the playoffs, .. (but) since this is not a (state) playoff series, we’ve still got to (use) the pitch count rules for (the regular) season. You’ve got to pay attention to every thing that’s going on. “We feel like that (the team’s pitching depth will be big in the postseason). Hope fully, all those guys continue to throw well. I feel like we have about four or five of them who have thrown their best in the last month. DREW JACKSON I The Times East Hall’s Jonathan Torres (2) celebrates after his goal against Cedartown in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs April 14 in Gainesville. East Hall boys win thriller in PKs SOCCER ■ Continued from 1C clutch save of a penalty kick by the latter that gave his team a chance in the second half. But the Red Elephants (13-5-1) were unable to solve Roth despite numerous opportunities, and Apple’s late goal send the Titans (15-3) into a second-round matchup next with South Paulding, a winner over Allatoona by an identical 1-0 score, on Friday. “It’s unfortunate,” Gaines ville coach Elie Vivant said. “One of the sides was going to be sad (Friday) night, and unfortunately, it was us. I didn’t think we played a bad game. Between us and Lanier and (Blessed Trin ity’s) region, we have six of the top 10 in the state. .. I think that should be a third- round game or something like that.” Indeed, Gainesville had two quality chances early one, with Cristofer Lopez- Ortiz moving in on a 2-on-l break with Diogenese Lemus Correa in the seventh minute, and Gabriel Ixcoy Calel setting up Correa for another chance on the right wing two minutes later. But Roth was equal to the task both times, as well as with his diving save to rob Calel from inside the pen alty area in the 36th minute. “In the first half, we had two breakaways,” Vivant said.” Meanwhile, Torrez had a big save of a one-touch shot from Hugh Lahood in the 17th minute, and got some help from fullback Endy Alacron to clear away a loose ball in the goal box to send the game into halftime still scoreless. Torrez’s biggest save came less than eight minutes into the second half, when Gainesville was whistled for a foul inside the pen alty area, which gave Sam Jimenez a chance to put Blessed Trinity on top. But the senior dove to his left to smother the ensuing penalty kick to keep the game scoreless, and give the Red Elephants a little boost of energy that led to two more golden opportunities. A throw in from Lopez- Ortiz sent Christian Perez Sesma in for a shot from 30 yards out that appeared tick eted for the back post, only to be snuffed out by a diving Roth in the 51st minute. Just three minutes later, Correa made his way into the penalty area after a nifty run that saw him wind his way through the Blessed Trinity defense, only to have his point-blank shot barely deflected over the end line by a defender. But only a few minutes later, Jack Chambers set up for what appeared to be an innocent-looking free kick from about 50 yards out on the left wing. His long ball made its way through the penalty area to the right wing, where Apple outleapt a couple of Gainesville defenders to get enough of it to send it inside the back post before Tor rez could dive to it, giving the Titans 1-0 lead with just 10:52 remaining. OF THE YEAR BANQUET £hc {Times gainesvillelimes.com MAY 9, 2023 | 6:00PM GAINESVILLE CIVIC CENTER 830 Green Street NE, Gainesville, GA 30501 Help us celebrate the county's top athletes! Event will begin at 6 p.m. May 9 at the Gainesville Civic Center. Gainesville High Alumni and Master's Champion Tommy Aaron will be the keynote speaker. Tickets are $12 per person. SPACE IS LIMITED / TICKETS MUST BE PRE-PURCHASED Contact Megan Smarz to purchase your tickets today at msmarz@gainesvilletimes.com or 770-535-6371
