Newspaper Page Text
THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 6, 2008 - PAGE 3B
Channing Anderson takes a shot for Commerce against Athens Christian School Saturday night.
CHS Football
Schedules Force Tigers To
Drop Banks Game In '08
2008 Commerce Football Schedule
August 29 Jefferson Home 8:00
September 5 Morgan County Away 7:30
September 12 Franklin County Home 8:00
September 19 OPEN
September 26 Lincoln County Away 7:30
October 3 Athens Academy Away 7:30
October 10 Athens Christian Home 8:00
October 17 Wesleyan Home 8:00
October 24 Lakeview Academy Away 7:30
October 31 Social Grde Home 8:00
November 7 Prince Avenue Away 7:30
Scheduling conflicts have cost
the Commerce Tiger football
team a long-standing local rival
ry.
The Tigers dropped the Banks
County Leopards from their
schedules for 2008-09. With
Region 8AA comprising 10
teams, two of whom — Jefferson
and Banks County — are long
standing rivals, something had
to give.
“Logic tells you they will
play a nine-game region sched
ule," noted Tiger coach Steve
Savage.
Savage said he’d hoped that
Commerce would be able to
arrange dates with both teams,
but when 8AA coaches voted
to have an open date on the sev
enth week, scheduling became
more difficult.
“That left them with one avail
able date — on the opening
week — and all of them had to
find their games," said Savage.
“At that point, I knew we were
going to get just one of them
(Jefferson or Banks County)
unless one of them could move
a week two, three or four game
to somewhere else if they want
ed to play us."
Savage said he’d advised
Banks County’s coach early on
that if Commerce could only
play one of the two teams, it
would choose Jefferson, which
is the longest-standing rivalry.
“They weren’t willing to do
that," said Savage of Banks
County revising its schedule
to accommodate Commerce.
“With the choice between play
ing Banks County and play
ing Jefferson, we chose to play
Jefferson. I’d been saying all
along we needed to play both,
but if it came down to it, we
were going to play Jefferson."
Jefferson will move next school
year from Class A to Class
AA due to significant growth
in enrollment. The Dragons cel
ebrated their last year in Class
A by ending a 12-year losing
streak to the Tigers in a big way
this fall, crushing Commerce
42-7. The Tigers beat Banks
County, which has been an AA
school for several years, in a
55-40 shootout.
The Tigers will open Aug. 29
against Jefferson, then travel
to Morgan County before host
ing Franklin County, Lincoln
County, Athens Academy,
Athens Christian, Wesleyan,
Lakeview, Social Circle and
Prince Avenue to round out
the schedule, with Wesleyan
as the replacement for Banks
County.
Tiger Men Looking For
Late-Season Momentum
Young Wrestlers Place In Oconee Tourney
Ten members of the Commerce
Wrestling Club won medals at
the Oconee Winter Bash 2008
tournament Sunday. More than
200 wrestlers ages 4-14 from all
over Georgia competed.
Those who placed include:
Six-and-under: Eli Stowe, silver
medal, 60-pound class.
Eight-and-under: TJ Trudnak,
gold medal, 60-pound class;
Gavin Oglesby, gold, 60-pound
class; Jay Stowe, gold, 65-pound
division; Heath Millwood, sil
ver in the 60-pound class and
bronze in the 70-pound divi
sion; Neal Patrick, silver in the
70-pound class and gold in the
75-pound class; Chase Forrester,
silver in the 70-pound division;
and Charlie Ledford, gold in the
90-pound class.
Ten-and-under: Dalton Flint,
gold in the 65-pound class and
gold in the 70-pound division;
and Cole Chancey, gold in the
87-pound division and silver in
the 95-pound class.
The Commerce Wrestling
Club is in its second year, with
Kelly Slater, Jason Lord and
Jacob Lord as coaches and Keith
Massey as club director.
Members of the Commerce Wrestling Club who competed
at the Oconee Winter Bash 2008 wrestling tournament are, left
to right, (front) Heath Millwood, Charlie Ledford, Eli Stowe, TJ
Trudnak, (back) Cole Chancey, Nick Patrick, Dalton Flint, coach
Kelly Slater, Chase Forrester, Jay Stowe and Gavin Oglesby.
The club has about 20 mem
bers. It practices Monday and
Thursday nights at the Commerce
Elementary School (formerly the
middle school) gym.
For information, call Keith
Massey at 706-335-6772.
—Tiger Wrestlers Win The Gladiator Duals
Coming off losses to Tallulah
Falls Jan. 29 and Athens Christian
Saturday, the Commerce Tigers
are looking to find a little momen
tum going into next week’s region
tournament.
They were due to play at Towns
County Tuesday night. Results
of that game were not available
by press time, but the Indians
are one of the teams the Tigers
have bested to date, and that gave
coach Chad Bridges some hope
that the Tigers could avoid having
to win a “play-in" game to get into
the tournament.
“We will be third from our sub-
region if we win Tuesday," Bridges
said Monday morning. “If we lose,
we’ll be fourth or fifth. We beat
Towns by nine the first time in
our gym. If we go up there and
play well and put four quarters
together, we have a really good
shot."
The Tigers will host Lakeview
Academy Saturday on “Senior
Night."
Recently, putting four good
quarters together has been a chal
lenge for the 4-15 Tigers.
They lost to Tallulah Falls 47-44
Tuesday, Jan. 29, a game Bridges
said, “we shouldn’t have lost, but
we did.”
Commerce led most of the way,
but could never pull away. The
score was tied at 10 after one
period and the Tigers led 22-19
at the half and 31-28 after three
periods.
“We came out flat and didn’t
shoot the ball well," Bridges said.
“We didn’t play with our usual
Cameron Billings came off
the bench to spark the Tiger
offense during the first half of
Saturday’s game. He scored
nine points on the evening.
intensity."
No Tigers reached double fig
ures in scoring. Jake Flint was
high with eight, followed by
Chase Keller with seven, Cohen
Cooke and Matt Adams with five
apiece and Taylor Gary with four.
Drake Cash, Brandon Romans
and Anthony Norris scored two
each.
ACS 63, CHS 56
On Saturday night, the Tigers
played well for three quarters as
Athens Christian came to town,
but couldn’t finish the game.
“We went cold," Bridges said of
the fourth quarter. “We couldn’t
make anything. We got the same
looks we got the first three quar
ters and couldn’t knock them
down. The thing snowballed and
we couldn’t stop them on the
other end.”
Commerce led 16-11 after one
quarter, was up 31-24 at the half
and had a 10-point — 52-42 lead
— entering the final quarter, and
then the wheels fell off.
“We played hard. I thought we
played very well for three quar
ters. If we could put that togeth
er for four quarters, we’d have
a pretty good team," Bridges
said.
Cooke led the offense with 20
points, followed by Gary and
Cameron Billings with nine
apiece. Chase Crawford scored
five, Adams and Romans added
four each, T. Green scored three
and Flint added two.
“The shots quit falling and we
got a little bit frustrated with
that," Bridges said. “We had a
couple of close calls go against
us, and that frustrated us. Athens
Christian played well down the
stretch and made the shots they
had to."
Cont. from Page IB
heavyweight Baxter Barnes,
who injured ligaments in a foot
in Athens Saturday. Barnes
could be back for next week’s
Area Tournament. But Dustin
McLain is out for the season fol
lowing an operation on his knee
this weekend. Nick Arostegui
missed the Gladiator Duals, but
should be back in action soon.
Gladiator Duals
The Tigers were undefeated
Saturday. They beat Madison
County 51-24, Banks County
43-33, Chattooga 51-27 and
Oconee County 48-25 on their
side of the 10-team bracket, then
beat Clarke Central in the finals,
50-29.
Five Tigers won every match.
Dillon Desean was undefeat
ed at 112, Doug Maloch at 119,
Phillip Edwards at 145, Thomas
Sears at 152 and Chase Bowen
at 189.
“Any time you can win with
three guys out, the guys wrestled
pretty well," Love concluded.
“Three of our JV guys stepped in
and wrestled well, Jessie Savage,
Cole Ledford and Jake Hill. It
was a real team effort."
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