Houston times-journal. (Perry, Ga.) 1994-1999, September 06, 1995, Image 6

Houston times-journal., September 06, 1995, Page Page 6A, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextSports Westfield rallies, ties Tattnall Square By PHIL CLARK Times-Journal Sports MACON For about 45 min utes Friday night, there was little doubt about who is number one. A fierce thunderstorm passed through the Macon area about 7:30 heading southeast, and halted the start of the Westfield-Tattnall game by one hour. With the teams on the Field for pre game warm-ups, officials decided to empty the Field at 7:30, and folks in the stands followed suit. For a while it was doubtful the game would be played, but as most thunderstorms do, this one passed through in about 45 min utes, leading ofFicials to resched ule the start of the game to 9 p.m., which wasn’t bad. Once they got under way, the number one and number two ranked teams in the Georgia Independent Schools Association coaches polls showed the fans why. But they didn’t settle any thing in a 17-17 tie. Unless you figure this way if number two ties number one at number one’s Field, then maybe number two is number one! But polls mean very little. In fact, they mean nothing, because the games must still be played to decide winners. The one thing this game produced was the most impressive Westfield scoring drive fans have seen in a long time. With Tattnall leading 17-10 in the fourth quarter, West Field got the ball at their own 38-yard line. Brian Staines had returned a Sam GrifFin kick 28 yards following a Griffin field goal that had increased Tattnall’s lead to a touchdown. With nine minutes left in the game, Westfield went to work, mounting a 14-play drive that covered 62 yards and used 6:41 off the clock, or the official stop watch, since the scoreboard was n't working after a lightning jolt. First Tim Allen got four, then took a Matt Shepley pass for eight and a first down. Staines got two, but Shepley lost four trying to pass before Staines got seven more. Facing fourth-and-five at the Tattnall 45, Shepley found Ben Hulbert, who made a diving catch for 12 yards and a first down to the Tattnall 33. By now Westfield fans were beginning to sense the Hornets’ comeback wasn’t over. Allen car ried for 11 yards to the 22 and a first down. But three running plays got just 8 yards, and the Hornets were faced with another fourth down situation, with about four minutes left in the game. Allen again got the call, and again the big fullback delivered, getting 8 yards for a first-and-goal Red Jackets sting Perry in season opener By Jj JOHNSON Times-Journal Editor COLUMBUS A dejected Perry High Head Football Coach George Collins looked at the ground and expressed disappoint ment in the Panthers’ opening game of 1995. His team, his first ever team as a head coach, had just dropped a 34-7 game to Jordan. “I didn’t get them ready prop erly,” Collins said of his Panthers. “It starts with me and goes all the way down. We simply weren’t ready.” The Panthers ran into a buzz saw in the Red Jackets. The Class AAA Jackets amassed 239 yards rushing and capitalized on every Panther mistake to win the game. Despite the five touchdowns his team gave up, Collins was most concerned with his offense. The Panthers, using but three players, generated 72 yards rush ing and 25 yards passing. The Panthers also lost two of four fumbles and had two passes snagged by the Jackets. “We’ll spend a lot of the next two weeks working on offense,” Collins said, looking to the open date this Week and the Sept. 15 game at the Panther Pit with Pike County. “We’ve got a lot to do, we did n’t answer any of our questions tonight. We've got to go back and evaluate the situation,” he added. The Jackets got their first touchdown late in the first quarter after Perry punted. Starting from their own 12-yard line, the Jackets marched down field on 15 plays including a 6-yard scamper by Jamar Brooks to the left on Page 6A BL. Fi ll "* f% BL_.. . Jp-wSH» * Jmm - .Spy v 1 *****; - ” jy ■ <.■ *****'-ikyjl ** ~ \ jgf w '*•>«*»»■ % " Times-Journal Photo by Eric Zellars TOUCHDOWN Westfield running back Brian Staines (22) heads for a Hornet touchdown against Tattnall Sept. 1. at the 6-yard line. Allen carried twice to the one, developed cramps and had to leave the game, and Shepley carried over for the score with 2:19 left in the game. There never was any doubt in Ronnie Jones’ mind. Kick the point after touchdown. “Our kids had come too far back to go away with nothing. And besides, we thought the way our defense was playing, we might get the ball back,” he said. Westfield did. by the way, but there wasn’t time to do anything with it, just one play in fact, and that wasn’t enough. Earlier, after the thunderstorm delay, and with the fans settled back into their seats, Tattnall won the toss of the coin and deferred the option to the second half and Westfield took the ball. But they were unable to move it and were forced to punt. After two short gains, Tattnall, with a third-and-six, went to the air as Buddy Perkins hit Jason Nesbitt for 16 and a first down at the Westfield 44. All the lightning had not passed through, because on the next play, lightning struck in the form of Mark McGee, who bolted 44 yards for a touchdown barely four first and goal for the score with 17 seconds left in the quarter. Jerry Merri weather added the Igßplp m . ip 1 I Wtv* A wL Bki Rji 111,. B af|HSKk\ ■ ■ JmTi Ml. MBaaMk S ff ■ 1 Hr W jdj KHs• - - Times-Journal Photo by Jj Johnson RUNNING ROOM Perry Panther Kiwaukee Thomas (2) looks for running room against the Columbus Red Jackets Sept. 2. Wednesday, Sept. 6, 1995 minutes into the game. Griffin’s point after made it 7-0. Westfield got a break they couldn’t completely take advan tage of. Staines returned the ensu ing kickoff 77 yards to the Tattnall 9-yard line before Mac McDaniel was able to catch him. The Hornets couldn’t punch it in and settled for a 22-yard J.T. Shy field goal. Three plays later, Tim Allen intercepted a deflected Perkins pass to set the Hornets up again. Two calls in this drive though did n’t go the Hornets way and Tattnall was able to get the ball back. The first bad break came on third down from the Hornets’ 45 when Ben Hulbert broke free for 55 yards and an apparent go-ahead touchdown, but a clipping penalty brought the play back to the Hornets’ 43. The Hornets continued the drive as Staines got 14 on two car ries for a first down at the Tattnall 35. Allen picked up 8 yards, then got nine more for another first down at the 18. Hulbert got five to the 13, then got five more to the 8-yard line but the ball popped out as he hit the ground and the officials ruled point after touchdown kick and Jordan took a 7-0 lead into the sec ond quarter. Houston Times-Journal fumble, though it appeared Hulbert had hit the ground before the ball came out. Tattnall took over at their 8. The Trojans got another break after they failed to move the ball and had to punt on fourth-and seven at their own 11. Westfield tried to run a reverse on the return and the ball got loose and Tattnall recovered again and this time took it in for a 14-3 halftime lead. Tattnall fumbled the ball on the first series of the second half after a Perkins to Dominic Bullock completion gave them a first down at their own 49. Perkins was forced out of the pocket by a Westfield rush, and Brian Nash scooped up a loose football at the Tattnall 40 and raced into the end zone for a Westfield score. Shy’s PAT made it 14-10 at that point. The Trojans got the ball back once more in the half and tried to mount a scoring drive and got the ball within Griffin’s range at the 21 yard line with :46 left, but Westfield’s junior defensive end Keith Waites broke free to throw Perkins for a 10-yard loss and take Tattnall out of field goal range as the half ended. Tim Allen rushed 12 times for 63 yards to lead the Hornets while Perry opened the quarter with a 4-yard drive to the left by Kiwaukee Thomas, who finished The Tie Westfield 3 0 7 7 —l7 Tattnall 7 7 0 317 Tattnall McGee, 44-yard run, Griffin PAT kick Westfield J.T. Shy, 22-yard field goal Tattnall McGee, 8-yard run, Griffin PAT kick Westfield Brian Nash 40-yard rum ble recovery return, Shy PAT kick Tattnall Griffin, 37-yard field goal Westfield Matt Shepley, 1-yard run, Shy PAT kick Statistic Westfield Tattnall First Downs 8 16 Rushing Yards 143 174 Passing Yards 52 146 C-A-r 4-9-1 10-19-1 Fumbles-lost 2-2 2-1 Penalties-yards 2-8 3-12 Punts-Avg. 2-36 1-34 Shepley was four of nine for 52 yards through the air. McGee had 140 for Tattnall. Perkins was 10 of 19 for 146 passing yards, but was incomplete on his last three as he tried to rally his team into field goal position again. Westfield has an open week and will play at John Milledge on Sept. 15. Tattnall plays at Windsor this week. the evening with 16 carries for 56 yards. (See PERRY, Page 7A) Phil Clarft^^kl Times-Journal Sports Records falling All our lives we’ve heard that records are made to be broken. Most are, and two of them will go this week. Dan Pitts at Mary Persons High School will become the all-time leader in football victories in the Georgia High School Association. His Bulldogs should beat Wilkinson County Friday night in Forsyth and thus give Pitts 316 career wins erasing the record of 315 set by the late Wayman Creel. Pitts’ teams have lost just 108, and have won one state champi onship. Pitts, in his 37th year at Mary Persons, probably will begin thinking of stepping down, if not this year, then soon. But his record wouldn’t be safe if he did, though, since Bill Chappell of Dalton got number 300 Friday night and Nick Hyder at Valdosta will also pass the 300 mark this year. That would be the only thing that would keep Pitts going, I think. The fact that he might need to keep adding wins to his total to make it harder on his pursuers. Then again, the record might not mean that much to him. Says here it does, though. A record that seemed invincible is Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak of 2,127. But Cal Ripkin Jr. will break that on Wednesday (tonight) barring something unforeseen, like a rainout. And for bid that he is forced to miss a game before then! How impressive is the Ripkin record? Well, he hasn’t been out of the lineup since May 29, 1982. That’s better than 13 years of play ing with bumps and bruises and jammed Fingers and sprained ankles and other assorted injuries that keep today’s player out of the lineup. No migraine headaches, either for Ripkin. That’s a popular cop-out for some of today’s players who want a day or two off. For those rea sons, there won’t be a challenge on the new Ripkin record. There woh’t be a challenge to Aaron’s 755 because modem play ers won’t play long enough to chal lenge it. Last week I was in Gadsden, Ala., and ran across a copy of the Gadsden Times which carried a replica of a baseball field with the nine players who started the game for Baltimore on May 30, 1982, the day the streak began. They were positioned in the drawing as they appeared to fans sit ting behind the plate. Ripkin, by the way, was the starting third baseman that day. He moved to shortstop on July 30 that year. I thought you might like to hear or see the starting lineup on that day in 1982. Ripkin was at third base. The shortstop was Lynn Sakats, who is now a minor league coach in Japan. I remember him. He was one of the first players I remember who had his hair hanging several inches below his cap. The second base man was Rich Dauer, now a coach in the Kansas City system. Terry Crowley was the first baseman. He is a batting coach for the Twins. Around the outfield, there was John Lowenstein in left. He is now a broadcaster for Home Sports. A 1 Brumby, the centerfielder, is still in Baltimore. He is a coach for the Orioles. The right fielder was Dan Ford. He works for a riverboat casi no operation in New Orleans. Rick Dempsey was the catcher. He is now manager for the Dodgers’ Albuquerque minor league team. And the starting pitch er on the day the streak began was Jim Palmer, who now works for ABC, Home Team Sports, and is a spokesman for several products. Cal Ripkin Jr. is a class act. He does a lot of charity work around Baltimore, and he takes his job seriously. A Baltimore line-up card without Ripkin’s name could be a collectors item! PP&K coming Officials with the Perry Recreation Department have announced plans for the annual Punt, Pass and Kick competition. Action will begin at 9 a.m. Sept. 16 at J. Frank Rozar Park, 1060 Keith Drive in £prry. Boys and girls ages 8-15 are eligi ble to participate in the is determined as of Dec. 31,1995. Each contestant will be in his or her age group. There is no fee to com pete. Winners of each age group will advance to sectional competition. Equipment will be provided by the Recreation Department. No football shoes, cleats or turf shoes will be allowed. Only gym shoes (tennis shoes) will be permitted.