VOLUME 11 ISSUE 37 | NOVEMBER 5-11, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

WITH OR WITHOUT

YOUWith one week left, we break down every

possible playoff scenario. | Pg. 7

Time After Time | Pg. 9

Walton volleyball sweeps its way to a 10th state title.

Don’t You Forget About Me | Pg. 4

Kyle Sandy lists the sleepers to keep an eye on this basketball season.

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3Vol. 11 Iss. 37 | November 5-11, 2015

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The first installment of this season’s College Football Playoff Rankings came out Tues-

day night and there were a few shockers and a great deal of buzz. Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn, and Ole Miss opened the 2014 College Foot-ball Playoff Rankings on October 28th. By De-cember, only Florida State remained. Eventual No. 1 Alabama opened at six, while No. 2 Or-egon sat at five. National champion and No. 4 Ohio State was all the way at 16. This proves the point that in the next month of the 2015 season anything can happen. Here is how the top 15 of the newest play-off rankings breaks down:

1. CLEMSON Is it time to party like it’s 1981 in South Carolina? Clemson has put together an impres-

sive resume, which includes a two-point victory over No. 5 Notre Dame and five 40-plus points performances. What do the Tigers get as a re-ward for being No. 1? They get to face rival No. 16 Florida State. If they continue to play the cali-ber of football they have all season, there is no reason why they should not be in the playoff.

2. LSU Perhaps the most impressive team in the country behind only Clemson, LSU has found success behind Heisman-favorite Leonard Fournette. The Louisiana-native has rushed for 1352 yards and 15 touchdowns. Questions about the abilities of their quarterback Bran-don Harris have calmed after three consecu-tive 200-yard passing games. Their season once again will be defined this weekend when they face No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

3. OHIO STATE The Buckeyes are the Florida State of a season ago. They are the reigning national champions who have continued to lack the re-spect they deserve despite being undefeated and having the longest active winning streak in the country. Underwhelming performances merited a quarterback change to J.T. Barrett. Now, the news of Barrett’s arrest and suspen-sion for this weekend’s game against Minne-sota have once again cast doubt into this team from the national media. They end the season against Michigan State and Michigan; two wins they must have if they want to be playing in primetime on New Year’s Eve.

4. ALABAMA How is it that Alabama continues to be one of the few one-loss teams each year that somehow ends up in the top five? They have an extraordinary gift of turning into a better team after losses. The Tide are rolling to the tune of five straight victories after a heartbreaking loss to Ole Miss. Their off week was conveniently placed prior to this week’s matchup against LSU. The winner of this game will be in the driver’s in the SEC and the playoff rankings.

5. NOTRE DAME What was it about those one-loss team finding their way back to the top of the rank-ings? Notre Dame is example 1B. After falling to Clemson on the road, the Irish have strung

together impressive victories over USC and then No. 21 Temple. If they can nab three more victories it would set up a showdown against Stanford on the final weekend of the season. Now, since Notre Dame is an independent and has one loss, they may need the top Big 12 teams to beat each other to get into the play-off. Either way, they are sitting in a great posi-tion currently to sneak in. The remaining top 15 remains interesting (6. Baylor, 7. Michigan State, 8. TCU, 9. Iowa, 10. Florida, 11. Stanford, 12. Utah, 13. Memphis, 14. Oklahoma State, 15. Oklahoma) Two things jump out here. The commit-tee once again fails to give credit to Baylor and TCU. Both have a dismal strength of schedule, and that seems to be a major criterion for the committee. But all four Big 12 teams in the top 15 play each other in November, which will booster their schedule. Should one of them go undefeated, they will almost guarantee them-selves a spot in the top four. Michigan State, like Ohio State, continues to get no love. An early-season victory over Oregon now seems like just another win. Their huge victory on the road against Michigan for some reason does not jump out enough to the committee to merit a top four ranking. Their showdown with the Buckeyes on November 21st could decide their fate because there is no way an undefeated Big 10 team does not make it into the playoff. Photos courtesy of LSU Athletics.

There is no hiding it. My favorite time of year, basketball season, is finally here. To get

ready for the season, I have narrowed down a few teams that I would classify as Super Sleep-ers. Not just sleepers, but teams that haven’t eclipsed the .500 mark in a few years and are finally ready to do so.

CLASS AAAAAA In the most competitive classification in the state, the perennial powers remain the same, but Harrison (10-17, 4-10) may be in line to capture its first winning season since 2011-12 and fight for a playoff seed out of Re-gion 4. Hillgrove has lost a ton via graduation and transfers from last year’s 23-6 team and are expected to take a step back while 21-8 McEachern could be the favorite to win the region. North Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain both made it as the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds,

but nothing is set in stone for 2015-16. Harri-son proved last season that they can play with some tough competition, losing to 5A semifi-nalist Cedar Shoals 54-53, beating Hillgrove 51-41, beating McEachern 69-61 and losing to 4A runner-up Carrollton 54-47. Seniors Aus-tin York and DJ Rowe give coach Clay Crump a nice one-two punch and solid leadership on the floor. Junior guard Tate Coston is also ex-pected to make a big impact on the Hoyas.

CLASS AAAAA Houston County (10-16, 0-7) plays in the difficult Region 2B with the likes of No. 7 War-ner Robins and No. 9 Jones County, but coach Stephen Walls has a nice group back that is in search of its first winning season in over five years. The Bears actually snuck into the play-offs after a winless regular season in region play and fell to LaGrange 60-41.Strong guard

play will carry the Bears. Leading scorer junior Amari Colbert averaged 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game as a talented do-ev-erything guard. Senior forward Javion Johnson is an elite leaper and chipped in 8 points and 8 rebounds a night last season. Jaylon Golds pitched in 10 points and 5 assists as a junior and brings quickness to the Bear backcourt. Marquis Traylor from Missouri brings over some size and athleticism inside.

CLASS AAAA Though they haven’t enjoyed a winning record since 2012-13, Stephens County (8-19, 3-7) could find themselves playing meaningful basketball into the months of January and Feb-ruary. After a slow start to the season, the In-dians under coach Chad Bridges began to play better and will try to carry that momentum over to 2015-16. Junior guard Nunu Walker is a talented scorer. Senior Tay Jones will play another big role along with sophomore Dean-dre Singleton, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound center. The Indians played Region 8 opponents hard, losing to Johnson-Gainesville (29-1) 54-46 in overtime and to Monroe Area (18-12) 47-45.

CLASS AAA It has been a while since Pepperell (11-15, 5-5) has been over .500, but that still didn’t stop the Dragons from making an appearance in the state tournament, sneaking in as a No. 4 seed. Coach Skip Matherly returns seniors

Thomas Eddy, Austin Strickland and Rickey Campbell along with sophomore Malech Wil-son, giving the Dragons some nice experience. They will need to replace high-scorer DeSean Ware, but Pepperell won’t be the only team in Region 5 losing talent. Rockmart and Callaway have lost some important players as well.

CLASS AA Social Circle (8-14, 4-8) has slowly begun to improve under head coach Ken Aldridge. He took over a 1-22 program after the 2012-13 sea-son and improved to 3-23 before finishing 8-14 last season. The Redskins narrowly missed out on a playoff berth, but proved they could play with the competition. No. 3 seed Union County (17-12, 8-4) struggled with the up and coming Skins, actually splitting the series with Social Circle taking game one 49-48, before the Pan-thers won game two 68-67. Junior guard Deion Head is a big time player and averaged 16.8 points and 5.3 assists last year.

CLASS A Trapped in the devastatingly tough Re-gion 6, Pinecrest Academy (10-15, 4-8) still stands a chance of reaching the elusive .500 mark. Ryan McCarthy, Sean Flanigan and John Crone are a trio of highly experienced juniors that give coach Jay Lynch solid options. The playoffs aren’t likely in the cards, but expect the Paladins to be very competitive. Photo courtesy of Ty Freeman.

SANDY’S SPIEL

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

SLEEPERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON THIS SEASON

TYLER TELLS ALL

BY TYLER ANDREWS | INFO@SCOREATL.COM

A LOOK AT COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S FIRST RANKINGS

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OUR TWO CENTSOur email newsletter is something we take a lot of pride in at Score. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a high school sports-heavy publication that we produce each day to fill in our readers on the latest happenings in Georgia prep sports. We send it out Monday through Friday throughout the year and Monday through Saturday during the fall.

Not only do we cover popular sports like football, basketball and baseball, we also cover every other varsity sport the GHSA fields. If you like Georgia high school sports at all, sign up for our email newsletter by visiting www.tinyurl.com/scorenewsletter and enter your email address(es) that you’d like added to the distribution list.

WH

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WH

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Super Cam LuckGrayson Rams KobeChef Curry Officials

Cam Newton had led the Panthers to a 7-0 start on the strength of his arm and legs. Newton has 1,523 yards through the air on the season to go along with 11 touchdowns and has added 286 yards and a team lead-ing four rushing touchdowns for the NFC South leading Panthers.

Andrew Luck has run out of Luck for his 3-5 Colts. Luck is leading the league in interceptions with 12 and threw three on Monday night in a loss to the Carolina Pan-thers in overtime. Luck has struggled mightily this sea-son missing two games due to injury and throwing only 13 touchdowns. Luckily for Luck and the Colts they are tied for the division lead in a weak AFC South.

Grayson has wrapped up at 10-0 season and region title in dominating fashion. The Rams have out scored their oppo-nents 460-76 on the season including pitching three shut-outs. Grayson only had one game decided by single digits, a 26-24 win over a talented Archer team. Look for the Rams to make a push for an-other state championship after winning in 2011.

Kobe Bryant and the Lak-ers have struggled early in the season starting 0-4 and benching starting point guard and 1st round pick D’Angelo Russell. Kobe has had his own struggles shooting just 32.3% from the field and an even worse 20.6% from three-point range. Kobe in his 20th season with the Lakers will look to turn things around quick in LA.

Steph Curry has been on a tear through the first four games of the season aver-aging 37 points per game for the 4-0 and defending NBA Champion Golden State War-riors. Curry has found suc-cess against New Orleans early in the season putting up 40 and 53 in two games against the Pelicans.

Referees have been catching grief all season long and right-fully so with many blown calls, some of which came in prime-time such as the Seattle Monday Night Football game. But things got worse Saturday night as the ACC crew blew the Duke Miami game in which Miami returned a kickoff for a touchdown as time expired using eight laterals and five missed calls by the refs that would have ended the game.

SCORE LISTBy Ned Kaish

NUMBERSBy Ned Kaish

MANZIEL TO START THURSDAYJohnny Manziel will get another chance to prove himself Thursday against the undefeated Bengals as he gets the nod to start for Cleveland in place of the injured Josh McCown. Manziel has appeared in four games this year including one start, which he won. On the season he is 28-50 for 393 yards and three touchdowns to just one interception for the 2-6 Browns.

Georgia had a chance to ride the ship and control their own destiny by beating Florida last Saturday. That did not happen. The Bulldogs lost to No. 11 Florida 27-3 in Jacksonville totaling just 223 yards of total offense. Coach Richt started junior Faton Bauta who finished the game 15-33 for 154 yards with four interceptions. UGA is now 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the SEC.

DAWGS STUMBLE AGAIN

FIRST CFB PLAYOFF POLLThe first College Football Playoff rankings came out this week and the Clemson Tigers are ranked number one. LSU, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame round out the top five. Despite having three undefeated teams the Big 12 didn’t have a single team crack the top 5. Expect the rankings to shake up next week as No. 2 LSU heads to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 4 Alabama Saturday night.

ROYALS BETTER 2ND TIME AROUNDAfter losing by one run in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series the Royals came back to spring training on a mission. That mission was completed Sunday night as the Royals won the World Series in five games over the Mets. In Game 5 the Royals had to come from two runs down in the top of the 9th to tie the game then ripped off five runs in the 12th inning to win 7-2.

HENKLE EARNS WEEKLY HONORKennesaw State safety Taylor Henkle was named the Big South and STATS FCS National Freshman of the Week for his contributions in the Owls 23-13 victory of Monmouth. Henkle finished the game with nine solo tackles, two pass breakups, and a game clinching interception in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. The Owls are now 6-2 on the season and 2-1 in the Big South.

? “

ANSWER ON PAGE 14Dan Quinn on Atlanta’s four turnovers

in the loss to Tampa Bay

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

HOW MANY TURNOVERS HAVE THE FALCONS COMMITTED

THIS SEASON?

“It was disappointing. The main thing for us is the ball. For

us not to have that connection today was

hard on us.”

By

Ned

Ka

ish

56.3

414.8

6

16

3

10

5

0

Kent Bazemore’s 3pt shooting percentage through five games for the 4-1 Hawks.

Falcons total yards per game average which ranks fourth in the NFL.

Interceptions for Georgia Southern senior safety Antonio Glover, which is second in the FBS.

Percent chance that Ohio State wins the CFB Playoff according to FiveThirtyEight Sports, which is the highest probability of any team.

Undefeated teams in the NBA through one week, there are four remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL through eight weeks.

Sacks for the Falcons defense this season, which ranks 31st out of 32 teams.

Undefeated teams left in Class 6A (Colquitt, Camden, Mill Creek, Grayson, Roswell)

Sets dropped by the Walton volleyball team this season to instate opponents

7Vol. 11 Iss. 37 | November 5-11, 2015

It is the last week of the regular season but the playoff picture remains a fight to the fin-

ish in every region across the state’s highest classification. Here is the breakdown of all the scenarios.

REGION 1 (FACES REGION 4 ROUND 1) Undefeated Camden County and Colquitt County square off in Kingsland, Ga. Friday night to determine the No. 1 and 2 seed out of Region 1. Valdosta is currently in position for the No. 3 seed with a 2-2 region record and wins over Lowndes (1-3) and Tift County (0-4). Valdosta plays 1-3 Lee County Friday night for the No. 3 seed. If Lee County beats Valdosta and Lowndes beats Tift County, it would force a three way tie for the final two spots with Valdosta, Lowndes and Lee County all finishing at 2-3.

REGION 4 In Region 4, McEachern (5-0) plays Hill-grove (4-1) for the No. 1 seed. The Indians are guaranteed at least a No. 2 seed regardless of the outcome but Hillgrove is not. If Hillgrove

loses to McEachern and North Cobb (3-2) de-feats Kennesaw Mountain (0-5) it would give the edge to North Cobb for the No. 2 seed, since the Warriors defeated Hillgrove 19-7 this year and would own the tiebreaker. North Paulding finished its season last week at 3-3 and currently sits at No. 4 but Harrison (2-3) has a chance to take the final playoff spot with a win at Marietta on Friday. The Hoyas defeat-ed North Paulding 35-13 this season and would own the tiebreaker with a 3-3 region finish over the 3-3 Wolfpack.

REGION 2 (FACES REGION 3 ROUND 1) Six-team Region 2 will likely see a three way tie for the No. 1 seed as Newton, Love-joy and Tucker each sit at 3-1 entering the fi-nal week but it has already been determined by the ‘Arkansas Point System’ if the top three teams successfully defeat the three teams sit-ting at 1-3 in region play this weekend. If the three top seeds win, there will be no coin flip and Newton will get No. 1, Tucker will get No. 2 and Lovejoy will get No. 3 and Lakeside would

get No. 4. Thanks to Newton head coach Terrance Banks for breaking it down. The Arkansas Point System was capped at 15 as Newton beat Tucker by 15 this year and lost to Lovejoy by 4, giving the Rams 11 points. Tucker lost to New-ton by 15 points but beat Lovejoy by 10 so they have -5. Lovejoy beat Newton by 4 but lost to Tucker by 10, so they have -6. Lakeside lost to Alcovy by 4 but beat Rockdale by 15+, so they have 11. Rockdale got 15 points for the win over Alcovy and minus 15 for the loss over Lakeside to give them zero points. Alcovy received four points for the win over Lakeside and minus 15 points for the lost to Rockdale to cap them at -11. Lovejoy plays a 1-9 Alcovy (1-3 Region), Tucker faces 4-5 Lakeside (1-3 Region) and New-ton hosts 2-7 Rockdale County (1-3 Region).

REGION 3 In Region 3, the four playoff teams are set but the seeding remains a question bar-ring a few upsets. Newnan (5-1), Westlake (5-1), Hughes (5-1) and East Coweta (4-2) are guaranteed playoff spots. Westlake plays 1-9 Campbell Friday and controls its own destiny for the top seed. The Lions defeated Newnan and Hughes this season and their loss was to East Coweta, which has losses to both Hughes and Newnan. Newnan and Hughes play for the No. 2 seed Friday night unless Westlake loses to Campbell and East Coweta defeats South Cobb, which would complicate everything. Since Westlake lost to East Coweta, if Camp-bell found a way to beat the Lions, it would put Westlake, East Coweta and the loser of the Hughes-Newnan game in a tie at 5-2 and the winner of the Hughes-Newnan game would get the No. 1 seed.

REGION 5 (FACES REGION 8 ROUND 1) Roswell (7-0) can clinch the No. 1 seed out of Region 5 with a win over Etowah (6-1) this Friday. An Eagles win over Roswell would force a three-way tie with Walton (6-1) if the Raid-ers can defeat Cherokee this Friday and move to 7-1 in Region play. If Roswell beats Etowah then Walton is guaranteed the No. 2 seed re-gardless of the outcome of their matchup with Cherokee. The No. 4 seed comes down to Las-siter, Wheeler and Milton which all currently sit at 3-4. Milton faces Pope and can keep its playoff hopes alive with a victory but needs

COVER STORY

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

FINAL WEEK SETS UP A STATEWIDE FIGHT FOR 6A PLAYOFF BERTHS

help from Lassiter. Milton lost to Wheeler but would own the tiebreaker over the Trojans with their 18-12 victory. Lassiter’s only hope to make the playoffs is a win over Wheeler and a Milton loss to Pope.

REGION 8 Grayson earned the No. 1 seed after com-pleting a perfect regular season last Friday and Archer clinched No. 2 as it gets set to close the regular season at home with Brookwood this Friday. Central Gwinnett (4-3) is most likely to take the No. 3 seed as they close the season against 0-9 Berkmar and own the tiebreaker over Parkview and Dacula (4-3). Dacula beat Brookwood (4-3) and could clinch the No. 4 seed with a win over Parkview (3-4). Brook-wood would lose the tiebreaker Central Gwin-nett or Dacula but the Broncos could make the playoffs with a win over Archer and a Parkview win over Dacula or with a win over Archer and a Central Gwinnett loss to Berkmar.

REGION 6 (FACES REGION 7 ROUND 1) Lambert (8-0) plays South Forsyth (7-1) for a chance to clinch the No. 1 seed Friday night. If South Forsyth wins, the War Eagles would be the top seed, but a loss could push them all the way to No. 3. West Forsyth can move to 7-2 in region play with a win over Johns Creek on Friday and would own the tiebreaker with South Forsyth after defeating them 38-34 this year. The No. 4 seed is still up for grabs. Johns Creek (4-4) needs the most help. Johns Creek (4-4) must beat West Forsyth on the road and needs Northview (4-4) to beat Cen-tennial (5-4). This would force a three-way tie with 5-4 region records. A Centennial win over Northview would guarantee a No. 4 spot. If Northview beats Centennial and West Forsyth beats Johns Creek then the Titans will take the No. 4 seed.

REGION 7 Region 7 faces only two scenarios. Mill Creek (6-0) hosts Peachtree Ridge (6-0) for the No. 1 seed and the loser will get the No. 2 seed. Norcross (4-2) will host Collins Hill (4-2) for the No. 3 seed and the loser will take No. 4. Photos courtesy of Terrance Johnson.

ON THE COVER

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Know a young athlete who overcame a serious injury or illness? Nominate them for Comeback Athlete of the Month at choa.org/comeback.

This comeback athlete had a long road back. Today it’s 8.5 miles.

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Walton swept its way past South Forsyth 3-0 [25-13, 25-12, 25-21] in the Class

AAAAAA state championship to capture the program’s 10th state title. After doubling South Forsyth’s points output the first two sets (50-25), Walton trailed 17-10 in the third set before head coach Suzanne Fitzgerald re-grouped her team with a timeout. The Raiders responded with eight of the next nine points to tie it 18-18 before finishing off the War Ea-gles 25-21. Senior Celeste Fitzgerald led with 11 digs and an ace on match point. Dalaney Hans finished with 38 assists and Tai Bierria had a team-high 15 kills. Freshmen Gabby Gonzalez and Riley Spurlin added 13 kills and eight kills, respectively.

CLASS AAAAA Columbus rebounded after dropping the opening set and defeated defending champion Sequoyah 3-1 [18-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-19] for

the program’s third state title (2007, 2013). Shardonee Hayes led with 18 kills, three blocks and three digs and teammate Tatyana Wyatt notched 11 kills. Madison Fleming set up the Blue Devils powerful net play with 45 assists and created offense with her 19 digs. Columbus trailed Sequoyah 19-16 in the third set before Summer Hargraves served three consecutive aces and sparked the Blue Devils’ strong finish.

CLASS AAAA Buford (41-0) completed its perfect season with a five set victory over St. Pius (26-24, 25-12, 24-26, 23-25, 15-10) for the program’s first volleyball state title. St. Pius had set point with a 24-21 lead in the opening frame but Buford used five straight points to take the 1-0 edge. Sopho-more Tatum Shipes led Buford with 22 kills and 15 digs. Gabby Curry tallied 13 kills with 20 digs, four aces and two blocks. Morgan Mitchell also fueled Buford with 49 assists.

CLASS AAA It took five sets, but Blessed Trinity was able to repeat as Class AAA state champions beating Westminster 21-25, 25-23, 25-18, 24-26, 15-12. The Titans trailed 23-22 in the second set but used three straight points to avoid a 2-0 hole. the Wildcats held a 23-22 advantage but the Titans scored the final three points of the game. In the fourth set, Westminster down 2-1, held an 11-3 lead but the Titans came storming back to hold a 23-22 edge. A lift call ended the game in favor of Westminster forcing the final set. In the loss, Maya Longacre recorded 28 assists.

CLASS AA Hard hitting senior Haley Collins, senior Joanna Wright and senior assist machine Sar-ah Porter lifted Holy Innocents’ past Lovett in four sets [25-19, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17]. Three-time reigning champion Holy Innocents’ took set one 25-19, lost set two 25-23, then won 25-22 and 25-17 in the championship deciding fourth set. Collins finished match with 16 kills and two aces. Porter notched 19 assists and 11 kills while Wright added 11 kills. Kirby Ellis paced Lovett with 23 assists.

CLASS A Calvary Day shook off a 25-19 set one loss to race past Landmark Christian for the Cavaliers’ first title in school history, 3-1 [19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-14]. Claudia Chisholm led the Cavs in kills with 19 in the match. Cameron Dobbs scored 19 kills for Landmark Christian. Photos courtesy of GA Photographics.

VOLLEYBALL

WALTON SWEEPS ITS WAY TO 10TH STATE TITLEBY CRAIG SAGER, KYLE SANDY AND TYLER ANDREWS

Mill Creek secured a 5-2 victory over Brook-wood for the school’s second softball title

(2008). After a scoreless first three innings, Mi-cayah Rood plated the Hawks first run with an RBI triple. An insurance run in the sixth inning and an inside the park homerun in the seventh by Hannah Adams extended the Hawks lead to 5-0. The Broncos threatened with two runs in last half inning, but their comeback fell short.

CLASS AAAAA Chapel Hill claimed its first title in school history after defeating Houston County 2-1. The Panthers finished their season behind pitcher Ashley Morgan’s four-hit, complete-game. Chapel Hill got on the board when Morgan singled home Shelby Robinson. They scored once more in the inning on a fielder’s choice by Bella CariCari. Houston County scored their lone run in the fourth inning when Emily Simmons crossed the plate on an error.

CLASS AAAA The Buford Wolves finished off Walnut Grove 6-4 to claim their unprecedented ninth straight softball state title. With the scored tied 1-1 in the third inning, Drew Puckett hit a two-run home to give Buford a 3-1 lead. Walnut Grove’s Kylee Love hit a three run homerun in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 5-4. Puckett added insurance on an RBI single in the sixth inning before Logan Caymol closed it out for the Wolves on the mound in the seventh.

CLASS AAA Calhoun defeated Morgan County 1-0 for its third straight state title. This came af-ter Morgan County forced a decisive Game 2 with a 7-5 win over the Yellow Jackets. Calhoun pitcher Kinsey Liscio threw a complete-game shutout. Jana Johns’ solo homerun in the bot-tom of the third inning proved to be the game-winner.

CLASS AA Gordon Lee exploded for nine runs in the top half of the seventh inning to defeat Vidalia 13-1. Bailey Miller batted in a run, Faith Alex-ander scored on a wild pitch and Gracey Kruse doubled to give Gordon Lee its early 3-0 lead. Miller added another RBI single in the top of the fifth before the nine-run explosion two in-nings later. The win gives the Lady Trojans their sixth softball state championship.

CLASS A-PRIVATE Eagle’s Landing Christian cruised past Stratford Academy 8-0 for the program’s sixth state championship. Pitcher Chanel Newcom-er threw a complete game, one-hit shutout. Leading 4-0, the Chargers busted out four runs in the fifth inning. Abigail Rogers went 3-fot-3 with three RBI’s and two runs scored, while Brooke Echols and Caris Wright collected two hits each.

CLASS A-PUBLIC Georgia Military College took care of Tri-on 4-2 en route to their second straight Class A-Public state championship. The Bulldogs cruised through the championship bracket by beating Echols County 2-1, Wilcox County 7-0, and Trion 5-2 before defeating Trion again in the clinching game. Photos courtesy of GA Photographics.

SOFTBALL

MILL CREEK TOPS BROOKWOD 5-2 FOR CLASS AAAAAA TITLEBY CRAIG SAGER, KYLE SANDY AND TYLER ANDREWS

11Vol. 11 Iss. 37 | November 5-11, 2015

12 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

With the 2015 Georgia Bulldogs football season not going the way that many

drew up, some are calling for changes to be made within the program. FoxSports.com’s Bruce Feldman reported earlier in the week that key decision makers at UGA were already discussing plans to move the program forward without head coach Mark Richt. The Bulldogs are 5-3 at this point of the season and have a 3-3 record in SEC play. Even worse, those three losses came in a month where they went 1-3 against Alabama, Tennes-see and most recently Florida. With all the conjecture facing the program right now, Richt has been around for 15 years to endure his fair share of criticism. He under-stands that things don’t always go your way. “Some jobs you might have a bad day at the office and maybe three people know,” Richt said. “We have a bad day at the office in our line of work and millions of people know and millions of people have an opinion, and a lot of people know football. A lot of people think they

The Panthers (2-5, 1-2) were unable to hold onto a crucial conference game on Saturday

night and instead fell on the road to Arkansas State (5-3, 4-0) in a shootout, 48-34. Georgia State matched touchdown for touchdown the Red Wolves and held a 34-27 lead entering the fi-nal quarter before the wheels fell off. The Arkan-sas State defense finally began to settle in and the offense pulled away with three touchdowns. Nick Arbuckle threw for 390 yards, two touchdowns and one interception on 23-of-43 passing. Freshman Penny Hart once again led the team in receiving with seven catches for 128 yards, but it was Keith Rucker who caught two touchdowns on the day. Rucker in total hauled in five balls for 61 yards. The run game received a boost from sophomore wide receiv-er Glenn Smith, who lined up at tailback and carried 16 times for 82 yards. “If we can play for four quarters like we did in the first half, than we can win every game we play,” head coach Trent Miles said. “Our kids will keep fighting and they’re getting better as we go, but at the same time, our expectation is

After knocking off the then No. 9-ranked Florida State Seminoles the previous week,

the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were look-ing to turn their season around at the Virginia Cavaliers. The Yellow Jackets needed to win at least three more games on the year in order to qualify for a bowl game later this year. The Yel-low Jackets led the Cavaliers at the half, 10-7 but were unable to hold them off in the second half to fall 27-21 to fall to 3-6 on the year.

DESPARATE TIMES With the loss, the Yellow Jackets will need to run the table with games against Virginia Tech, Miami and Georgia in order to keep their streak alive of bowl game appearances. Geor-gia Tech has not had a losing conference record in the last 20 years, but that streak will come to an end even if the Yellow Jackets are able to beat Virginia Tech and Miami in the next two games. In the loss, quarterback Justin Thomas

Kennesaw State outscored Monmouth 23-0 in the second and third quarters and im-

proved to 6-2, 2-1 with a 23-13 victory Saturday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium. Monmouth took a 7-0 lead into the second quarter before Jae Bowen got the Owls on the board with a 2-yard rushing touchdown midway through the sec-ond quarter. Kennesaw State forced a three-and-out and eight plays later, Bowen found the end zone again from two yards out on a touch-down pass from Trey White. Justin Thompson added a 37-yard Kennesaw State field goal as time expired before the half and the Owls sat comfortably with a 16-7 lead. Kennesaw State rushed for 341 yards and were 12-of-15 on third down conversions. Chaston Bennett ran for a game-high 124 rush-ing yards off of six carries, his second 100-yard rushing game of the year. He had a season-high 155 yards on eight carries at Dayton. White

know football, you know, so there’s a little bit of everything.”

THE BIG PICTURE Richt has nine seasons with at least 10 wins on his resumé. He has also won two SEC Championships (2002 & 2005) in five trips to the game. The Bulldogs missed the championship game for the third straight year and that has some of the critics upset with him. Especially given the fact that Florida and Tennessee have been down in their success during that time. Remember back to the 2011 season when people were calling for Richt to be let go after los-ing their first two games of the season to Boise State and South Carolina? This was also coming off a 6-7 season, where they capped it off with a loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. Senior wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell was on that ‘11 team and remembers how they reacted to the possibility that the program could be on the verge of change. “The team back then rallied together,” Mitchell said. “We came together, had a meet-ing and said if we continue down the path we’re headed… They’ll make a change. That’s the same thing we’ll have to do.” Georgia has four games remaining with two against their rivals in Auburn and Georgia Tech. If they win out, they’ll finish with a sec-ond straight nine win regular season. A win in the bowl game would match their win total from last year as well.

to win. We had every opportunity to win this football game, and we didn’t get it done. Of course, Arkansas State had something to do with that and give them credit.” As good as Smith was for the Panthers, GSU’s run game paled in comparison to Ar-kansas State’s. The Red Wolves racked up 296 yards on the ground led by Warren Wand’s 11 carries, 119 yards and one touchdown. Quar-terback Fredi Knighten added 54 yards and a score to go along with his 21-for-29 passing, 224 yards, three touchdowns and two inter-ceptions. Chandon Sullivan recorded history with his 25-yard interception return of Knighten, Georgia State’s first pick-six in the Panthers’ six year history. Freshman Marquand Greene also returned a kick 100 yards, becoming just the fourth kick return for touchdown in school history and first since 2012.

RACING TO THE FINISH LINE Georgia State finished fourth among the 11 teams in the Sun Belt Conference Cham-pionship 5k race Sunday at Nash Farm Park Battlefield. The Panthers top finisher, Stepha-nie Berger, earned All-Sun Belt honors (second team) with a ninth-place finish in 18:24. GSU’s other scorers were Sammi Dono-van in 22nd (19:25), Jordan Townsley in 29th (19:45), Alicia Bermudez in 38th (20:06) and Nuria Ramirez in 40th (20:08). Lindsay Shealy was 45th (20:23) and Carina Nieto was 56th (20:56).

threw for a season-high 253 yards on 13 of 31 passing and two touchdowns but it was the run game that lacked. As a team the Yellow Jackets rushed for 144 yards on 33 carries and were led by Clin-ton Lynch who carried the ball three times for 63 yards and a touchdown. Georgia Tech was out-rushed by the Cavaliers who compiled 233 yards on 42 carries. Virginia was led by run-ning back Taquan Mizzell who led the Cavaliers in rushing with 75 yards on 14 carries. “They’ll also have to grow up some,” Georgia tech head coach Paul Johnson said. “When you’ve won three games, you shouldn’t be flat about anything.” The Yellow Jackets made things interest-ing late in the game after Thomas connected with Lynch on a 22-yard touchdown with 1:41 remaining in the game and then recovered an onside kick. Down just six points with the ball, the Yellow Jackets drove the Cavaliers’ 34-yard line but a failed fourth-and-four pass from Thomas sealed the Yellow Jackets’ fate with their sixth loss in their last seven games. Thomas’ 31 attempted passes were the most under Johnson in his eight years as head coach of the Yellow Jackets. It’s safe to say that Georgia Tech isn’t doing what they have been doing in recent years. A lack of run game has led to the Yellow Jackets throwing the ball more and more and has doomed their 2015 season as a result.

finished with 27 carries for 108 yards and a touchdown. His 3-yard TD run in the third quarter was his team-leading ninth touchdown of the season. With seven points allowed in the first quarter versus Monmouth, Kennesaw State has allowed just 85 first-half points and is sur-rendering just 10.6 points in the first. By hold-ing the Hawks scoreless in the third quarter, KSU has allowed just 14 points in third quarter this year, an average of 1.75 points per game. “Let me first of all say how proud I am of our football team and our football program,” said head coach Brian Bohannon. “You really don’t know what the expectations are when you come into a season and you’ve never had one before. All you’re trying to do is get better every week. We have assured ourselves a win-ning season, and that is a big deal.”

SENIOR DAY The Owls conclude their regular-season home schedule on Saturday (Nov. 7) when they host nationally-ranked Charleston South-ern at Fifth Third Bank Stadium beginning at 1 p.m. It will mark Senior Day as Prentice Stone, Ryan Godhigh, Brett Gillespie, Mason Harris and Chaz Cheeks will be recognized. The Owls are 5-0 at home this season.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY DAN MATHEWS | DMATHEWS@SCOREATL.COM

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

BY COLIN HUBBARD | INFO@SCOREATL.COM

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

GEORGIA’S RICHT COULD FINALLY BE ON WAY OUT?

OFFENSE EXPLODES BUT DEFENSE FALTERS

TECH RETURNS TO LOSS COLUMN

OWLS RALLY PAST MONMOUTH FOR SIXTH WIN

13Vol. 11 Iss. 37 | November 5-11, 2015

A home opening loss to the Pistons 106-94 is now a distant memory after Atlanta has

won four straight and hold an early Southeast Division lead at 4-1. The Hawks have proven an ability to win the close ones, beating Charlotte twice, 97-94 and 94-92, while most recently defeating the Heat 98-92. Jeff Teague scored a season-high 26 points on Tuesday to nip Miami on the road. Teague added nine assists and six rebounds in the win. Al Horford notched his second consecutive double-double scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Paul Millsap also posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Hawks finished in the top five in as-sists last year and have been sharing the ball well again this season, averaging 23.6 on the year and dished out 25 in Tuesday night’s win. Atlanta nearly wasted a 15-point lead but coach Budenholzer embraced the early chal-lenge. “Tonight was one of our better games,” Budenholzer said. “I know it’s five games in. They test you in a lot of ways. It’s a step in the

Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons won a Fielding Bible Award for a third consecutive season,

honored as the best defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball. Simmons finished with a career-best .988 fielding percentage, mak-ing only eight errors in 687 chances. He also turned a career-best 126 double-plays. The 26-year-old led all National League shortstops in defensive runs saved (25). Former Brave Jason Heyward repeated as a Fielding Bible Award winner, as well. In his first season with St. Louis, Heyward won for the third time in the last four years. Additionally, Simmons is one of three shortstop finalists for the Gold Glove Award. Unlike the Fielding Bible recognition, Gold Gloves are league-specific—meaning one player from both the National League and American League at each position bags an honor. The Curacao native has won a Gold Glove each of the last two seasons and he has also earned a Platinum Glove Award as the Na-tional League’s best defensive player regard-less of position.

Turnovers, penalties and just about every frustrating mistake imaginable resulted in

the Falcons second division loss of the season Sunday. Atlanta fell behind 20-3 to the visiting Bucs before suffering a 23-20 overtime loss. Atlanta turned the ball over four times, fol-lowing three turnovers against Washington and a pair of giveaways in the loss to New Orleans. “It was disappointing,” said head coach Dan Quinn about the constant turnovers. “The main thing for us is the ball. For us not to have that connection today was hard on us. It was a hard lesson for us. Knowing we’re at our best when we’re taking care of the ball, and also creating takeaways too. It goes both sides with that. It’s not just offense. We didn’t create any defensively. That’s when we’re at our best when we’re able to give the ball to the offense. That whole mix together is what makes us unique. For us not to do that today was hard.” Atlanta added 11 penalties for 124 yards

Each week I will highlight some GHSA basket-ball transfers across the Peach State here at

The Transfer Corner.

BIG ADDITION East Coweta suffered through an abys-mal 1-25 season last year, but new head coach Royal Maxwell will have a nice addition to work with in the powerful Region 3. Elafayette Stone, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Copperas Cove, TX, will be asked to be the focal point for the In-dian offense this upcoming season. Stone is a true back-to-the-basket post player and uses his 245-pound frame to carve out space down low. Stone has soft hands and is an efficient rebounder with the potential to become a dou-ble-double machine.

EDDIE GETS HIS MAN Alex Jones graded out as one of the best freshmen in the state last year and was named AAAAAA Freshman of the Year by HoopSeen. He helped lead Alpharetta to a 25-6 record and 18-0 Region 6 record. The floor general aver-

right direction.” Horford also felt like Atlanta has had a positive start to the 2015-16 season. “It’s still very early in the season but we are optimistic about how we are playing,” Hor-ford said. “There is still a lot of basketball to play. We feel good about the team we have.” Hassan Whiteside did much of the damage for the Heat, scoring a team-high 23 points and grabbing 14 rebounds to go along with his four blocks. Goran Dragic contributed 19 points while Dwyane Wade recorded his 1,000th career dunk and grabbed the 25,000th offensive rebound in Heat history en route to a 21-point night.

RAIDING THE HORNETS Last week the Hawks enjoyed a home-and-away sweep of the Charlotte Hornets. On Fri-day, Millsap and Horford both scored 18 points while Teague and Dennis Schroder pitched in 14 apiece, but it was Kent Bazemore’s 19 points that led Atlanta to a 97-94 win. In game two, Atlanta nearly blew a 46-39 halftime advantage after allowing a 37-point third quarter. The Hawks entered the fourth down 76-70 before holding onto a 94-92 vic-tory at Time Warner Cable Arena on Sunday. Bazemore once again powered Atlanta with 20 points. Teague finished with 18 and Horford and Millsap pitched in 16 apiece.

UP NEXT Atlanta hosts Brooklyn (0-4) on Wednes-day at 8 p.m. The Nets are off to their worst start since setting an NBA record by going 0-18 to open 2009-10.

NL EAST WATCH The National League East this season featured the team that was favored to win the World Series when 2015 began and the team that actually ended up reaching the World Se-ries. So it is safe to say Atlanta has its work cut out for it as the club tries to rebuild back into contention—especially by 2017, when the new SunTrust Park opens in Cobb County. After an impressive run to the Fall Clas-sic that included a five-game battle with Los Angeles and a four-game sweep of the Cubs, the Mets fell to Kansas City in five games. New York led by at least two runs in four of the five contests but struggled mightily in late-inning pressure situations. It lost both Game 1 and the Game 5 clincher in extra innings. The Nationals have made a manage-rial change following yet another year of un-matched expectations. Matt Williams is out after guiding Washington to an 83-79 record, which left it seven games back of New York in the division. Fumbling their search for a new manager to a similar extent that they messed up on the field of play throughout 2015, the Nationals initially picked Bud Black. But the former Padres’ boss balked at a one-year deal and laughed in the face of the ensuing proposal for two years and fewer than $2 million. Talks broke down at that point and Washington went with Dusty Baker. The 66-year-old has previ-ously managed the Giants, Cubs and Reds.

in the loss but the turnovers remained the main concern. “Three of our four turnovers were on the plus side of the 50,” said Matt Ryan, who com-pleted 37 of 45 passes for 397 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. “That’s directly taking points off the board. I thought we battled. We did kind of everything we wanted to offensive-ly, other than protect the football. I think we had a few too many penalties as well.” Atlanta visits San Francisco this Sunday before a bye week that sets up a Week 11 tilt with the Colts.

MAKING MOVES The Atlanta Falcons announced Tuesday that they have signed wide receiver C.J. Good-win to the practice squad and have released wide receiver LaRon Byrd from the practice squad. Goodwin, 6-3, 190 pounds, was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a college free agent following the 2014 NFL Draft out of California University of Pennsylvania. He spent the 2014 season as a member of the Steelers practice squad. Byrd, 6-4, 220 pounds, was originally signed by the Arizona Cardinals as a college free agent following the 2012 NFL Draft out of Miami. He played in four games for the Cardi-nals in 2012.

aged a double-double in points and assists and was a lock down defender on the perim-eter. Jones will fill in for Tre Hansbrough, who signed to play at Tennessee Tech after averag-ing 23 points per game his senior season at Buford.

EAST JACKSON SUPER SOPHOMORES Lamont Smith joins super sophomore Drue Drinnon at East Jackson after playing a big role in Buford’s offense as a freshman. Tra-vis Anderson has also landed at East Jackson after originally going to Grayson after a suc-cessful season at Holy Innocents’ which led to the playmaking guard being named by Hoop-Seen as the Class AA Freshman of the Year. Anderson proved he could score and pass at a high-rate and was tabbed to make Grayson a contender in Region 8-AAAAAA with Austin Dukes and Alphonso Willis. Instead, after play-ing with Grayson this year in the HoopSeen Fall League, the news broke that the talented guard will be teaming up with Drinnon and Buford Smith in the Eagles’ backcourt. The addition automatically makes East Jackson a player to make a deep run in state if the front court can be productive as well.

PACING THE KNIGHTS Isaiah Kelly provides Pace head coach Demetrius Smith with an embarrassment of riches inside. Kelly will join top nationally ranked big man Wendell Carter Jr. and will like-ly give the Knights a say when it comes to the state championship. As a freshman, he aver-aged 16.2 points and 10.5 rebounds in Augusta.

ATLANTA HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

ATLANTA FALCONS

THE TRANSFER CORNER

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

BY RICKY DIMON | RDIMON@SCOREATL.COM

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

HAWKS BEAT THE HEAT; SWAT HORNETS

SIMMONS HONORED WITH ANOTHER FIELDING BIBLE AWARD

TURNOVERS PLAGUE FALCONS IN LOSS TO BUCS

EAST JACKSON LANDS TOP SOPHOMORES

14 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

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15Vol. 11 Iss. 37 | November 5-11, 2015

HIGH SCHOOL

2015

INAUGURAL HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS SUMMIT

THE FASTEST GROWING MARKETPLACE IN SPORTS

PRESENTED BY

FOR MORE INFORMATION: GO TO WWW.BIZJOURNALS.COM/ATLANTA/EVENT/125791

12.9.15 $85

COBB ENERGY PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

KEYNOTE SPEAKERJOHN SMOLTZ & KEVIN BUTLER

7:30 AM TO12:00 NOON

This one-of-a-kind event will focus on the business of high school sports in Georgia and its impact on our business and community. This event takes a look at the niche market of high school sports, which continues to grow at an exponential rate with support from major corporate partners and local businesses as well as an overwhelming

support from Atlanta’s professional sports teams.