VOLUME 10 ISSUE 41 | NOVEMBER 6-13, 2014 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

DOWN TO BUSINESSOne Friday left to sort the state playoffs. | Pg. 5

Golden Girls | Pg. 8

A Better Half | Pg. 4

Volleyball and softball’s 2014 state champions crowned

Falcons look for turnaround after mid-season bye.

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3Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

PUBLISHER/EDITOR I.J. Rosenberg

ART/CREATIVE DIRECTOR DJ Galbiati Blalock

ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Craig Sager II

MARKETING/ Lauren Goldstein

PARTNERSHIP DIRECTOR

BUSINESS MANAGER Marvin Botnick

BEAT WRITERS Ricky Dimon (Braves)

Matthew Cason (Tech)

Brian Jones (KSU)

Dan Mathews (UGA)

Craig Sager II (Falcons)

Kyle Sandy (Hawks, GSU)

Stephen Black (Silverbacks)

STAFF WRITERS Jalisa Smith

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GEORGIA STATE | KENNESAW STATE GEORGIA | GEORGIA TECH

BRAVES | FALCONS HAWKS | SILVERBACKS

COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ATLANTA FALCONS, ANNIE APPLETON, RONNIE BABBITT, EDDIE SENKBIEL AND TY FREEMAN.

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The Maxwell Playoff Projections were re-leased on Wednesday as we gear up for the

final weekend of the regular season. Twenty-seven region titles are still up for grabs, but the Maxwell Ratings are able to calculate 1,000,000 simulations for each classification through a projected playoff brackets. Each of the million simulations goes through the first round until it calculates a state champion. Colquitt County topped the list of state title favorites and the simulations crowned the top-ranked Packers state champions in Class AAAAAA more than 85 percent of the time. Allatoona was a surprising 55 percent favorite in Class AAAAA, which was the result of an easier path to the finals than top-ranked Ware County. Class AAAA Buford 81%, Class AAA Washington County 39%, Class AA Vidalia 30%, Class A Public’s Marion County 47% and Class A-Private’s Mount Paran 51% make

up the rest of projected state champs.

SLOW YOUR ROLL… With the thrill of playoffs a week away, it is understandable why we look ahead during the final week of the regular season, but it’d be a disservice not to revisit the historic wins and thrilling action that got us here. Winder-Barrow’s first-year head coach Health Webb led the Bulldogs to a 37-35 victory over Clarke Central on Oct. 24. The win marked the first-time in Winder-Barrow’s 66-year history that it defeated the Gladiators. Winder-Barrow only won six total games in the six seasons prior to this year and it can improve to 6-4 with a win over visiting Heritage-Conyers on Friday. Archer began the season No. 1 in the Class AAAAAA poll but was sent out of the rankings two weeks later in what eventually turned into a three-game losing streak. The

Tigers are back, however, and last week’s 24-10 win over previously undefeated Dacula proves it. The Tigers didn’t let three one-pos-session losses haunt them and they are likely to end Friday night in a three-way tie for the Region 8 title.

HIDDEN DRAGON… Every season has surprise teams and players and the Pickens Dragons match both criteria. Pickens is one win away from a school-record nine-win season and can capture its first-ever region title with a win over Cart-ersville. Leading Pickens is Shannon Brooks, a Minnesota-commit that leads the state in rushing. Brooks has taken 181 carries for 2,043 yards (11.3 ypc) and 31 touchdowns. Brooks also has eight receptions for 164 yards and a touchdown, and he’s even gone 2-for-2 passing for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Brooks is committed to Minnesota.

LEADING THE PACK… Colquitt County is on the opposite spec-trum of the underdogs and currently cracks the top 3 in the USA Today national polls. A seem-ingly unstoppable cast of playmakers has led the Packers to their 9-0 start on both sides of the football, but even with all that talent and dominating performances, running back Si-hiem King has been able to put himself in con-sideration for Georgia Player of the Year. King has rushed for 1,116 yards and 18 touchdowns on 134 carries (7.3 ypc).

GAME OF THE WEEK… Out of all the storylines heading into Week 12, Region 7-AAAAAA is one we will all have a close eye on. North Gwinnett, Mill Creek, Peachtree Ridge, Norcross and Collins Hill are all in the playoff race. North Gwinnett has a very winnable matchup with Mountain View, but Norcross at Collins Hill and Mill Creek at Peachtree Ridge sets up two epic bouts. Norcross has lost consecutive region games to Peachtree Ridge and Mill Creek and sits at 4-2 in region play. Collins Hill is 3-3 and a win over Norcross would put the Eagles in the postseason and eliminate the two-time de-fending state champs. Norcross heads in as a favorite but the Blue Devils have struggled the past two weeks, get-ting outscored 65-2. North Gwinnett’s only loss in region play was to Norcross, so a win over Meadowcreek would crown the Bulldogs region champs once again due to wins over Mill Creek and Peachtree Ridge. The winner of Peachtree Ridge and Mill Creek will take the two seed if North Gwinnett wins. Mill Creek has outscored its last four opponents 199-21 and looks deter-mined for a high seed in the playoffs after fail-ing to punch a ticket last November, despite a potent offense and 6-4 final record. Photo courtesy of Sonny Kennedy.

With the halfway point of the season come and gone, the home stretch of the NFL

schedule is here. There have been unexpected storylines thus far that even the most precise of NFL pundits couldn’t have predicted: The Car-dinals holding the best record in the league, the re-emergence of Ben Roethlisberger, the New York Jets dumpster fire, and of course the strug-gles of the NFC South. With the playoffs near-ing, can Atlanta’s own find a way to turn their season around? The schedule doesn’t seem that friendly, but games aren’t played on paper. This Sunday, Atlanta gets to face Tampa Bay, which has been a cure to all struggling teams’ ailments this season. The Falcons embar-rassed the listless Bucs on a Thursday in Septem-

ber. Lovie Smith’s bunch has shown no heart or desire to turn things around and look like they are in hot pursuit of landing Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston. Tampa usually is good for one win a year against Atlanta, but I would strongly suggest betting the mortgage that Matt Ryan will slice through the swiss-cheese defense of the Bucs and get the team back on the winning track. Things get much more difficult after Week 10 however. Carolina hosts the Falcons in what looks to be a crucial game in the division race. The loser most likely will have its playoff hopes damaged unless the Saints falter. Atlanta has yet to face the Panthers, but should have a chance for success. The once dominant defense has struggled mightily this season and could be

susceptible to the Atlanta passing game. Upstart Cleveland visits Atlanta clinging onto playoff aspirations. Now 5-3, the Browns may play spoiler to the Falcons’ second half run. With a talented secondary led by Joe Haden, Ju-lio Jones and Roddy White will have to work ex-tra hard to get open. Brian Hoyer has been one of the league’s least accurate passers which should benefit the Atlanta defense. If the Falcons can muster up a pass rush and move the ball on of-fense, the Dirty Birds could be in business. The next three opponents are a murders row coming in at 18-7 combined. The Cardinals cur-rently boast the best record in the league and are adept at stuffing the run. Green Bay has shaken off a slow start and will welcome Atlanta to Lambeau Field in Week 14. Antone Smith and Steven Jack-son will need to have big games in the frozen tun-dra. The Packers have the worst rushing defense in the league allowing over 153 yards per game. Something will have to give as the Falcons average just 95.6 per game on the ground. Controlling the clock, avoiding turnovers, and keeping Aaron Rod-gers off the field will likely be the most effective game plan for coach Mike Smith.

SUPER BOWL QBS... After dealing with Rodgers, it does not get much easier with Roethlisberger and the Steel-

ers. Le’Veon Bell has excelled out of the back-field while Antonio Brown has taken over as the league leader in receiving yards. Roethlisberger seemingly has found the fountain of youth in his past two games throwing for six touchdowns in each. The Falcons will need their 12th man to get loud at home to try and disrupt an offense that is clicking on all cylinders. The final two games of the season for the Falcons are at New Orleans and then home against the Panthers. In an opening day clas-sic, Atlanta managed to eke out a victory in overtime against the Saints 37-34. The two fierce rivals always seem to play entertaining and meaningful games in their domes. Drew Brees and friends will try to avenge the open-ing day loss and place a potential dagger in the Falcons’ playoff chances if they are still alive. As you can see, the road is an arduous one for the Falcons. If they are able to come out of the bye week refreshed and reel off three consecutive wins, they will be right back in the hunt and a game under .500. Of course the Falcons will need a little help; the Saints have a grueling schedule loaded with AFC North teams. Smith has an opportunity to put togeth-er a magical second half run but the question is: will they be able to do it? Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons.

SAGER SAYS

SANDY’S SPIEL

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED ENTERING THE PLAYOFFS

COULD THE SECOND HALF PROVIDE PLAYOFF PUSH FOR FALCONS?

5Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

The Region 4-AAAAAA title will be at stake when McEachern and Hillgrove wrap up

their regular seasons on Friday night. Hillgrove, which sits one game behind 5-0 McEachern at 4-1 in the region, has home-field advantage. Colquitt County, the only undefeated team in the highest classification, secured the Region 1 championship by taking care of Tift County last week. Tucker has clinched the Re-gion 2 title, Alpharetta has sealed the deal in Region 6 and Westlake assured itself of the top seed out of Region 3 by defeating South Cobb last Saturday. North Gwinnett will triumph in Region 7 if it beats Mountain View this week. Alpharetta’s title means former offensive co-ordinator Jacob Nichols will likely be the lone first-year head coach to lift a region winner’s trophy in Class AAAAAA this year. There are four head-to-head showdowns for Class AAAAA region titles this week. Both Houston County and Northside-Warner Robins are 7-1 in the region and one game up on both Jones County and Warner Robins. That means

the regular-season finale between Houston County—which is playing at home—and North-side-Warner Robins is for the No. 1 seed. The other three contests with titles at stake are official championship games be-tween sub-region winners. Drew is visiting Stockbridge in Region 4, Stephenson is mak-ing the trip to Creekside in Region 6 and Kell is hosting Dalton for the top spot in Region 7. Both Drew (over Mundy’s Mill) and Stock-bridge (over Dutchtown) won their respective sub-regions based on head-to-head tiebreak-ers. Creekside came out on top of a three-way tie in its sub-region with Carver-Atlanta and Mays by sporting a superior record against Class AAAAA competition. Harris County, Ware County, Allatoona and Lanier have already locked up region titles. Lanier won its first-ever region title by beating Region 8 foe Winder-Barrow last week. The Longhorns got two rushing touchdowns from Tario Fuller and a game-clinching interception return for a touchdown by Jeremy Taylor.

CHAOS IN 5-AAAA … In Region 5-AAAA, Woodward was upset by Whitewater last week but still controls its own destiny as it visits Carrollton on Friday. The War Eagles hold the head-to-head tie-breaker over Sandy Creek by virtue of their 28-7 victory on Oct. 24. However, a four-way tie at the top is still possible. That would be the case if Woodward loses to Carrollton, Sandy Creek goes down to Fayette County and Whitewater beats Troup. Regions 3 and 6, on the other hand, are far less cluttered. In fact, their championships have already been decided. Wayne County has clinched the No. 1 seed out of Region 3, while the Burke County-Thomson winner will snag No. 2. St. Pius X has secured the Region 6 title and Marist will be the second seed. Arabia Mountain vs. Colum-bia will decide the final two spots. Columbia is already in, whereas an Arabia Mountain loss would eliminate it and put Lithonia in the state tournament. Class AAAA features five championship games between sub-region winners. Worth County is hosting Cairo in Region 1, Mary Persons entertains West Laurens in Region 2, 2013 state champion Griffin is heading to East-side with the Region 4 title at stake, the Region 7 showdown pits Pickens against host Carters-ville and Buford travels to Stephens County in Region 8. Blessed Trinity is expected to wrap up the No. 1 seed in Region 4-AAA when it fac-es the other sub-region winner, Cedar Grove, in Friday’s championship game. The play-in games in that region are North Clayton at Westminster and Jackson at Washington. The Jackson-Washington clash is a rematch of a regular-season game played on Sept. 12, won by Jackson 28-27. Elsewhere in Class AAA, Central-Carroll is traveling to Callaway for the Region 5 title game. The undefeated Lions had two 100-yard rushers (Jayleen Terry and Byron Brown) in last week’s win over Rockmart that clinched their sub-region. Lumpkin County is paying a visit to West Hall for the Region 7 championship game and Hart County is hosting Jefferson with the No. 1 seed in Region 8 at stake. Traditional powerhouses Washington County (Region 3) and Calhoun (Region 6) have already clinched top seeds in the state playoffs.

TODD GURLEY

BY CRAIG SAGER II & RICKY DIMON

HILLGROVE, CREEKSIDE AND BLESSED TRINITY HOST REGION CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES

THREE-WAY TIES? … In Class AA, we could see a three-way tie take place in Region 2 on Friday night. Brooks County finished its regular season last week with a 5-1 region record and Thomasville and Fitzgerald enter this week sitting at 4-1. Brooks County lost to Fitzgerald and beat Thomasville. Thomasville beat Fitzgerald and lost to Brooks County. If the three-way tie occurs, Fitzgerald is No. 1, Brooks County is No. 2 and Thomasville is No. 3 seed. Fitzgerald is playing Seminole County and Thomasville hosts Early County. A possibility of a three-way tie scenario also exists in Region 8. Rabun County (5-0), Greene County (4-1) and Union County (4-1) are all in the hunt for a share of the region title. If Greene County beats Rabun County and Union County tops Washington-Wilkes, all three teams would be 5-1 in region play. Wash-ington-Wilkes will be the No. 4 seed regardless of the results with a 3-2 region mark entering Friday. Region 3 is currently a logjam with Dublin finishing the season last week at 4-2 and Jef-ferson County, Screven County and Swains-boro each entering their finales at 4-1. Swains-boro hosts Jefferson County and Screven County hosts Metter. Screven County owns the tiebreaker over Swainsboro and Jefferson County but the Gamecocks lost to Dublin last week. The Jefferson County-Swainsboro win-ner would take the No. 1 seed only if Screven County loses. Championships in Class A Regions 3, 6 and 7 will be decided by head-to-head col-lisions on Friday. Emanuel County Institute is playing at Calvary Day in Region 3, Mount Paran is hosting Mount Pisgah for the Region 6 title and Aquinas will try to take care of busi-ness at home against Tattnall Square in Region 7. Region 8 also has to be decided, although the picture is less clear. Commerce, Prince Av-enue Christian and Athens Christian are locked in a three-way tie at 6-1 and they are all 1-1 in the proverbial round-robin meetings between the three teams. All three are playing at home on Friday: Commerce vs. Lakeview Academy, Prince Avenue Christian vs. Providence Chris-tian and Athens Christian vs. Hebron Christian. Photos courtesy of Ronnie Babbitt and Lorie Lawing.

ON THE COVER

6 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

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.

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O’S

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Sequoyah Volleyball

Georgia BulldogsJeff TeagueAtlanta

SilverbacksSynjyn Days Camden County

The Lady Chiefs captured their first state title defeating Columbus in an epic five-set classic at Marietta High School. After trailing two sets to one, Sequoyah managed to win set four and force a tie-breaking fifth set, winning 15-11. Troy commitment Logan Page took over in the final sets and helped end her career in style hoisting the trophy.

Ow! That is the sound of Georgia fans after they were chomped by the Gators in Jacksonville. The usually low octane offense of Florida gashed the Dawgs for 418 yards on the ground. Will Muschamp’s team threw the ball just six times compared to 60 rushing attempts. Would this have happened against a Todd Grantham defense?

Splitting their first two games, the Hawks were led by point guard Jeff Teague who has averaged 22.5 points and 7 as-sists. Teague scored 11 of his 25 points in the first quarter in their home opener win over the Indiana Pacers. If Teague can manage to stay aggressive on offense and limit his turnovers, the Hawks should have a chance to win the division.

Atlanta’s only pro soccer team finished off their 2014 sea-son ending up in last place. A coaching change with a month remaining in the season seemed to give the team some more life, but not enough to capture a win. Winless since August, the Silverbacks will look forward to a clean slate moving ahead.

After a tumultuous collegiate career starting as a quarter-back, then moving to A-back and now B-back, Synjyn Days recorded a career high 147 yards rushing. Days had just 16 carries coming into the Pittsburgh game two weeks ago, but after an injury to Zach Laskey, the Hillgrove graduate has rushed for 257 yards in his two starts.

The historic streak of 26 straight seasons with a playoff berth has come to an end after the Wildcats fell to Lee County 40-23, dropping to 5-4 and 0-4 in the region. The loaded 1-AAAAAA was a whole other animal this season and the Cats were unable to tame it. The proud program will try to finish the season strong and reload for next year.

SCORE LISTBy Brian Jones

NUMBERSBy Matt Cason

BACK AT ITAfter having the week off, the Falcons are back in action as they take on Tampa Bay Bucs. As much as the Falcons have struggled this season, the Bucs have struggled even more with a 1-7 record. This should be a game the Falcons win, and they need to win just to feel good about themselves.

The Bulldogs were the heavy favorite going into the game against Florida. But that was not the case as the Gators ran over the Bulldogs 38-20. As bad as the loss was, Georgia has to move on and face a dangerous Kentucky team on the road. Can the Bulldogs bounce back after getting embarrassed in Jacksonville?

ROUT IN JACKSONVILLE

SUCCESSFUL DEBUTThe Hawks had their home opener on Saturday and it was a huge success to say the least. Not only did they beat the Indiana Pacers but everyone was treated to a T.I. concert and they also got free shirts. My plan is to go as many Hawks game as possible. I like the makeup of the team and they have a chance to do some big things this season.

KEEP IT GOINGAfter taking care of Virginia with no problems, Georgia Tech will look to make it three wins in a row when they travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face N.C. State. The Wolfpack were on a four-game losing streak, but they got a much-needed win over Syracuse last Saturday. It should be an interesting game, but Tech should be able to win with no issues.

THE FINAL WEEKThis is the last week of the high school football regular season and there are region championship games being played all over the state. Don’t forget to check out our Atlanta Falcons Game of the Week which features Mill Creek and Peachtree Ridge. Be sure to check out that game as well as out statewide scoreboard on scoreatl.com.

? “

ANSWER ON PAGE 14- Georgia AD Greg McGarity on

handling the Todd Gurley situation.

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

WHAT UNIVERSITY IS GEORGIA’S LEADING RUSHER

THIS SEASON, PICKENS RUNNING BACK SHANNON BROOKS, COMMITTED TO?

“We’re just about telling the truth around here. I don’t

understand it when people are getting upset with someone that’s being honest, truthful, wants to run their program the right way, and abide by the rules. I’m not so sure I

understand that argument.”

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First-time volleyball state champs: North Cobb, Sequoyah, and Hebron Christian.

No-hitters by Pope pitcher Kelly Barnhill during her varsity career

Consecutive volleyball state titles won by Cobb County in Georgia’s highest classification

Consecutive state softball titles won by Buford

According to Maxwell Projections, that Colquitt County will win the state championship

Total points allowed by Greater Atlanta Christian over last four games.

Consecutive games with 100-plus rushing yards for Nick Chubb

Rushing yards allowed by Georgia in its loss to Florida

7Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

A TWO-TOUCHDOWN DEFICIT IS NOTHING AFTER YOU’VE COME BACK FROM CANCER.

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

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The career of Pope senior Kelly Barnhill cul-minated in fitting fashion when she pitched

a no-hitter to help the Greyhounds clinch the Class AAAAAA state championship last Satur-day in Columbus. Barnhill fired her 20th career no-no, which also capped off a tournament in which she compiled a 4-0 record. Pope opened the double-elimination tournament with a 6-2 win over Harrison then beat Brookwood 3-0, Lassiter 4-0 and Hillrove 4-0 to clinch the championship. In the clincher, Hannah Rogers provided offense in support of Barnhill by going 2-for-2 with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly. Whereas Pope had been unranked prior to the season, the Class AAAA proceedings went more according to plan. Buford captured an eighth consecutive state title and finished the season with a 37-1 record after taking care of upstart Thomas County Central 9-1 in the final game. Bria Bush wrapped up her 2014 cam-

paign with a one-hitter in which she mowed down five hitters in six innings of work while improving to 19-0. At the plate, Remington Hasty, Alexus Murray and Baylee Sexton all drove in multiple runs for the Wolves.

EIGHT IS GREAT… Like Buford, Calhoun repeated as cham-pions despite making a jump in classification. Whereas the Wolves had climbed from Class AAA to Class AAAA, the Yellow Jackets moved from Class AA to Class AAA. Still, Calhoun managed to secure a second straight state title despite being pushed to a deciding game by Ringgold. The Tigers lost to Calhoun 5-2 in the winners’ bracket, won the losers’ bracket and then beat the Yellow Jackets 12-9 to force a win-ner-take-all situation. Calhoun answered with a 12-9 victory, getting a home run from Jana Johns in a crucial four-run fourth inning.

Other champions throughout the state were Greenbrier, Heard County, Eagle’s Land-ing Christian Academy and Georgia Military.

WARRIOR DASH… North Cobb edged North Gwinnett last Saturday for the school’s first volleyball state title, taking the Class AAAAAA champion-ship (25-21, 24-26, 18-25, 25-13, 15-9). North Gwinnett took the second and third set to gain a 2-1 lead but the Warriors heated up in the fourth set. With it knotted at 3-3, North Cobb used two 10-3 scoring bursts to force a fifth set. The Warriors trailed North Gwinnett 5-2 in the final set before taking their first lead at 7-6 and finishing off the Bulldogs. Sequoyah also claimed its first state title, edging defending Class AAAA state champion Columbus in five sets (17-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 15-11) . The Chiefs dropped the opening set and trailed 2-1 heading into the fourth frame. Ten ties and eight lead changes highlighted the fourth set before Sequoyah’s Logan Page found open court and dropped in a winner on set point. Sequoyah used a 6-1 run in the fifth set to build a 9-6 lead and hold off the Blue Devils. Marist won the Class AAAA champion-ship in five sets (22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 15-12) over Buford. The fifth set was locked 12-12 but Sydney Leimbach and Marist stuffed Buford’s attack to take the final three points.

Marist’s Leimbach notched a team-high 24 kills and Hanna Weiland led with 54 assists.

REDEMPTION SONG… After finishing state runner-up last year and also runner-up to Westminster in this season’s Region 4-AAA championship, Blessed Trinity found its edge. The Titans avenged their recent loss to the Wildcats by cruising to the sweep (25-17, 25-22, 25-13). Amber MacDonald recorded 20 digs, while Blessed Trinity also got 11 kills from Annie Dempsey and 16 assists from Maggie Rick. Despite moving up to Class AA, Holy In-nocents’ secured back-to-back state cham-pionships for the first time in team history by beating Lovett (25-22, 25-20, 30-28). In the third set, Lovett took a 24-21 lead after Bears’ head coach Taylor Noland incurred a point penalty for an illegal substitution. Holy Inno-cents’ answered, saving all three set points to even things at 24-24 before finally capitalizing on their fifth championship point at 29-28. The Bears once again relied on the leadership and defensive skills of lone senior Sarah Joe. In Class A, Hebron Christian captured its first volleyball title by triumphing over Savannah Christian in four sets (25-20, 13-25, 25-19, 25-18). Hebron Christian was led by seniors Alli Johnson’s (13 kills) and Courtney Civelli (28 digs). Photos courtesy of Georgia Photographics and Anne Appleton.

STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

SOFTBALL, VOLLEYBALL CROWN 2014 STATE CHAMPSBY CRAIG SAGER II & RICKY DIMON

9Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

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10 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

6.. Greater Atlanta Christian7.................. Pace Academy8.................................Coosa9....................Lamar County10........................Darlington

6...........................Jeff Davis7...........................Wesleyan8..........................Armuchee9...................... Social Circle10..................... Swainsboro

1.................Holy Innocents’2................................ Lovett3.......................... Wesleyan4....................... Gordon Lee5......................St. Vincent’s

1....................Heard County2....................... Gordon Lee3....................Bacon County4...............................Vidalia5.............................. Harlem

Class AA

Class AA

1.............. Hebron Christian2.......... Savannah Christian3..................................ELCA4...............................Walker5......... Landmark Christian

1................Georgia Military2...................Wilcox County3...................Schley County4................Johnson County5....................Telfair County

1..................................ELCA2.. Prince Avenue Christian3......First Presbyterian Day4...............Athens Christian5....................... Brookstone

6......................Mount Paran7......... Fellowship Christian8....................... Calvary Day9............... Athens Academy10 Prince Avenue Christian

6..............................Treutlen7...................................Trion8................... Echols County9.........................Mount Zion10.............. Charlton County

6............Stratford Academy7..Tattnall Square Academy8....................... Calvary Day9....Mt Vernon Presbyterian10.....Strong Rock Christian

Class A

Class A-Public

Class A-Private

1........................North Cobb2............................Harrison3..................North Gwinnett4...............................Walton5...................... East Coweta

1..................................Pope2.............................Lassiter3............................Hillgrove4....................... Brookwood5.........................Collins Hill

1..........................Sequoyah2..........................Columbus3....................... River Ridge4.........................Dunwoody5........................ Cambridge

1........................ Greenbrier2........................ Cambridge3...................... Union Grove4..........................Northgate5....................Harris County

1................................Marist2............................... Buford3..................... Sandy Creek4...........................St. Pius X5........ Woodward Academy

1............................... Buford2.... Thomas County Central3.............Heritage-Catoosa4..........................Carrollton5.................... Walnut Grove

6..................... John’s Creek7..............................Roswell8....................South Forsyth9............................. Lassiter10.............................Etowah

6............................ Harrison7................................Archer8.......................East Coweta9....................South Forsyth10...........................Lambert

6........ Northside-Columbus7.................Camden County8..................................... Ola9........................... Allatoona10......................... McIntosh

6......................... Chapel Hill7..................................... Ola8.............. Woodland-Henry9..............Effingham County10............. South Effingham

6.................... North Oconee7.......................... North Hall8.......................... Ridgeland9..............Heritage-Catoosa10........ Northwest Whitfield

6................... Wayne County7.......... Northwest Whitfield8................................ Marist9................ Madison County10..................... Pike County

Score Atlanta Final Volleyball Rankings

Score Atlanta Final Softball Rankings

Class AAAAAAClass AAAAAA1..................Blessed Trinity2..................... Westminster3..................Oconee County4........................Sonoraville5.................. Savannah Arts

1.............................Calhoun2............................Ringgold3............Central-Carrollton4................... Dodge County5................... Pierce County

6............................ East Hall7..............................Decatur8..................Morgan County9........................... Jefferson10............ Lakeview-Ft Ogl.

6................. Dawson County7...................Blessed Trinity8......................Westminster9...................Tattnall County10...............Jackson County

Class AAA

Class AAA

Class AAAAAClass AAAAA

Class AAAAClass AAAA

11Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

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DEC. 20 – 22 DEC. 26 – 28

@MarvelOnTour

12 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

A week ago at this time, Georgia fans were thinking that at number 11 in the most re-

cent College Football Playoff rankings that the National Championship could still be a realistic goal. Now that the Georgia-Florida game has passed and the Gators came out victorious 38-20, that goal seems all but impossible now. With the loss on Saturday, and Missouri’s 20-10 win over Kentucky, Georgia is now trail-ing Mizzou for the SEC East title. In fact, Geor-gia will now need to win out this season in its final two conference games and then worry about whether or not the Tigers lose one of their last three remaining SEC games. On Tuesday, the mood of the players and coach Mark Richt in Athens still remained rela-tively positive. That said, there’s still a feeling of business to be done among players like se-nior defensive tackle Toby Johnson. “We’ve moved on from last week,” John-son said. “Right now, it’s just about one game

Hannah Stefanoff ended her Sun Belt Cross Country career in style bringing home the

individual title Sunday in Mobile, Ala. With a time of 16:57.7, the senior from Grandview Heights, Ohio was able set a personal record and become the Panthers’ second runner to win the title in the last three years. Stefanoff improved on last season’s third place finish and managed to control the race according to coach Chris England. “She wisely ran a con-servative race and stayed behind the lead-ers for them to break the wind in their face,” said England. “Then, she made a strong, con-fident move with about 1,000m to go and no one could stay with her.” As a team, Georgia State finished fifth overall out of 11 teams. The Panthers’ next race will be in the NCAA South Region on November 14th in Tallahassee, Fla.

NOT SO WINTER WONDERLAND… A frigid Kidd Brewer Stadium caused troubles for the Georgia State passing attack this past Saturday. The Panthers were unable

The Yellow Jackets are ranked once again. In the College Football Playoff committee’s

second official poll, Georgia Tech was ranked No. 24 in the country, marking the second time this season that Georgia Tech has been ranked in a major poll. The Jackets were previously slotted at No. 22 in the AP poll back on Oct. 5. They followed that ranking by losing consecu-tive games against Duke and at UNC. Tech is currently riding a two-game winning streak as it prepares for a Saturday matchup at NC State, which is 1-4 in ACC play.

SWARMING PRESSURE… The Yellow Jackets defense has played ex-ceptionally well recently, but its largest threat on Saturday comes from Wolfpack quarter-back Jacoby Brissett. His ability to lengthen plays with his legs could prove to be lethal as the Yellow Jacket secondary has been prone to giving up big chunks of yardage in the air. “He’s not a fast guy, but he’s a real elusive guy, said head coach Paul Johnson, “And for a big guy he’s very misleading because he makes

The soccer team started the second sea-son on Friday as it faced the Jacksonville

Dolphins in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. Despite being a No. 6 seed, the Owls were able to pull off the upset, defeating No. 3 Jacksonville 5-0. “It was a great performance,” head coach Rob King told ksuowls.com. “That was the best we have played this year. Pretty good scor-ing tonight with five goals in the game, but defensively we were excellent against a good Jacksonville team. They did not win it last year for nothing. They were a good side and well-coached. We jumped out to an early lead and I think that really helped. We kept the pressure on for a full 90 minutes and it was great to see the older players get on the scoreboard and some of the youngsters as well.” The Owls struck first when Alma Gardars-dottir scored her second goal of the season in the second minute of the match. The Owls struck again late in the first half when Danielle Gray scored her first goal of the season off of a

at a time, taking it one game at a time. We’re trying to get back to what we worked so hard for this summer. We feel like we still have a chance to do what we set out to do.” In this week’s most recent College Foot-ball Playoff rankings, Georgia finds itself at number 20. As pointed out, the path to win the SEC East is still very defined. Getting into the playoff? That is another story all together. When it comes to the postseason, Richt says the goals of this program still remain the same as they have always been. However, Richt says the “win the East” talk this week hasn’t been the main topic of conversation. “We didn’t talk much about that this time around,” Richt said. “We’re really just trying to win a game this week because, first of all, we know mathematically that that’s still a pos-sibility, but if we don’t win it doesn’t matter. I guess that’s the best way to say it. So let’s just try to win this week. We’ll worry about the rest later.” Georgia has played at Kentucky five times since 2004, with the Bulldogs winning four out of those five matchups by an average score of 39-27. The last visit to Lexington was tough for Georgia, with the Wildcats keeping it close until the final score of 29-24. Georgia needed four touchdown passes with 427 yards from quarterback Aaron Murray to edge the Cats.

to move the ball in the snow and were shutout 44-0 by host Appalachian State, dropping GSU to 1-8. Outgained 567-62, the visiting Panthers did not have much of a chance. Nick Arbuckle only managed 47 yards through the air with one interception. He was harassed all day by the Mountaineers and sacked numerous times, ending up with -41 yards rushing. They will at-tempt to rebound this Saturday against fellow 1-8 opponent Troy.

OPENING TIP… The Georgia State men’s basketball team will begin their march towards the postseason as it opens up its season with an exhibition game against Georgia College at the GSU Sports Arena on Monday night. Head coach Ron Hunter will have three starters back from a team that won 25 games a year ago and narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament. R.J. Hunter is the Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year and will look to be-come Georgia State’s all-time leading scorer with just 385 points to go. Ryan Harrow is back for his senior season after being named All-Sun Belt First-Team while shot blocker Curtis Washington is expected to anchor the paint yet again after blocking 78 shots a year ago. The regular season kicks off for the Panthers on Nov. 14th as they host Tennessee Temple and then hit the road for the CBE Hall of Fame Classic where they will face No. 14 Iowa State.

a lot of guys miss. He gives them another di-mension.” Brissett goes into the matchup having passed for 1,982 yards, fifth in the ACC, while carrying a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 17-to-3. Johnson’s big key to stopping Brissett will come from defensive pressure. The Wolfpack offensive line has allowed 21 sacks this season, third-most in the conference. While the Yellow Jacket defense has not pressured quarterbacks with regularity (just 13 team sacks), Johnson hopes their built-up confidence following the Virginia game will motivate the Jackets to a similar defensive performance. “Well I think any time you do well your confidence is going to go up,” Johnson said, “Hopefully we’ll get a good plan and go up to Raleigh and play another good game defen-sively. We will certainly need to.”

INJURY BUG… B-back Zach Laskey continues sitting on the sidelines while nursing a shoulder injury and is now joined by A-back Charles Perkins and defensive tackle Patrick Gamble. Perkins was ruled out from Virginia’s game after suf-fering a knee injury back at Tech’s win at Pitt, while Gamble left during the fourth quarter in Saturday’s game with an apparent left leg in-jury. In addition, AJC’s Ken Suguira reported that linebacker P.J. Davis and defensive line-man Shawn Green were also held out of prac-tice with unspecified injuries. It is not certain if they will miss Saturday’s game.

50-yard free kick. The third goal came in the 77th minute when Gray scored her second goal of the game via penalty kick. The Owls increased the lead to 4-0 in the 88th minute when freshman Kha-tra Mahdi scored her first career goal off the right corner from 10 yards out. The final goal came a minute later when Julia Nelson scored her second goal of the year. The five-goal outburst by the Owls is the most goals scored in any match this season. The win also makes them 3-0 on Halloween. But the most important thing is they advance in the tournament, and they will face No. 2 seed Lipscomb on Friday at the Florida Gulf Coast Soccer Complex.

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES… With a new coach comes a new radio show and the basketball team announced it is launching the Jimmy Lallathin Coaches Show which will air News Talk 1160 AM. The show will record on Tuesdays’ from 6-7 p.m. and it be recorded at O’Charley’s in Ken-nesaw. The show will air the following Wednes-day and the first edition will air next week. In football news, the Owls will have anoth-er tryout for current students. It will take place on Feb. 2, 2015 at 8 a.m. and the students will meet at the Perch located in the KSU Sports and Recreation Park. Students must turn in the right paperwork to the coaches’ office by Jan. 12, 2015.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY DAN MATHEWS | DMATHEWS@SCOREATL.COM

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

BY MATT CASON | MCASON@SCOREATL.COM

BY BRIAN JONES | BJONES@SCOREATL.COM

GEORGIA TRIES TO MOVE ON AGAINST KENTUCKY

STEFANOFF CLINCHES XC CROWN; BASKETBALL SEASON TIPS OFF

TECH RANKED NO. 24 IN CFB PLAYOFF POLL

SOCCER ADVANCES IN A-SUN TOURNAMENT, FOOTBALL TRYOUTS IN FEBRUARY

13Vol. 10 Iss. 41 | November 7-13, 2014

Canada was unkind to the Hawks in their season opener last Wednesday as the Rap-

tors held on for a 109-102 victory. Despite poor shooting nights from Kyle Lowry (3-11) and De-Mar DeRozan (4-16), the Hawks were unable to come back in the final period. Trailing by 15 heading into the final frame, Atlanta was able to push the Raptors to the brink. Three pointers kept them in the game and it was a Mike Scott triple that brought the game to 103-99 with 1:26 remaining. Atlanta hit 13 threes on the night, but pairs of free throws from Lowry and DeRozan along with a breakaway dunk from Patrick Pat-terson put the game out of reach. Atlanta was paced by three 20 point performances. Kyle Ko-rver, Jeff Teague and Mike Scott all led the team in scoring with Korver nailing six of his seven three point attempts. Jonas Valanciunas scored 17 points on five shot attempts while pulling down eight rebounds for the Raptors.

ATLANTA EXTRAVAGANZA A SUCCESS… A chilly night outside was quickly warmed

Jason Heyward and Andrelton Simmons have been racking up fielding awards throughout

their careers and also over the past few days. Last week they were named Fielding Bible Award winners. Those awards are given annu-ally to the best defensive players in all of Major League Baseball at their respective positions. They are generally a good indicator of the Gold Glove Awards and they certainly were for Heyward and Simmons this time around. Both players earned their second consecutive Gold Gloves on Tuesday; Heyward in right field and Simmons at shortstop. An incredible season in the field saw Hey-ward make only one error in 375 chances, good for a percentage of 99.7. He made 365 putouts and had nine assists. Simmons had a fielding percentage of 97.8 after making 14 errors in 642 chances. He made 217 putouts, 411 assists and helped turn 99 double-plays. Both players are heavy favorites to collect Gold Gloves in addition to their Fielding Bible Awards.

A long bye week has followed Atlanta’s 22-21 loss in London and the team will look to

snap its now five-game losing streak Sunday at NFC South rival Tampa Bay. Atlanta is 2-0 inside the division this season and sits just a pair of games behind the New Orleans Saints for the division lead. The Falcons season is still alive mathematically and even realistically, but a loss to Tampa would likely end any chances of sneaking into the playoffs. The Falcons have four more division games, but three of them will be on the road. The Falcons have not won a road game within the division since 2012 and Sunday the team will look to finally reverse the trend as it kicks off the second half of the season. The last time Atlanta faced Tampa Bay, both teams wer coming off a short week enter-ing the Thursday night matchup. That did not slow down the Falcons, as they dominated the Bucs 56-14. This time, it will be two weeks in-

A disappointing 2014 season came to an end this Sunday as the Silverbacks fell at FC

Edmonton 2-1, finishing their season at 6-5-16 (W-D-L). The common trend of falling behind early reared its ugly head again as FC Edmon-ton took the lead in the 18th minute after Eddie Edward found Tomi Ameobi on a cross. Mid-fielder Kwadwo Poku nearly tied the game for the Silverbacks minutes later but had his shot clang off the crossbar. It was in the 35th minute when FCE struck again, this time on a header from Michael Nonni off a Daryl Fordyce pass. Down two-nil at the half, coach Alejandro Pombo urged his team to continue attacking. Halfway through the second half, the Silver-backs found a goal. A cross in the 70th minute was sent in to Abdul Bangura, who managed to knock it to his cousin Shaka Bangura, who then snuck it past FC Edmonton goalie Tyson Farago to cut the lead to 2-1. The last great

up inside due to a memorable home opener last Saturday at The Highlight Factory. Three-time Grammy Award winning rap artist and Atlanta-native T.I. put on a show for the fans, performing some of his biggest hits and intro-ducing the Hawks starting lineup before a 102-92 victory. Among those in attendance to wit-ness the sell-out game was former President Jimmy Carter. The fans were treated early as Jeff Teague got the Hawks off to a quick start scoring 11 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter. The offense looked tight with good ball movement spinning the defense around as the Hawks got open looks. The depleted Pacers showed how much the loss of three starters hurt them as they only managed to shoot 38% from the field while turning the ball over 18 times compared to the Hawks’ 12. A game in which Atlanta led comfortably the whole time got a little too close for comfort late in the fourth after Don-ald Sloan was fouled on a three pointer and hit all three free throws to make it 95-92. Teague was able to salt away the victory after a jumper and some free throws put the Hawks back up seven with 26 seconds remaining. Big Al Hor-ford added 20 points in his first home game since injuring his pectoral muscle last season.

NEXT UP… Atlanta faced a stiff road test as it visit-ed the reigning world champion San Antonio Spurs Wednesday night.

Heyward, Simmons and Craig Kimbrel have also been selected as finalists for Great-ness in Baseball Yearly Awards. The two field-ers are nominated for Defensive Player of the Year, while Kimbrel is on the ballot for Closer of the Year. SEITZER SPEAKS ... Last month the Braves hired Kevin Seitzer to be their next hitting coach, replacing Greg Walker. Seitzer, who played for the Royals when John Schuerholz was general manager, worked as Toronto’s hitting coach last season. He recently met with a group of Atlanta report-ers and talked about his philosophy. “I kind of feel that is one of my big strengths, being able to show guys how to hit the ball the other way,” Seitzer commented. “The majority of the time, you need to stay in the middle of the field. Then, when you get deeper into the count and you get two strikes, you have to stay on the fastball but you try to hit the fastball the other way. “I’m a big fan of a home run, too,” he add-ed. “I might be the biggest fan on the planet in that I love homers. But I know how you get homers and how you don’t get them. Going up and trying to hit homers is exactly the rec-ipe for not only not hitting for power, but for not hitting for average and striking out more and walking less and being in terrible hitting counts.”

stead of a four-day layover for the Falcons and both teams have had more time to prepare. Coach Mike Smith is 20-18 all-time against NFC South opponents entering the matchup.

CHIN UP… Staying positive during a losing streak and a blown 21-0 lead is something the team has done well with during the past two weeks. “We’re a 2-6 football team, but that’s not a 2-6 locker room,” Smith stressed. “That is a quality group of men in that locker room and I can assure you this, there’s no quit in them. We haven’t gotten the wins that we anticipated we would get, but we are working our tails off and we are very accountable. I think when you have that you’ve got a good group of guys. We will feel so much better when we turn this thing around.” Matt Ryan has challenged himself as a leader and franchise quarterback to be better this half of the season. “I think everybody needs to look in the mirror and self critique,” said Ryan. “[We need to] have a great mindset and a great sense of focus. We’ve got to be the first one to [make the playoffs after starting 2-6]. I think that’s got to be the mindset that we have to have.”

scoring opportunity for the ‘Backs came when Ryan Roushandel sent a shot to the net but had it cleared off the line by a defender.

TILL NEXT YEAR… Building upon this year’s disappointing team should not be difficult. As of now, Pombo seems to be tabbed as the man for the job mov-ing forward. With a young team, he has spoken about maturing as being the next step needed to be taken. Pombo said after a recent loss to Carolina, “We have players that as profession-als have to continue maturing. Some of their reactions were to hold on to what happened, thinking throughout the game about the missed chance, and so they took themselves out of the game. What I tried to explain to the group is that a mature player thinks about what he can do next, not in what happened. But that it’s normal. They are young, they have a lot of talent, and their careers will help them continue to mature as professionals.” A full year with Pombo at the helm and another year of experience for the young team should do wonders. Not too long ago, it was this same Silverbacks club that made a run in the Open Cup and just a year ago won the Spring Season title and hosted the Soccer Bowl. Can Pombo lead the team back to the promise land, or will management find a new leader for next season? We will find out in the upcoming months.

ATLANTA HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

ATLANTA FALCONS

ATLANTA SILVERBACKS

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 SPLIT OPENING PAIR

HEYWARD, SIMMONS WIN GOLD GLOVE AWARDS

FALCONS LOOK TO START SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON STRONG IN TAMPA

FALL SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE

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