VOLUME 9 ISSUE 20 | OCTOBER 11-17, 2013 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

BLACK MONDAY

Battered Birds | Pg. 13

Postseason is Here! | Pg. 8

Craig Sager II discusses the Falcons and their unlucky injury situation.

State playoffs are around the corner while region tournies are underway.

Ricky Dimon looks back at the Braves’ latest postseason collapse. | Pg. 5

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.

©2013 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. All rights reserved. For offi cial contest rules, visit choa.org/comeback.

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3Vol. 9 Iss. 20 | October 11-17, 2013

PUBLISHER/EDITOR I.J. Rosenberg ART/CREATIVE DIRECTOR DJ Galbiati Blalock SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Stephen Black BUSINESS MANAGER Marvin Botnick

DIRECTOR OF SALES Melanie Snare & MARKETING SALES EXECUTIVE Drew Colon

BEAT WRITERS Ricky Dimon (Braves) Joe Deighton (Dream) Jay Underwood (Hawks) Brian Jones (KSU) Chris Nieman (UGA) Craig Sager II (Falcons) Donnell Suggs (Tech) Chris Schutter (GSU)

STAFF WRITERS Ryan Caiafa Sean Conway

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Football All-Star Games will never be the same! The Georgia Elite Junior Classic will be held at McEachern High School on Dec. 28.

STARTING LINEUP 04 COLUMNISTS 05 08

SCORE LIST | NUMBERS

GEORGIA STATE | KENNESAW STATE GEORGIA | GEORGIA TECH

BRAVES | FALCONS HAWKS | SILVERBACKS

COVER DESIGN BY DJ GALBIATI BLALOCKCOVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF POUYA DIANAT, TREY SCHWARTZ AND JIMMY CRIBB/ATLANTA FALCONS

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After Juan Uribe smashed a hanging David Carpenter curveball for the eventual game-

winning two-run homer in Los Angeles, Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, the best in the Majors, was captured by the TBS cameras pacing, shaking his head, and voicing his frustration to bullpen coach Eddie Perez at not getting the ball. Doubtless many Braves and Falcons fans felt just as dejected Monday night and into early Tuesday morning, and might have even displayed the same mannerisms as the young flamethrower, who would not throw a pitch in the series-deciding Game 4. Alongside the Braves, the Falcons lost an excruciating game to the New York Jets. To start our week, we got to witness a double-feature flameout, At-lanta style.

PURGATORY ... We’re not Loserville anymore, at least. Ever since the Braves won the pennant in 1991 and started an historic streak of division titles, our fair city’s sports scene has been respect-ed, if not exactly celebrated. But perhaps the Braves and Falcons, the city’s two marquee franchises, occupy the most maddening mid-dle ground in professional sports.Good enough to give us hope, but never quite good enough to raise the elusive hardware. Let’s tackle the Falcons first. The Birds are now in the midst of their longest losing streak since 2007, and allowed Jets rookie quarter-back Geno Smith, who came into the game with just four touchdowns to eight intercep-tions, efficiently drive the Jets down the field

to set up a game-winning field goal as time expired. A 30-28 loss in the Georgia Dome, on national television, to drop the Birds to 1-4. The Falcons’ shortcomings are numerous and obvious. For all the offensive weapons the team has stockpiled, Atlanta is lacking in the most crucial of areas: the trenches. The Falcons’ weak pass rush allowed Smith to stand tall in a perfect pocket much of the night, and the inability to protect Ryan led to a fumble, two sacks and a bunch of hur-ried throws. The third-down, fourth-down and short-yardage woes continue to plague what is supposed to be a championship contender. A pass away from the Super Bowl last Jan-uary, and now seemingly an afterthought fol-lowing the team’s fourth one-score loss of 2013.

CHOP-OVER ... On to the Braves. The franchise hasn’t won a postseason series since it beat the As-tros in 2001. I haven’t taken an official poll, but anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that many fans fully expected another playoff se-ries loss this October…just because. What we got was a brutal, gut-wrenching defeat at the hands of the Dodgers, the kind that we’ve seen all too often since 1995. With a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth, Fredi Gonzalez stuck to the plan and pitched set-up man David Carpenter, who had enjoyed a nice

season. The problem: he’s not Kimbrel. Throwing the Major League saves leader (tied with 50) for six outs to finish an elimination game might have been the bold move that would give the Braves a chance to stave off elimination and bring the se-ries back home in two days. Instead, Gonzalez stuck to the script, and the script yielded all-too-familiar results. Kimbrel wanted the ball, as any amateur lip-reader could surmise after watching the zoomed-in shot of him after Uribe’s blast. The Braves eked out a Game 2 win in front of a rau-cous home crowd, but were thoroughly out-classed in Games 1 and 3. Game 4 was their chance to even things up, to give themselves a shot at the pennant. We can take solace in the fact that the Braves will be a contender for the foresee-able future, with a young pitching core of Kris Medlen, Mike Minor, Julio Teheran and (a hopefully healthy) Brandon Beachy, and young, improving stars like Jason Heyward and Fred-die Freeman. So, that was your Monday, Atlanta fans, a healthy dose of the misery we’ve grown way too accustomed to feeling after living and dying with our teams but seeing them fall short. Chin up: if you happen to be watching some night, in the future, and see a hometown team raise a championship trophy…you will have earned it. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Cribb/Atlanta Falcons.

On a Thursday night in early October, the Braves found themselves in a familiar situ-

ation. They came to the Ted with home-field advantage for the NLDS after being first in the NL East for all but one day of the 2013 season. But it didn’t feel like the Braves were favorites. What would make the city of Atlanta think that this team could end the cruel trend of torture that is the Atlanta postseason?

WHAT A LEMON ... The series started on a sour note. Braves legend Chipper Jones, one year after retir-ing from the Braves, threw out the first pitch of Game 1. Earlier in the week he said the se-ries would be over in four games, and that the

Dodgers would be on the winning end. He had to throw to the Braves’ mascot because no Braves player volunteered to be on the receiv-ing end. The rest of the series was just as confus-ing and bitter. The talent is there. The pitching staff led the league in ERA and they had a plus-140 run differential in the regular season. So who is to blame for the atrocious postseason? Fredi Gonzalez wasn’t out there watching called strike three’s and not getting RBI’s. You could argue that Kimbrel should have been out there by the eighth inning of Game 4, but Atlanta was already down 2-1 in the series at that point. The blame should be directed in a different direction. There’s enough blame to go around

as pretty much everyone had a less-than-stellar postseason, but there are three players in par-ticular who did nothing more than disappoint in these four games. Brian McCann, Justin Upton, and Freddie Freeman led the Braves in the regu-lar season with their bats, but they could not get anything done in this series. in the four games, they combined for seven hits in 43 at-bats with 14 Ks and only one RBI.

THE SOLUTION ... The solution to the problem is not an easy one. How do you fix this funk? Year in and year out they have wonderful regular seasons, but they can’t win the title. The Braves get their fans excited by going on a long winning streak in August, and then can’t win three out of five games in October. It’s been 12 years since the last time the Braves won a playoff series. It’s been a problem long before 2001, though. The Braves won 11 NL East titles in a row when the MLB realigned to six divisions, and they only have one World Series title to show for it. Braves fans deserve better. Atlanta de-serves better. At the beginning of every sea-son, fans think this season will be different, and by the end of the season, they’re trying to cope with the fact that yet again their team was just not good enough.

Atlanta fans should be done saying “Oh maybe next year.” They should be celebrating multiple titles. The future isn’t much brighter, but they should be in relatively the same posi-tion they’re in now: fighting the Nationals for the NL East title and hoping they get hot at the end of the regular season. The landscape will change some next year, and it’s for the better. Brian McCann most likely will not be a Brave next year. If he is, it will be because the Braves decided to pay him way more than he is worth. A lot of people consider Evan Gattis to be the Braves’ catcher of the fu-ture, and he spent the NLDS in left field. He’s added a spark with his bat that he can swing around like a toothpick. Chris Johnson and Freddie Freeman finished second and third, respectively, in batting average for the NL. Justin Upton was fifth in homers for the NL. Simmons is an absolute monster on de-fense, and fourth in WAR in the NL. The team is there, there’s no doubt about that. Braves fans can only hope that one of these years their team will figure it out come October. The playoffs are a completely differ-ent beast from the regular season, and so far Atlanta has not figured out how to tame it. Photo courtesy of Pouya Dianat/Atlanta Braves.

THE A-TRAIN

SCHUTTER’S STANCE

BY ALEX EWALT | AEWALT@SCOREATL.COM

BY CHRIS SCHUTTER | CSCHUTTER@SCOREATL.COM

PRESENT, FUTURE NOT AS BAD AS IT SEEMS

ATLANTA IS A TORTURED SPORTS TOWN

5Vol. 9 Iss. 20 | October 11-17, 2013

It’s Oct. 9, 2005. The Falcons are trying to reach 4-1 for the season as they host New

England at the Georgia Dome. In Houston, the Braves are hoping to keep their postseason alive with a Game 4 win that would send the divisional series back to Atlanta. Playing in place of the injured Michael Vick, Matt Schaub erases a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a pair of touchdown passes and a game-tying two-point conver-sion. However, with 17 seconds remaining, Adam Vinatieri boots a game-winning field goal for the Patriots. A few hours later, the Braves are poised to ease the pain of Atlanta sports fans’ foot-ball demons. Bobby Cox’s ballclub is mauling the Astros 6-1 in the top of the eighth, five outs from Game 5. Instead, Lance Berkman hits a grand slam off Kyle Farnsworth and one inning later Brad Ausmus—with Houston down to its last out—takes Farnsworth deep. The Astros finally win both the game and the series on an

ing for so long. Atlanta was in first place in NL East for all but one day of the entire year and it raced away with the division by 10 games thanks to a 96-66 record. Like each of the fran-chise’s six previous playoff forays dating back to 2002, though, the postseason ended in abrupt and immediate fashion. Why the latest painful underachievement? The good news for guys like second baseman Dan Uggla, manager Fredi Gonzalez and GM Frank Wren is there are so many reasons not one can be pinpointed. This was a team built on starting pitching, the bullpen and power hitting. None of those departments came up big against the Dodgers. Two of Atlanta’s four starting pitchers in the series did not make it through five innings, the bullpen allowed 12 runs and the Braves hit just a single homer and had a grand total of four extra-base hits. Now consider what the team’s highest-paid players accomplished. Uggla ($13.1 mil-lion) was left off the roster. B.J. Upton ($13 mill) went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. Brian McCann ($12 mill) went 0-for-13. Justin Upton ($10 mill) went 2-for-14. Tim Hudson ($9 mill) was hurt. Paul Maholm ($6.5 mill) and Scott Downs ($5 mill) were pitching in instructional league games. Eric O’Flaherty ($4.3 mill) was hurt. Jason Heyward ($3.6 mill) went 3-for-16. Kris Medlen ($2.6 mill) gave up five earned runs in four innings. One of its best players, Craig Kimbrel, did not even see the field in the most important game of the year. Kimbrel (50 saves, 1.21 ERA) was chomping at the bit for a two-inning save, but a call from Gonzalez never came. “A broken heart,” Garcia told the Atlanta Journal Constitution when asked how he was taking the season-ending loss. “We’re winning 3-2, we have one of the best relievers (Carpen-ter), and he gave it up. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. It happened today. Now we’ve got to look forward to next year.” Wait ‘til next year. It’s a mantra Atlanta sports fans have been forced to live by for far too long, and one the Falcons and Braves have pinned on them yet again. Photos courtesy of Jimmy Cribb/Atlanta Fal-cons and Pouya Dianat/Atlanta Braves.

18th-inning blast off the bat of Chris bleepin’ Burke.

DEJA VU ... Anyone all too familiar with Oct. 9 of eight years ago could not have had a good feeling about the Braves after witnessing what first transpired on Monday night. Although the Fal-cons showed signs early and often of losing to a mediocre Jets team with little fight and even less suspense, they instead decided to wake up and surge to a 28-27 advantage on Matt Ryan’s touchdown pass to Levine Toilolo with 1:54 remaining. That only amounted to more heartbreak when Geno Smith of all people en-gineered an eight-play, 55-yard drive resulting in game-winning field goal as time expired. Not unlike the back-to-back infamy of the 2005 disaster, the Braves were on the brink of saving the day. Despite being overmatched on paper in a must-win Game 4 with veteran Freddy Garcia going up against L.A. ace Clay-

ton Kershaw, they led 3-2 and put themselves within six outs of a Game 5 at home. In the bot-tom of the eighth, however, Juan Uribe chan-neled his inner Burke and belted a hanging curve by Dan Carpenter for a two-run homer and ultimately a 4-3 Dodgers victory.

UNLUCKY ‘13 ... Until the final offensive play that sent the Falcons packing instead of to Super Bowl XLVII, just about everything went right for them last season. For starters, their schedule amounted to a telegraphed, 55-mph eephus pitch and their biggest rival—the Saints—were without suspended head coach Sean Payton for the duration. Atlanta won seven games by seven points or fewer, several of those in miracle fashion (see Cam Newton’s fumble and Arizo-na’s failure to capitalize on five Ryan intercep-tions). Most importantly, the Falcons stayed healthy. To say the script has flipped this season would be an understatement of “our offen-sive line is not good” proportions. It was never going to be easy; not with a schedule featur-ing New England, Seattle, Green Bay and San Francisco plus two games against a New Or-leans squad with all hands on deck. But it was never supposed to be this hard. All four of the Falcons’ losses have come by seven points or fewer. In each of the four, they had a realistic—if not downright good—chance in the final 43 seconds or less to win. Then there are injuries, injuries and more injuries. Kroy Biermann is out for the year, Sean Weatherspoon won’t be back until at least Week 11 and Steven Jackson has missed all or most of four games. Adding injury to insult, nightmarish Monday got even worse on Tuesday when Julio Jones was diagnosed with a foot injury that will likely land him on season-ending injured reserve. “We still have a lot of football left to play,” Tony Gonzalez said in his post-game press conference on Monday. “It’s still in our hands. I’m not going to throw my hands up and say the season’s over.”

FINGER-POINTING ... As for the Braves, they don’t have a lot of baseball left to play. It’s not still in their hands. And the season is over. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the season was so promis-

BLACK MONDAY

BY RICKY DIMON | RDIMON@SCOREATL.COM

OCT. 7 IS THE NEW OCT. 9 IN ATLANTA

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.

WH

O’S

HOT

WH

O’S

NOT

London Calling Atlanta FalconsClutch CityAtlanta college football

Freddy Garcia Atlanta Braves

The Falcons will be one of the teams featured in the NFL’s International Series next year at London’s Wembley Stadium for a regular-season game. It will be a new experience and should be an exciting one. The only bad part is that the Fal-cons will be a “home” team, leaving seven instead of eight games at the Georgia Dome.

Injuries are one thing, but losing four games in the final minute and falling at home to the New York Jets is another thing. Atlanta is 1-4 after its latest late-game debacle. With Julio Jones joining an already-long list of hurt starters and the Saints sitting atop the NFC South at 5-0, it will be tough to turn things around.

The Classic City has become clutch city, with the Georgia Bulldogs coming up big late in games both in Athens and on the road. Their most recent heroics, following home thrill-ers over South Carolina and LSU, came at Tennessee. Aar-on Murray led the Dawgs on a game-tying drive in the final 1:54 before they prevailed in overtime.

Yes, make it a clean sweep of recent futility for Atlanta sports. There was nothing Georgia State could do against Alabama, but the 0-5 Panthers have also lost to everyone else on the schedule. As for Geor-gia Tech, it led 17-7 at Miami last weekend before allowing 45 points in a second straight ACC Coastal loss.

If there was one bright spot on the Braves late in the reg-ular season and during the playoffs, it was Garcia. The 37-year-old compiled a 1.65 ERA in 27.1 innings before earning a postseason start and matching Clayton Ker-shaw pitch for pitch in Game 4. Garcia was in line to be the winning pitcher until disaster struck.

The Braves were never fa-vored to beat L.A., but they did not have to bow out of the playoffs — again — like that. Two of their three losses in the series were of the blowout variety, and the final one re-sulted from failing to maintain a 3-2 lead with just six outs required to force a Game 5.

SCORE LISTBy Brian Jones

Times Tony Gonzalez has posted back-to-back games with 10-plus catches in his career

3

Career receiving yards by Gonzalez, which ranks sixth all time14,607

Consecutive games with a reception by Gonzalez 200Multi-sack games by Osi Umenyiora after recording two against the Jets18Career sacks by Umenyiora, which ranks eighth among active players79Times in the last 15 home games that Matt Ryan has eclipsed a 100 quarterback rating

10

The last time the Falcons started 1-42007

The last time the Braves won a postseason series 2001

NUMBERSBy Craig Sager II

DOWNWARD SPIRALWith the loss to the Jets on Monday Night, the Falcons are now 1-4 and are looking like they won’t have a winning season, let alone a trip to the playoffs. What’s frustrating is they are losing these games in the last minute, so they are a few plays away from being 4-1. Let’s hope they can get things turned around during the bye week.

JONES INJUREDThe Falcons will have to fight through the adversity without Julio Jones, who suffered a foot injury on Monday night. Losing Jones is a huge blow for the Falcons, who have already seen the injury bug several times this season. He was the team’s best offensive weapon and not having him in the lineup will change the offense dramatically.

UPSET ALERTSpeaking of injuries, the Bulldogs suffered their fair share of them during the Tennessee game as three players left the game with injuries. This is coming at a bad time because the Bulldogs are facing a Missouri team that is 5-0 and coming off a blowout win at Vanderbilt. Can the Tigers pull the upset and defeat an injury-riddled Bulldogs team?

SEASON OVERThe Braves’ season ended shortly after the Falcons’ loss to the Jets Monday night. The Dodgers beat the Braves in the NLDS 3-1 after a dramatic win in Game 4. Atlanta has to wait until next year to have a shot at the World Series title. Regardless, it was a good season and the Braves should be able to build on it.

BATTLE IN DEKALBThere have been a lot of great high school football games this year, but the Tucker-Stephenson game on Friday could be the game that takes the cake. Both teams are undefeated and are two of the top teams in Class AAAAA. Make sure to watch the game on CSS and get all the scores across the state by going to ScoreATL.com.

? “

ANSWER ON PAGE 14Falcons coach Mike Smith on

getting better over the bye week.

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

AFTER GEORGIA’S 34-31 WIN IN KNOXVILLE SATURDAY, WHAT IS MARK

RICHT’S RECORD IN NEYLAND STADIUM?

“We’re all in this together. There are

enough things to look at we all can improve

on. It is a group effort.”

By

Ric

ky

Dim

on

SCORE MORE

1. North Gwinnett2. McEachern3. Colquitt County4. Hillgrove5. Camden County

6. Norcross7. Lovejoy8. Valdosta9. Collins Hill10. Archer

6. Gainesville7. Warner Robins8. Creekside9. North Paulding10. Ware County

6. Marist7. Mary Persons8. Stockbridge9. Cedartown10. Burke County

Score Atlanta Football Rankings

Class AAAAAA

1. Buford2. Cartersville3. North Hall4. Washington County5. St. Pius X

6. Jefferson County7. Carver-Columbus8. Hart County9. North Oconee10. Cedar Grove

Class AAA1. Northside-WR2. Tucker3. Kell4. Stephenson 5. Thomas Co. Central

Class AAAAA

1. Lovett2. GAC3. Lamar County4. Calhoun5. Washington-Wilkes

6. Brooks County7. Benedictine8. Jefferson9. Rabun County10. Bowdon

Class AA1. Sandy Creek2. Carrollton3. Griffin4. Statesboro5. Monroe Area

Class AAAA

1. ELCA2. Landmark Chr.3. Aquinas4. Mount Paran5. Prince Ave. Chr.

6. Darlington7. Mount Pisgah8. George Walton Aca.9. Christian Heritage10. Pacelli

Class A-Private

1. Irwin County2. Marion County3. Seminole County4. Lincoln County5. Johnson County

6. Trion7. Clinch County8. Charlton County9. Dooly County10. Commerce

Class A-Public

With one month to go in the cross coun-try season, many top teams throughout

Georgia made road trips last weekend to begin their stretch runs to the state meet. Peachtree Ridge’s boys came home with a title from the Bale N Trail Cross Country Original in Jackson-ville, Fla. The Lions dominated the field with four runners in the top 10, including Kevin Mil-lis’ individual triumph in 15:37.

HARRIER ACTION ... At the Wendy’s Invitational in Charlotte, N.C., Etowah turned in impressive performanc-es. The girls finished fifth in their heat with an average time of 19:51. Etowah’s boys tied for third with Flowery Branch, the No. 1 team in Class AAAAA. Both squads posted average times of 16:29. Westminster’s boys finished third in the Class AAA heat and were led by

Jordan Flowers’ eighth-place showing in 16:08. No out-of-state competition was more heavily-populated by Georgia schools than the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, NC. The St. Pius X boys raced to an eighth-place performance in the Champions heat, just ahead of Brookwood (10th) and Mill Creek (14th) and Marist (17th). All four of those teams boasted average times be-tween 16:17 and 16:34. Austin Sprague paced St. Pius in 13th overall at 15:24. Three Georgia representatives finished in the top 10 of the girls seeded heat at the GACCF—Mill Creek (second), Centennial (third) and Dunwoody (ninth). Mill Creek’s Lauren Hovis came in sec-ond with a blistering time of 18:56. One of this weekend’s biggest events is the Asics Cross Country Invitational. Alexan-der, the host school and famous for producing lightning-fast times, will welcome a strong field

that includes Blessed Trinity, LaGrange, Land-mark Christian, North Hall, Peachtree Ridge and Woodward Academy. The Golden Eagle Invitational at Eagle’s Landing High School will feature Chapel Hill, McIntosh, North Oconee and Westminster. Among a contingent of teams heading out of state to Furman Univer-sity on Saturday are Athens Academy, Collins Hill, Milton and Parkview.

IN THE CIRCLE ... Class AAAA No. 10 Marist beat Cham-blee in the Region 6 tournament Tuesday night and will play Redan Thursday for the region championship. Redan beat Therrell 15-5 Tues-day to advance to the region final. The War Eagles (15-10, 5-0) have won their region championship 13 straight seasons and were state champions in Class AAAA in 2008 and 2009. Marist has been led this sea-son at the plate by junior Grace Packer, who has a .569 batting average, and senior catcher Taylor Bradley, a Georgia State commitment who is batting .429. On Tuesday, Class AAA No. 1 Buford beat East Hall 8-0 to clinch a spot in Thursday’s Re-gion 7-AAA championship game. The Wolves (28-1) got a complete-game victory by Bria Bush (11-1), her 10th of the season. Junior Syd-ney Stavro was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two stolen bases. Sophomore Baylee Sexton had two RBIs and senior Niki Cook was 2 for 3 with a triple and two stolen bases. Buford won the tournament’s top seed af-

ter finishing unbeaten in region play, including a 10-2 win over North Hall Oct. 3. Pitcher Emily Crocker improved to 7-0 with the win in three innings pitched. Crocker had four strikeouts and gave up just one hit. The Wolves then beat West Hall (15-2), Banks County (8-0) and East Hall (8-0) in the region tournament.

ON THE COURT ... Important area matches mark the slate as the state playoffs are almost a week away. In Class AA, Wesleyan dominated Rabun County (25-8, 25-6) and Greater Atlanta Christian topped Jef-ferson (25-21, 25-20). Wesleyan and Greater At-lanta Christian faced each other in the Area 6-AA championship match on Thursday. Hillgrove opened up the Area 3-AAAAAA tournament on Thursday as a No. 3 seed where it played No. 6 Campbell. Hillgrove closed out the regular season Tuesday with wins over Creekview and Allatoona. Class AAA No. 1 Blessed Trinity held off Bu-ford in straight sets Tuesday (25-18, 25-18). Buford bested East Hall (25-12, 25-16) and with the win over the Wolves, Blessed Trinity moves to 54-7 on the season and faced St. Pius X on Thursday. In Class A, Walker topped Darlington and Mt. Paran Christian on Tuesday and played in its area championship on Thursday. Walker’s Brooke Warner paced the Wolverines Tuesday with 37 kills and added 12 digs. Photos courtesy of Walter Pinion, Harrison HS and Trey Schwartz.

HOME STRETCH

BY STEPHEN BLACK, RICKY DIMON AND CRAIG SAGER II

LIONS WIN FLORIDA MEET; MARIST MAKES REGION FINAL

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1. Walton2. South Forsyth3. Johns Creek4. Harrison5. Chattahoochee

1. Sequoyah2. McIntosh3. Whitewater4. Pope5. Riverwood

1. Marist2. Columbus3. River Ridge4. Veterans5. Heritage-Catoosa

6. East Coweta7. North Cobb8. Roswell9. Etowah10. North Gwinnett

6. Starr’s Mill7. Harris County8. Northgate9. Union Grove10. Creekview

6. Sandy Creek7. Carrollton8. Southeast Whitfield9. Woodland-Stockbridge10. South Effingham

Score Atlanta/AJC High School Volleyball Rankings

Class AAAAAA1. Blessed Trinity2. Woodward Academy3. St. Pius X4. Buford5. Sonoraville

6. North Hall7. Morgan County8. Oconee County8. Hart County10. Islands

Class AAA

Class AAAAA1. Westminster2. Wesleyan3. Lovett4. GAC5. Jefferson

6. Calhoun7. Kendrick8. Westside-Augusta9. St. Vincent’s Academy10. Lamar County

Class AA

Class AAAA1. Landmark Christian2. Walker3. Holy Innocents’4. Hebron Christian5. Savannah Christian

6. ELCA7. Mount Paran8. Pace Academy9. Savannah Country Day10. George Walton Acad.

Class A

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11Vol. 9 Iss. 20 | October 11-17, 2013

Through the first two games of the 2013 WNBA Finals, Atlanta has had no answer

for the offensive assault of the Minnesota Lynx. Game 1 and Game 2 were carbon copies of each other. In both, Minnesota jumped out to early leads and eventually won by 25 points (84-59 and 88-63). The trio of Seimone Au-gustus, Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore has combined to average 46.5 points per game. The Dream have yet to notch a victory against Minnesota in WNBA Finals play. Two years ago, they were swept by the Lynx. Star forward Angel McCoughtry has put up reasonably good numbers in the series, but her shooting percentage is way off. She has shot woefully from the field (11-for-42, 26 percent). So many missed shots, combined with a lack of offensive rebounds (just four in Game 2), have put Atlanta in a situation in which it has to win three straight games to win the series.

NO ANSWERS … In both games, Atlanta struggled to find early offense. It scored only nine points in the

second quarter of Game 2. Some players seem to have already conceded that Minnesota is the superior team. “They looked really good,” Dream guard Armintie Herrington told the AP of the Lynx. “They were sharp. And we got hit in the mouth.” McCoughtry had a different and perhaps a more confident take on the series so far. “People will doubt us already, but that’s OK,” she said. “Everybody has cold days. This is a cold day.” While it is true that everybody has cold days, the time to have them is not in the WNBA Finals. The Dream cannot afford to have another dry spell or else Minnesota will run them right out of Philips Arena.

JUST DO IT … The Dream have been a streaky team all season, winning 12 of their first 13 games, then losing 17 of the last 24, then sweeping through the conference playoffs and into their third fi-nals in the past four years. Now they have lost two critical games in a row in embarrassing fashion. For the Dream to win three consecu-tive games and their first WNBA title in fran-chise history, the offense has to go around Mc-Coughtry and not through her because she has been double-teamed almost the entire series. Atlanta must take better shots, slow the game down, grab offensive rebounds and play solid defense. Can the Dream do it? Yes. Will they do it? They have to.

DREAM BEAT

BY JOE DEIGHTON | JDEIGHTON@SCOREATL.COM

DREAM DOWN 2-0 IN WNBA FINALS

12 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

After one game away from Athens and the loss of several key playmakers for the season, the

seventh-ranked Georgia Bulldogs return to San-ford Stadium on Saturday to host the Missouri Tigers, who are fresh off a 51-28 victory against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Georgia leads the series between these two respected programs 2-0, including a 41-20 victory over Mizzou last season in Colum-bia. That game drew plenty of headlines when Missouri DT Sheldon Richardson (now with the New York Jets) assisted the Bulldogs with bulletin-board material. “I watched the game; I turned it off, too,” Richardson said of a prior Georgia contest. “It’s like watching Big Ten football. It’s old-man football. If we execute, nobody in this league [the SEC] can touch us. Period.” Richardson’s comment didn’t hold much water as the Bulldogs handed the Tigers a con-vincing loss. This season may be a different story. The Bulldogs certainly have their hands full and will

Stephen McGill was named Georgia State’s student-athlete of the week for his stellar

performance in the Panthers’ match against UNC Greensboro last week. McGill was award-ed a penalty kick with 36 seconds remaining in the match and he powered it past the Spartan keeper to tie the score and force extra time. He came up big in double-overtime with the game-winning goal from the 20 yards out. In the Panthers’ Tuesday contest, McGill had the game-tying goal in the 53rd minute. Cory Plasker scored GSU’s game-winner in the 95th minute for yet another overtime victory. Next, the Panthers have a string of road match-es against Georgia Southern, Central Florida and West Virginia.

SOFTBALL HONORS ... The GSU softball team garnered recent recognition for accomplishments in the class-room, with seven athletes being honored by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. Callie Alford, Taylor Anderson, Ashley Christy,

Following a tough 45-30 road loss to No. 13 Miami, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

travel to Provo, Utah to face 3-2 BYU. Though the two teams have identical records, their sea-sons have been moving in different directions of late. The Yellow Jackets comes into LaVell Edwards Stadium on a two-game losing streak. The Cougars have won their last two games by margins of 27 and 17 points, respectively.

OPTION BATTLE ... The Cougars are led in passing and rush-ing by sophomore quarterback Taysom Hill, who has managed to score more touchdowns rushing (six) than passing (four) this season. Three of those touchdown passes have landed in the ca-pable hands of fellow sophomore receiver Mitch Matthews. The Beaverton, Ore. native leads the team in receptions and receiving yards. Both teams run a type of option offense, and it will be Tech’s job to shut the Cougars’

The soccer team was on the road over the weekend to face USC Upstate Friday and

then went to East Tennessee State Sunday. The Owls had a good Friday trip, defeating Upstate 3-1. Katrina Frost was the hero for the Owls as she recorded two goals and one assist. Frost scored the first goal in the 32nd minute and scored again in the 20 minutes later. She got the assist in the 80th minute when she shot the ball past the goal mouth to Monica Herrera who scored her first career goal. The Owls looked to carry the momen-tum against ETSU on Sunday, but failed to do so as they lost 2-0. ETSU took the lead in the 45th minute when Molly Collinson scored into the bottom right corner of the goal. The Buc-caneers scored their second goal in the 76th minute as Kristy Davis placed the ball on the left side of the goal. “I thought it was a pretty even game,”

have to hunker down for a Mizzou team that is 5-0 overall and 1-0 in the SEC. This game has all the ingredients for another dynamic shootout, considering both teams currently rank in the top four in scoring and total offense in the SEC. The Bulldogs, led by Heisman Trophy candidate Aaron Murray, average 39.8 points per game while also accumulating 530.0 yards per game. The Tigers are just a little better with averages of 46.6 ppg, which is good enough for second in the SEC right behind Texas A&M, and 543.8 ypg. Needless to say, both teams possess high-ly-effective offenses that can score at will. “They are a team that looks very confident and should be,” Georgia head coach Mark Richt said of the Tigers. “They are very well-coached, and they are looking to win the East just like we are. We are both undefeated in league play. It’s a huge game and we’re looking forward to the challenge of it.”

UNDER THE KNIFE … On Tuesday, wide receivers Justin Scott-Wesley and Michael Bennett were operated on to repair damage done to both players’ knees last Saturday against Tennessee. Scott-Wesley had both menisci repaired in his right knee. Bennett also had a meniscectomy performed on his right knee and is expected to return at a later date this season. Keith Marshall, who suffered a torn ACL, will have surgery at a later date. The Bulldogs will be handcuffed without two primary receivers against Missouri, but they still have a great op-portunity to get the job done.

Bethany Horne, Audrey Mason, Paige Nowacki and Carrie Williams all received All-American scholar athletes honors for achievements dur-ing the 2012-2013 academic year. All seven student-athletes managed to balance softball and schoolwork while ending the year with a 3.5 GPA or higher. This is the second consecu-tive year in which Alford, Williams, Christy and Mason have received the award.

FOOTBALL, VOLLEYBALL FALL … Georgia State’s football team continues to have a tough season as it headed to Tuscaloosa to play top-ranked Alabama last week. It was Al-abama’s homecoming game and the Tide did not disappoint, waxing the Panthers 45-3. If there is any positive to take away from this game it is that Wil Lutz, Georgia State’s kicker, managed to hit a career-long field goal from 53 yards out. Head coach Trent Miles and company will try to win their first game this season when they host Troy at the Georgia Dome for homecoming. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The Panthers volleyball team fell to Texas State last week and moved to 0-5 in Sun Belt Conference play. Georgia State was able to keep it competitive and was tied with the Bob-cats 14-14 in the first set. From there Texas State took over and made quick work of the Panthers. The Bobcats won in straight sets, 25-14, 25-8 and 25-16. Senior Emily Averbeck came up with 10 digs and freshman Molly Shonk added six more. The Panthers start a stretch of three consecutive matches Friday when they face off against Troy.

version. “This week we have to play assignment defense,” said coach Paul Johnson. “Taysom Hill is capable when he gets in the space of turning seven or eight yard plays into a 70-yard play. He’s got that kind of speed, and is hard to tackle.” Running back Jamaal Williams is sec-ond on the team in rushing behind Hill, as he rushed for 79 yards on 14 carries in their previ-ous win versus Utah State last Friday. Williams had a 44-yard run during that game.

REVENGE GAME ... The Yellow Jackets weren’t so lucky last season, losing to BYU at Bobby Dodd Stadium 41-17. Johnson remembers precisely what went wrong that day. “They got after us pretty good. We were 0-for-10 on third down. We got behind the eight ball, they did a great job.” Those “third and 10’s” may come courtesy of BYU’s star linebacker Kyle Van Noy. The se-nior is high on NFL radars because of his abil-ity to both stop the run and defend the option. Van Noy returned an interception 17 yards for a touchdown on Friday. He just so happens to be on Johnson’s radar as well. “He’s just a really good football player. He can run and he’s got great football skills.” The game will kickoff at 7:00 p.m. and will be aired on ESPNU.

head coach Rob King, told ksuowls.com. “We did not play well enough in the second half of the game. We had opportunities in the first half to go a goal or two up and we did not take them which kept them in the game.” That was the Owls first conference loss of the year. The will look to bounce back when they travel to Mercer on Friday.

VOLLEYBALL NEWS … The volleyball team was in action last weekend against two Florida teams. On Friday, the Owls fell to Jacksonville 3-1. The Dolphins won the first set by two, the Owls came back to win the second set. However, the Dolphins were able to hold them off in the third and fourth sets for the win. Emily Bean was the top performer for the Owls as she tallied 13 digs and 12 kills. The Owls bounced back on Saturday to defeat North Florida 3-2. The Owls won the first two sets, the Ospreys won the next two, but the Owls won the final set 15-12. Toure Hopkins led the way with 21 digs and 13 kills. The spilt gives the Owls a 7-9 overall record and a 2-4 record in the Atlantic Sun. The Owls will be on the road for the next two weeks. They will travel to Northern Kentucky on Friday.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY CHRIS NIEMAN | CNIEMAN@SCOREATL.COM

BY CHRIS SCHUTTER | CSCHUTTER@SCOREATL.COM

BY DONNELL SUGGS | DSUGGS@SCOREATL.COM

BY BRIAN JONES | BJONES@SCOREATL.COM

DAWGS PRIMED FOR MISSOURI MEETING

SOCCER TEAM WINS OVERTIME THRILLERS

JACKETS FACE TOUGH ROAD GAME AT BYU

SOCCER, VOLLEYBALL SPLIT WEEKEND GAMES

13Vol. 9 Iss. 20 | October 11-17, 2013

The Atlanta Hawks officially kicked off their 2013 preseason on Monday night and it

began the same way for new head coach Mike Budenholzer as last season ended—with a loss in Miami. This setback, of course, was no-where near as crushing since it was only the preseason and not Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Actually, there were many positives that could be taken from the game and the excitement around this team can be justified. It appears that the starting rotation will feature Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver in the backcourt with DeMarre Carroll on the wing. The frontcourt will be manned by veterans Paul Millsap and Al Horford. This lineup should be a fun group to watch and one that will get up and down the court quickly and use its athleti-cism to gain advantages. Millsap and Horford can both step out and knock down mid-range jumpers as well as corner threes.

The Braves’ 2013 campaign came to an end on what will go down as an infamous day in

the history of Atlanta sports. Shortly after the Jets upset the sputtering Falcons at the Geor-gia Dome on Monday night, the Braves were eliminated from the playoffs with a 4-3 road loss to the Dodgers in Game 4 of their divi-sional series. Atlanta found itself in an early 2-0 hole following a pair of Carl Crawford home runs in the first three innings, but it answered with two unearned runs in the top of the fourth. Freddie Freeman singled and scored on a Chris John-son single before Evan Gattis, who reached base on an error, crossed the plate on a field-er’s choice by Andrelton Simmons. The Braves took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh when Elliot Johnson tripled and scored on a Jose Constanza single. It all fell apart, however, in the bottom of the eighth. Yasiel Puig opened the inning with a double and Juan Uribe went

The wounded Falcons have unsuccessfully battled through their first five games and

sit at 1-4 entering their bye week. Many pre-viously saw this checkpoint as a time for the Falcons to regroup and get healed up for the remaining 11-game schedule, but more shat-tering injuries have the team searching deeper down the depth chart to tackle the tough re-maining slate.

BAD NEWS … Julio Jones injured his foot in the Falcons 30-28 Monday night loss to the New York Jets. The injury was reported after the game as an “unspecified foot injury”. Jones hauled in eight catches for 99 yards in the loss and was off to a career pace with 41 receptions for 580 yards and two touchdowns in Atlanta’s first five games. The former Alabama wideout also leads the League with 248 yards after the catch and has contributed to 29 percent of the

The Silverbacks fell to the San Antonio Scor-pions in a gut-wrenching 1-0 loss Saturday.

Atlanta goalie Joe Nasco kept his team in the game for most of the match with phenomenal goal keeping. Nasco only let one ball get by him, in the 64th minute of the match, but that’s all it took as Atlanta failed to develop any goals of their own. The gameplan going into the second half was for Atlanta to apply more pressure on the offensive side of the ball and try to make something happen after neither team managed to score in the first half. This aggressive game plan resulted in the defense being exposed when the Silverbacks failed to convert a goal on the offensive end.

ONE-MAN EDGE ... The first half saw the Scorpions as the aggressors, getting several shots on goal even though none were converted. Among the shots on goal was a header by Hans Denissen who

With the floor spacing that the roster brings to the table, Teague and rookie Dennis Schroeder should be able to penetrate the lane from the guard position and create options for the outside shooters. With the sharpshooting Korver in the lineup, look for kick-out threes to be a focal point of the offense. When he is out for a breather, John Jenkins should be able to step in and hit necessary shots.

INJURY ISSUES … Also coming off the bench is Lou Wil-liams, who missed most of last season with a torn ACL. Williams may not be full speed at the start of the season, but don’t be surprised if he becomes a solid contributor toward the end. He has begun practicing with the full team, but is not comfortable playing in live scrimmages on his surgically-repaired knee. Another concern presented itself when Gustavo Ayon left the first preseason game with a shoulder injury. Preliminary reports show that there is no structural damage, but it is a strain and it will take four to eight weeks of rehabilita-tion for recovery. He was projected as the back-up center and was playing the best basketball of his career, coming off an MVP performance at the FIBA Americas. While Budenholzer can make do in the early parts of the season, he has to hope that Ayon can come back healthy for this team to reach its full potential.

deep off David Carpenter one batter later for what proved to be the game-winning homer. Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the top of the ninth to end Atlanta’s season. “To end the way it did tonight, it’s going to hurt,” manager Fredi Gonzalez told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It’s going to be a long trip back.” It was a trip the Dodgers desperately did not want to make, but one that they almost had to. Despite leading 2-1 in the series thanks to a 6-1 win in Game 1 and a 13-6 blowout in Game 3, L.A. still showed an ounce of desperation by starting ace Clayton Kershaw on three days of rest instead of saving him for a potential Game 5 in Atlanta when he would be throwing five days after his previous outing. Kershaw gave up no earned runs in six innings, but he could not outduel Braves veteran Freddy Garcia, whose stellar late-season form continued with six innings of work that included six strikeouts and only two runs allowed.

FAMILIAR FEELING … In three seasons under Gonzalez, Atlan-ta has not advanced in the postseason and it has won just a single playoff game (Game 2 against L.A. last Friday). In nine playoff appear-ances—six with Bobby Cox as manager—since the start of the 2000 season, the Braves have prevailed in only one series. They are 0-4 in decisive games in that span.

Falcons’ total yardage this season. In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Mike Smith first addressed the injury. “Julio injured his foot last night. He saw our doctors this morning…,” said Smith. “He is going to have a second opinion tomorrow [Wednesday].” Starting receiver Roddy White has been battling an ankle injury all season, and left Monday’s game in the second half with a ham-string injury. In Week 4’s home loss to the Pa-triots, White set a franchise record with 104 consecutive games with at least one recep-tion, passing Alfred Jenkins’ record of 103 set between 1975 and 1983. White’s current 105 consecutive games with a reception streak ap-pears to be over when Atlanta faces the Buc-caneers next week. Smith acknowledged the sudden lack of depth at the position, “Harry [Douglas] will be asked to step up and if we have to make a roster move we will look at all options that are available to us there.”

DO IT FOR TONY … Tony’s return to the gridiron this year was driven by hopes of reaching a Super Bowl for the first time in his Hall of Fame career. The tight end etched another milestone to his foot-ball resume as he joined Jerry Rice on Monday as the only other player in NFL history to re-cord a reception in 200 straight games.

collided with Nasco on the attempt. The result-ing injury was an abrasion to Denissen, which required six stitches to his lip. With Denissen out, the Scorpions played with only 10 men for five minutes until he was replaced by Sainey Touray in the 17th minute. Even with the one-man advantage, the Silverbacks failed to make anything happen.

GET OVER IT ... The match had very little bearing for both teams. Atlanta and San Antonio are both in the bottom three in the NASL Fall standings. San Antonio is all but out of the Soccer Bowl and At-lanta will be hosting the Soccer Bowl on Nov. 9 in Atlanta since it won the spring season. These last few games are of importance to the Silver-backs in order to develop momentum going into the championship game. Right now, Atlanta would be matched up against the New York Cosmos. New York has won its past four matches and has not lost a match since Aug. 17. The Cosmos’ loss on Aug. 17 was their only loss this fall and they have al-lowed a league-low 10 goals this season. New York is undefeated at home, so it is favorable to the Silverbacks that the game is in Atlanta. The Silverbacks’ spot is in stone, but their opponent will not be decided until the very last game as five teams are in striking distance of New York.

ATLANTA HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

ATLANTA FALCONS

ATLANTA SILVERBACKS

BY JAY UNDERWOOD | JUNDERWOOD@SCOREATL.COM

BY RICKY DIMON | RDIMON@SCOREATL.COM

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

BY CHRIS SCHUTTER | CSCHUTTER@SCOREATL.COM

ENCOURAGING SIGNS FOR HAWKS IN PRESEASON

BRAVES BOUNCED FROM PLAYOFFS BY L.A.

INJURIES OVERWHELM STRUGGLING FALCONS

SILVERBACKS PREPARE FOR SOCCER BOWL

14 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

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