VOLUME 11 ISSUE 30 | SEPTEMBER 17-23, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

SHUT’EM DOWN Quinn’s defense rises to the occasion in Monday night victory. | Pg. 7

Chasing Waterfalls | Pg. 5

Kyle Sandy looks at the bigger picture that many athletes are still missing.

Battle of champions | Pg. 10

Two former state champs square off for the Falcons HS Game of the Week

3Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

PUBLISHER/EDITOR I.J. Rosenberg

ART/CREATIVE DIRECTOR DJ Galbiati Blalock

MANAGING EDITOR Craig Sager II

ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Kyle Sandy

MARKETING/ Lauren Goldstein PARTNERSHIP DIRECTOR

JUNIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rhonda Rawls

BUSINESS MANAGER Marvin Botnick

BEAT WRITERS: Ricky Dimon (Braves) Colin Hubbard (GA Tech) Dan Mathews (UGA) Craig Sager II (Falcons, Kennesaw) Kyle Sandy (Dream, GSU, Hawks) STAFF WRITERS Tyler Andrews, Ned Kaish

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5Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

The parody in Major League Baseball is sec-ond to none. Compared to the other major

sports in America, the phrase “on any given night the better team can lose” is most preva-lent in baseball. Think about it. In high school math class you are taught that the more times you perform an action (let’s say flip a coin for this example), the stronger likelihood that you will have an overall percentage of 50 percent heads and 50 percent tails as your outcome. Relating this to the MLB, the more games a team plays in a season, the more opportunities they have to be beaten. In the NFL, you can expect a great team to lose between two and four games in one sea-son. In the NBA, that number is between 15-25. The best teams of all-time in the MLB still lose

40 or 50 games in a season. Now, obviously with a 162-game season it makes sense that their loss totals would be higher than those of other sports, but this adds to the parody. Watching the NBA Playoffs in recent years is like counting cards at a casino. The analysts pick their finals teams before the play-offs start (or even in late March/early April), and those teams usually end up playing for the title. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the blackjack cards before they are turned over? 2015 was a perfect example. The Cleveland Cavaliers were clearly the best team in the Eastern Confer-ence from mid-season on. Down goes Kevin Love. They advance to the second round. Down goes Kyrie Irving. They advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Plug in ‘anonymous backup’

or in this case Matthew Dellavedova, and they are in the Finals. The Warriors were the best team in the NBA all season. They end up win-ning the title.

ON THE GRIDIRON… The NFL is a little bit more interesting in that a team goes from rebuilding, to a sig-nificant upgrade, to a proven playoff team, to finally winning. It has been a cycle for most teams for many years. Recently, let’s take Se-attle. The Seahawks miss the playoffs in both 2008 and 2009. They go 7-9 in 2010 and somehow win a playoff game. Rebuilding to significant upgrade. They make the playoffs in 2012 (second time in three years) as a Wild Card team at 11-5 and make it to the Divisional Round. Proven playoff team. Then, in 2013 they win the Super Bowl. Finally winning. More par-ody than the NBA, but nothing like baseball. In the MLB, any random night in the regu-lar season is like throwing darts at a dartboard. Your ace could have an off night pitching. That 19-year-old rookie could hit two home runs in his debut. The sun causes your right fielder to mis-play two easy fly balls. Picking winners in the reg-ular season night by night is almost impossible. The playoffs also have parody simply be-cause when the playoffs are set, every team

has an equal chance of winning the World Series. Sometimes the wild card team wins because they are hot at the end of the season. Other times the team that dominated the reg-ular season wins. Sometimes you see a team that was the third-best in their league win because they have four quality starting pitch-ers, whereas other teams only have three. The simple fact is there is no telling what is going to happen. With the new Wild Card play-in game, it adds even more excitement. In 2012, the first season of the play-in game, the Atlanta Braves finished the season six games better than the St. Louis Cardinals. They played in the Wild Card Game, and the Cardinals came out vic-torious. Last season, both wild card winners played each other in the World Series with San Francisco coming out on top in seven games. The great thing about baseball is that anything can happen at any time in any game. The only thing that is characteristic of all recent World Series champions is good start-ing pitching and timely hitting. If you have that, then your team will go far. And, the one thing to watch out for most is if your team is stum-bling into October, no matter what you did in the regular season prior to that, it is not smart to think your team will get it done.

Every year, year in and year out there are high school seniors playing sports and chasing

their dreams. For about 90 percent of those kids, those dreams will come to an end as they move onto college. For the lucky 10 percent, they will play in college somewhere, but only about three of that 10 percent will play divi-sion-one basketball. Players will chase the dream, or follow their love of the sport well into their college career and play for minuscule programs. Those high school glory days of seeing 300 people or more packed into a gym are cut down to 50 people watching you play Georgia A&M Tech-nical School for the Hearing Impaired. It’s fine to play at that level if you love it, but if you do, why not realize the fact that, that is probably

all for you? You’re not going to magically end up in the NBA and if you do get lucky, maybe you’ll join a pro-league in Finland in the third-division. But is it worth it? Moving to a foreign country and leaving all your friends and fam-ily behind to play 15 minutes a game? When is enough, enough?

GLORY DAZE? It’s difficult for me watching people I have grown up with chase this elusive and unrealistic dream. You are really willing to uproot your life and move to Kazakhstan to play basketball? This is where education comes into play. One must understand that you need a fall back. Education and planning for the future

is everything. Playing sports will not be there for you forever. Do you really want to wake up one morning and be 35 years old with only $10K in the bank and ask yourself, “How did it get to this?” We all grow up at some point and realize we aren’t going to be the next LeBron James, or at least I hope we do. If you go to a small division-one school and don’t cut it there, then become a rotational player and a D-3 school, maybe the writing is on the wall for you that basketball isn’t your calling card and isn’t the greatest career for you to follow. The worst thing about this vicious cycle is the enablers; the ones who will support you no matter what. It is tough, but we all need realistic criticism and guidance at some point. If you rode the bench all four years in high school, but still are trying to play a sport and try and hook up with a semi-pro team that plays in churches on the weekend in front of two youth pastors and the janitor, someone needs to tell you, “Hey, I know you love bas-ketball, but it’s time to be an adult and plan for the future.” D-League players, who are theoretically the closest players to joining the NBA, make on average $12,000 to $24,000. No way is that going to be enough to support a family and

how long is the longevity of these players? BE SMART I just want to caution you and let you know that it is ok to give up the game. You can still love your sport, no one will judge you for that. But you are only hindering your-self if you are going to chase a big break that is never coming. Go into sports writing, or marketing if you don’t like the degree you earned in col-lege. Why not try and jump aboard a major scouting or exposure agency and try and work with them? There is more than one way to skin a cat. There is more than one way to make a living in sports. Playing at the highest level isn’t for everyone. Be smart with your time and look to-wards the future. Playing sports sometimes is not a sustainable career path. It’s not easy, but sometimes stepping away from the game and diversifying yourself is the best way to go. You are not a quitter if you stop playing after high school and you certainly are not a quitter if you stop playing in college or afterwards. The world revolves around sports, but there sometimes are better options out there. Photo courtesy ofJon Barash

SANDY’S SPIEL

TYLER TELLS ALL

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

BY TYLER ANDREWS | INFO@SCOREATL.COM

WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?

MLB REMAINS THE HOTSPOT FOR PROFESSIONAL PARODY

6 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

EAA_10.125x9.321_Corky_Kell.indd 1 8/18/15 12:36 PM

7Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

The Falcons passed the first test of the 2015 NFL season Monday night, with a thrilling

26-24 victory over the visiting Eagles. Wide receiver Julio Jones stole the show with a two-touchdown performance that included nine catches for 141 yards. He received his first career NFC Offensive Player of the Week award when they were passed out Wednesday morning. Matt Bryant went a perfect 4-4 on field goal attempts including what proved to be the game-winner from 47 yards with 6:33 left in the game. Matt Ryan improved to 8-0 in his NFL home openers and after two decades as an assistant coach in the college and NFL ranks, Atlanta’s Dan Quinn recorded his first victory in his head coaching debut. “I think the thing we learned the most is that, number one from the competitive side, that there are some terrific competitors here,” said Quinn following the win. “Julio Jones had two touchdowns and over 100 yards. The way Matt Ryan keeps battling and going for it. From the offensive side, you just have a sense where the competitors are and our best way to feature them.”

Defensively, the tackling and effort was outstanding and the new-look unit came out and set the tone early. Atlanta held Philadel-phia to just three points in the first half and ended up with a pair of interceptions. “Defensively, I thought in terms of us starting, I like that,” added Quinn. “I think we need to continue to work on affecting the quar-terback. We hit him some but didn’t sack him. It certainly going about the ball, so we got two today in terms of turnovers and tackling. That’s certainly our area of emphasis for this week.”

FLYING AROUND… Leading the tackling was Atlanta line-backer Paul Worrilow, who finished with a game-high 13 tackles in the season debut. The three-year pro knew the game plan was set up to limit the big plays and was key in keeping the Eagles in check. “We expected that coming in, when he’s [Sam Bradford] feeling pressure, or cant get the stuff down field that ball is going to come out in front of us, or in the soft spots of the zone,” explained Worrilow after the game.

“So the emphasis was on tackling, and mak-ing them pay when they catch that easy ball down there.” The hero on the defensive side of the football, however, was free safety Ricardo Al-len, who clinched the game with his first career NFL interception. With 1:17 left on the clock and a 26-24 Atlanta lead, Allen made a diving interception at the Eagles 29 yard line to give the ball back to the Falcons offense to kneel out the victory. “He’s grown a lot. He’s always working,” said cornerback Desmond Trufant about Al-len. “He went from corner to free safety, and it looks like he has been playing there his whole life. He has a lot of big things ahead of him.” Atlanta’s special teams play was steller and the punt unit pinned the Eagles deep in their own territory at the 14 yard line with one of many huge punts by Matt Bosher. The punt went 57 yards to the Eagles 4-yard line and Darren Sproles took it out to the 14-yard line where he was met with an outstanding open field tackle by tight end Levine Toilolo. Two plays later on a 3rd and 8, the Falcons dialed up the pressure and interrupted the timing of Bradford’s intended pass to Jordan Matthews that sailed a little high. The ball was tipped and Allen dove backwards to make the play. “They don’t want to throw to my corners, so they want to throw it to the middle of the field,” said Allen about the interception. “Our defensive line was getting a lot of pressure, and when he went to crunch down and tried to catch the ball, it was tipped up and landed in my lap.” Strong safety William Moore hauled in the other Atlanta interception with 1:05 left in the half that set up a Ryan to Jones 22-yard touchdown pass and gave the Falcons a 20-3 lead. The Falcons defense has been at the bot-tom of the League in almost every statistical category the past two seasons, but there were several points during Monday’s win where the defense was actually carrying the team. The overall defensive effort impressed several Eagles players, including former Georgia Tech/Sandy Creek offensive lineman Andrew Gard-ner that said Quinn’s influence is being seen on that defense. “He’s [Quinn] got them playing hard,” explained Gardner. “They’ve got a lot of those guys playing with a high motor, chasing the ball. Like he did in Seattle, he does the full line swaps as an effort to keep everybody fresh. Just the effort and energy that team played

FALCONS FEATURE

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

QUINN’S VISION HUBS FALCONS WEEK 1 VICTORY

with was good. I think that will serve them well going forward.” As the Falcons do look ahead, two more NFC East battles await. Atlanta will head north to take on the Giants this Sunday before vis-iting Dallas to wrap up its road trip with the Cowboys. During the next couple weeks, the Falcons will implement newly signed offensive tackle Jake Long into the playbook.

A KEY ADDITION Long, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft was signed to a one-year deal Tues-day, giving the four-time Pro Bowler gets a chance to prove he’s healthy again. Long ended the last four seasons on injured reserve as a member of the Dolphins and Rams. His right knee has been repaired twice following ACL tears, which raises questions about his durabil-ity but the risk of having a player with Long’s talent at right tackle later in the season was worth it to the Falcons front office. Long will begin in his comfort zone at left tackle as a backup to Jake Matthews but will start working on the right side where undrafted Ryan Schraeder remains. “I haven’t watched a lot of film on him but he is well-respected around the league,” Schraeder said of Long. “I think competition is good and makes everyone better.” Photos courtesy of The Associated Press

ON THE COVER

8 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

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Atlanta Falcons Dez BryantGrayson Shelby Miller Trey White Greyson Lambert

What a difference a year makes. Dan Quinn had the birds soaring high on the national stage of Monday Night Football as the Falcons held on for a 26-24 win over the Eagles. When was the last time a Falcons defense helped win a game? Mon-day was a welcome sight for fans and a notch on Quinn’s coaching belt.

Six-to-eight weeks is the prognosis for the mercurial star wide receiver’s recov-ery time after breaking a bone in his foot on Sunday night and having to get a screw inserted. For fantasy owners and Cowboy fans this is a devastating loss. Look for Cole Beasley and Terrance Williams to see an increase in targets.

The Rams rallied to dump former No. 1 Archer, 26-24 last Friday. Grayson has es-tablished itself as a major title contender with their hard-nosed defense and sneaky-good offensive attack. Mickey Conn will try to bring home the school’s first state cham-pionship since 2011.

122 days. That was the last time Miller won a game in a Braves uniform. The date was May 17 and the Braves were just one game under .500 after Miller nearly tossed a no-hitter. Oh how things have changed. Fast forward to today and Atlanta is 31 games under; 57-88.

The Citadel transfer has run the Kennesaw State offense to perfection and has the Owls undefeated through two games. He has thrown for 166 yards and two touchdowns while gaining 159 yards on the ground along with four scores. White leads his triple-option attack against Shorter this Saturday.

Now that’s the Lambert I know. The UVA transfer started to show his true colors against Vandy, com-pleting just 11-of-21 passes for 116 yards and getting yanked halfway through the game before returning. He started 0-of-5 on the day. Lambert is not the answer under center.

SCORE LISTBy Ned Kaish

NUMBERSBy Ned Kaish

FALCONS START STRONGIt has been referred to as the tale of two halves, but the Falcons got the job done and held on for a 26-24 victory over the Eagles on Monday, after taking a 20-3 halftime lead. Matt Bryant nailed all four of his field goal attempts and Matt Ryan tossed two touchdowns to Julio Jones.

It has been a historic start for the brand new Owls football program as they obliterated their second opponent in a row to kickoff the inaugural season. Kennesaw State defeated Edward Waters 58-7 on Saturday in the home opener and first ever Owls football game at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.

KENNESAW STATE PRIDE

RAMBLING WRECKGeorgia Tech rolled over Tulane 65-10 on Saturday to improve to 2-0 and is set for its first and only back-to-back road trip of the season. And it is a big one. Up next will be a massive test for the Jackets as they visit No. 8 Notre Dame for a 3:30 pm NBC kickoff.

PACKERS BACK ON TOPWeek 4 of the high school football season was filled with upsets in the state’s highest classification. Previously top-ranked Archer fell 26-24 to Grayson and No. 3 McEachern lost 9-6 to Peachtree Ridge. The losses shook the poll but restored order as the defending champion Colquitt County Packers regain their No. 1 status.

SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE SECGeorgia struggled at times in its 31-14 victory at Vanderbilt on Saturday, but got the victory. The Bulldogs opponent this week was not as fortunate. South Carolina fell 26-22 to Kentucky on Saturday and will visit Athens desperate for a victory as the Gamecocks and Bulldogs meet for a 6:00 pm kickoff.

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ANSWER ON PAGE 16Dan Quinn on Atlanta’s

26-24 win over the Eagles

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

HOW MANY STATE TITLES HAS

PARKVIEW WON IN FOOTBALL?

“What an awesome finish. That’s a huge part of what we want to do in terms of

the practices and all of the preparation that goes into it, but the finish is a huge part

of what we’re doing so it was great to have that tonight.”

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Matt Ryan’s career record in home openersTotal rushing yards by the Falcons last season.

Total tackles by Paul Worrilow in the season opener, a game-high

Consecutive wins by Colquitt County

Undefeated teams left in Class AAAAAA football

Rushing yards by Georgia Tech through the first two weeks

Touchdown by a Georgia receiver in the first two games

Touchdowns by Georgia Tech receivers after first two games

Days since Braves pitcher Shelby Miller’s last win

9Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

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 Atlanta Falcons High School Game of the Week will feature No. 2 ranked Grayson and

the Parkview Panthers. Parkview’s seven com-bined wins the last two seasons is no longer trending as the 4-time state champions have opened the season with three straight wins, sitting a victory away from matching last year’s win total. The Panthers have talent on both sides of the ball this season, including Stephen Moye, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound linebacker that creates mismatches for opposing offenses. The Virginia commit led a strong defensive effort last week in Parkview’s 48-9 rout over rival Brookwood. Offensively, Parkview looks to have finally found an offensive spark for the first time in several seasons but they will face a steep chal-lenge against the tenacious Grayson defense. Last Friday, quarterback Jack Chambers com-manded an offense that scored on their first five possessions to take a 34-3 lead into half-

time. Chambers threw for 343 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for a score before the end of the second quarter. He finished the game 18 of 23 passing for 396 yards and added a team-high 50 yards rushing as well as a sec-ond-half rushing touchdown. Grayson faced a crucial Region 8 opener last week against top-ranked Archer and a game-winning 25-yard field goal by Will Van-Pamelen was enough to secure a 26-24 Rams victory. Four-star junior quarterback Chase Brice shook off two interceptions and five sacks by completing 19-of-32 passes for 206 yards and a pair of scores. Archer’s star-stud-ded secondary is one of the most difficult chal-lenges Grayson’s offense will face this season and they got the job done. Grayson is stacked on the defensive side of the ball with Georgia Tech commit Chris Martin, Boston College commit Bryce Morals and 6-foot-4, 255-pound end Mykelle Daniel leading an athletic front.

While Grayson’s traditionally elite de-fense has championship-caliber talent, the offensive side of the ball is what makes the Rams a serious contender this year in Class AAAAAA. In Week 2’s 56-21 win over Langs-ton Hughes, Grayson put up 553 total yards of offense, including 231 total yards from Ernest Tiller III and 137 yards from Cameryn Brent. Brice finished the game an efficient 17-for-23 passing for 274 yards and three touch-downs, while Austin Nash added four catches for 55 yards.

NEWTON AT LOWNDES The undefeated Rams (4-0) roll into South Georgia to visit a revamped 3-1 Lowndes Vikings team. Newton is led by quarterback Romario Johnson and running back Kurt Tay-lor. Johnson, a senior, has thrown for 79 career touchdowns and just 16 interceptions. Last year he managed 2,750 yards through the air and tossed 29 touchdowns with five intercep-tions. This season Johnson has continued his efficient play with nine scoring strikes and one turnover. In last week’s 27-7 win over Westlake, he threw for 86 yards and gained 75 on the ground and scored two rushing touchdowns.Taylor ran for 209 yards and one score in the Rams win over Westlake. Defensively Jaquan Henderson is a standout and has 28 tackles through four games. The Vikings have shaken off a 35-8 open-ing week loss to Roswell and has run off three straight wins, scoring a 63-0 shutout of Rock-dale County a week ago. Austin Dixon has led

the charge for this explosive offense. He has thrown for 489 yards and nine touchdowns while adding 208 yards rushing and two scores. Xavier Jenkins is his favorite target out-side, standing 6-foot-5. The junior has a team-high 11 catches and five touchdowns to go with his 204 receiving yards.

WARNER ROBINS AT HOUSTON COUNTY A battle of 3-0 teams will help sort out who the cream of the crop really is in Class AAAAA. Jake Fromm leads No. 1 Houston County’s aerial assault. The four-star junior has already thrown for 835 yards and seven touchdowns through three games. Last week Fromm passed for 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 41-13 romp over Academy of Richmond County. Amari Colbert has emerged as his go-to big play receiver so far this year as he has hauled in nine catches for 228 yards and three touchdowns. Jaeven West balances out the offense on the ground with 225 yards and four touchdowns. Rontravius Byron will anchor the Bears’ defense and leads the team in sacks, tallying three in his first two games combined. Javian Bradford-Jackson has been a rock for the Demons’ offense at running back. He has over 300 yards rushing and ripped off 205 yards in Warner Robins’ Week 2 victory over Greenbrier. Marquez Callaway is a game-changer on both sides of the ball as an athlete and is a basketball standout as well. Photos courtesy of Terri Chauncey and Grayson HS

PREP SPORTS

FORMER STATE CHAMPS CLASH IN GAME OF THE WEEKBY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

11Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

12 SCORE ATLANTA | www.ScoreAtl.com

Georgia hosts South Carolina Saturday night in its final SEC game before the criti-

cal four-game stretch of SEC opponents that awaits the Bulldogs in October. The Bulldogs host South Carolina before facing Southern University on September 26 and then the gauntlet begins. Georgia will battle with No. 2 Alabama to finish this current 3-game home stretch and will travel to Tennessee on Oct. 10 before returning home for an Oct. 17 show-down with No. 22 Missouri. The Bulldogs will get a bye week after the Missouri game and then wrap up the busy month with the Gators in Jacksonville. South Carolina is coming off a 26-22 loss to Kentucky on Saturday, which saw the Game-cocks out-gain the Wildcats in total yardage 417-399. Richt said any time a team, especially one coached by Steve Spurrier, is coming off a loss, they can be difficult to handle.

Saturday was a historic day for the Georgia State football program. The Panthers held

on against the New Mexico State Aggies for a 34-32 win which marked their first ever Sun Belt Conference victory. Nick Arbuckle once again led the way as he connected on 32 of his 43 passes for 372 yards and two touchdowns. Ar-buckle has been a constant over his time in At-lanta, but the running game has always lacked. That was not the case however as four running backs helped the Panthers total 210 yards on the ground. With the offense clicking on both the ground and through the air, Georgia State set a school-record with 582 yards of offense. Penny Hart tied a school-record with 11 catches for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Kyler Neal led the Panthers with 76 yards rush-ing on 17 carries and scored twice. Neal ran in touchdowns of two and five yards and handed GSU a 24-13 lead at the half. After Wil Lutz added his second short field goal of the game, the Panthers held a com-

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (2-0) surged to a 65-10 victory over the Tulane Green

Wave (0-2) after a strong second half last Sat-urday afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Yellow Jackets accounted for 439 yards rushing on 56 attempts, 294 of which came in the second half. Georgia Tech holds the longest streak in the country with 15 straight games of at least 250 yards rushing. Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas led the team in rushing with 71 yards on 10 attempts and scored once. 13 Yellow Jackets rushed the ball at least one time and scored a total of six touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets were deadly through the air as well. Thomas went 7-of-9 for 97 yards and two touchdowns while backup Matthew Jordan went 1-of-1 for 35 yards and a touchdown. “We didn’t have a lot of possessions in the first half, but we are definitely looking for more,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said. “”I prefer to win every game 65-10, but

‘Still undefeated!’ That is the battle cry in Kennesaw, Ga. as the Owls dispatched of the

overmatched Edward Waters Tigers 58-7. The first Gameday in Kennesaw was a success. Fans packed the streets and tailgated in the morning to get ready to witness history. Izzy Sam set the tone early as he rumbled his way 11 yards on a fumble recovery to the end zone to give the Owls a 7-0 lead just over a minute into the game. By the time the Owls got the ball again, the floodgates were open. It took just one play for Kennesaw to find itself in the end zone again. Trey White hit Justin Sumpter for a 55-yard touchdown pass to give the Owls a 14-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. White tacked on touchdown runs of 21 and one-yard while Jake McKenzie tacked on a 1-yard run to make the score 35-0 at the end of the first. White finished 2-of-3 for 70 yards and

“Any team that has a loss is a dangerous play in the next game,” Richt said. “It’s human nature to correct things. Your pride gets hurt a little bit and then you come out and have a great performance. We’ve got to be ready.”

AROUND THE SEC It was a drama-packed weekend in the SEC. Auburn needed a game-tying touchdown pass from Jeremy Johnson to force overtime in its 27-20 win over Jacksonville State. …Ole Miss put up more than 70 points for the sec-ond straight game in a 73-21 win over Fresno State. … Nick Chubb notched his 10th straight 100-yard rushing game in Georgia’s 31-14 win over Vanderbilt. … Derrick Henry ran in three touchdowns as Alabama held off Middle Ten-nessee 37-10. … Toledo kept Arkansas score-less threw the air despite 403 passing yards and pulled off a 16-12 road upset. … Oklahoma rallied past Tennessee 31-24 in double over-time. …Kyle Allen passed for three touchdowns as 2-0 Texas A&M dominated Ball State 56-23. … Missouri escaped a dangerous road test at Arkansas State 27-20. … Upset-minded East Carolina was held off by host Florida 31-24. …Kentucky broke a 22-game road losing streak with its 26-22 win at South Carolina. … LSU’s Leonard Fournette dove into the end zone to lift LSU to a 21-19 win at Mississippi State.

fortable 27-19 lead entering the fourth quarter. Arbuckle found Hart for a 24-yard touchdown pass with 14:31 to play in the fourth to make the score 34-19, but New Mexico State would begin its comeback. Larry Rose III scored on a six-yard run and Tyler Rogers hit Tyrain Taylor for a 29-yard score with 7:47 left to make it 34-32. Defenses took over the rest of the way as the Panthers made several key stops when the Aggies were moving on a final drive that ended with Parker Davidson missing a 49-yard field goal wide right with 29 seconds to play. “We made it harder than it needed to be, but these kids never quit and they never quit believing,” head coach Trent Miles said. “We’ve got a great group of young men. We just needed to get over the hump, and tonight we did that.” The Panthers look to shock the world this Saturday as the visit No. 12 Oregon for a 2 p.m. game.

KICKSTART The women’s soccer team advanced to 5-0-2 after scoring a 1-1 tie with Western Ken-tucky on Sunday. Georgia State’s 5-0-2 start is the longest it has gone at the start of the sea-son without a loss. The Panther team of 1998 started 7-1 and the 2008 team started 6-1 to rank among the best starts.

we’re definitely going to be stepping up the competition level.” Georgia Tech found the end zone on its opening possession of the game on a 13-yard run from redshirt freshman Qua Searcy to give the Yellow Jackets a 7-0 lead with 9:58 remain-ing in the first quarter. Georgia Tech did not score again until the second quarter, but didn’t waste any time finding the end zone from six yards out on a Patrick Scov rush with 12:46 remaining in the second quarter.

SETTING UP SCORES After a blocked punt from Yellow Jackets’ corner Chris Milton, Thomas scampered into the end zone from four yards out to put Geor-gia Tech up 21-0. Searcy finished off Georgia Tech’s scoring the first half with a 17-yard touchdown recep-tion from Thomas. The Yellow Jackets led 28-7 at halftime with 145 yards rushing. The second half was all Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets scored five touchdowns from five different players including a 45-yard run from running back Clinton Lynch and a 17-yard run from Marcus Allen. Two freshmen reached paydirt for the Yel-low Jackets in the second half as well. TaQuon Marshall caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Jordan to start the fourth quarter while Jordan scored from 65 yards out. Georgia Tech’s big test of the 2015 season comes on Saturday with the No. 9 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend, Indiana.

a touchdown pass. The experienced pitch man also gained 65 yards on the ground and scored three times. Kennesaw outgained Ed-ward Waters 377 to 201. 307 yards came via the ground for the Owls. Coach Bohannon was thrilled with the atmosphere and the effort of his kids. “That crowd was phenomenal,” Bohannon said. “I don’t know if I’ve been a part of an atmo-sphere like this in a long, long time.” “There was a lot of energy on both sides of the ball,” Bohannon said. “Standing behind on the sideline today, that’s what it looked like a bunch of black jerseys going 100 miles per hour. Usually when you do that, good things happen.” The only hitch in the successful kickoff was that CW69 failed to broadcast the game on air, missing the start. Instead, fans trying to watch from home were treated to a movie involving Russian dancers, gangs and drama plays. TOO COCKY The women’s soccer team was upended by No. 17 South Carolina, 6-0 on Monday. The Gamecocks poured in three goals in each half and overwhelmed the Owls. Ashley Zambetti was under fire all night but tied a season-high with eight saves. South Carolina fired 14 shots on goal to KSU’s one.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY DAN MATHEWS | DMATHEWS@SCOREATL.COM

BY KYLE SANDY | KSANDY@SCOREATL.COM

BY COLIN HUBBARD | INFO@SCOREATL.COM

BY CRAIG SAGER II | CSAGER@SCOREATL.COM

GEORGIA FACES MOTIVATED GAMECOCKS

PANTHERS CAPTURE FIRST CONFERENCE WIN

JACKETS BUCK SLOW START TO ROLL GREEN WAVE

STILL UNDEFEATED!

13Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

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15Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015

The beginning of the NBA season looms just over a month away and it is time for teams

to get back in the gym and physically and men-tality prepare themselves for the grind that is the 82-game NBA season. Training camps will slowly begin to commence around the league later this month and the Hawks will be one of 32 teams looking to make the next step in reaching the ul-timate plateau which is an NBA Championship. On Tuesday the Hawks announced that they will be returning to the University of Georgia to hold their annual training camp. Atlanta will be at the Coliseum Training Facility from Sept. 29-Oct. 1, spending the first three days of official practice in Athens, Ga. for the third consecutive year. The Hawks will hold their season opening Media Day the Monday before training camp tips off. As of right now, 17 members of the Hawks will be at-tending training camp with coach Budenholzer having the option of adding more to the camp. Atlanta will have to cut its roster down to 15 play-ers by the team the season opens.

The Atlanta Braves’ longest home losing streak in franchise history ended at 12

games on Tuesday night. It came at the im-probable expense of a red-hot opponent, too. Prior to Tuesday, the Toronto Blue Jays were a majors-leading 37-15 since the all-star break. Atlanta, on the other hand, is a horrendous 15-46 dating back to July 8. But the differences in 2015 fortunes hardly mattered for at least this game, as a tightly-contested battle the whole way concluded in a dramatic fashion with a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning by Andrelton Simmons. The clutch hit plated pinch run-ner Todd Cunningham and gave the Braves a much-needed 3-2 victory. “Hopefully it gets us some momentum and we can get some more (wins),” Simmons said in a post-game interview. “It’s been a while since we had a walkoff. It was pretty ex-citing; for me, for sure. Guys were beating me up a little bit (during the celebration), so I think they were a little excited, too.”

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones was named NFC Offensive Player of the

Week for his performance in Atlanta’s, 26-24, win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1. Jones caught nine passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns in Atlanta’s Monday night win over the Philadelphia Eagles. He averaged 15.7 yards per reception, which was the best receiving average of any wide out that caught seven-or-more passes on Kickoff Weekend. Monday night marked Jones’ seventh career multi-touchdown game and was the 20th 100-yard game of his career. He also moved into fifth place on the Falcons all-time receiving list, passing Jim Mitchell, posting 4,471 yards in just 50 games. Since 2011, Jones’ 641 receiving yards on Monday Night Football leads the NFL. This is Jones first time winning NFC Of-fensive Player of the Week. He won NFC Of-fensive Rookie of the month for December/

Atlanta’s sliver of a dream to make the post-season was finally broken as the Washing-

ton Mystics (18-16) refused to fold. The Dream (15-19) finished the season tied for last place in the Eastern Conference, but actually had a shot at stealing away the fourth and final play-off seed from Washington if they lost out and Atlanta won out. Instead, the Mystics rallied to beat Indiana in overtime 76-72 and the Dream fell to the Fever 75-67. In the season finale the Dream once again triumphed over the Mystics, 73-71, sweeping the season series but it was Washington who would get the last laugh as they will continue on into the playoffs.

SEASON FINALE Atlanta trailed by 10 at halftime, but a game-high 24 points from Angel McCoughtry would swing momentum over to the Dream and eventually lead to a season ending victory on the road. Carla Cortijo got a chance to see big minutes and did not disappoint, chipping in 13 points. Both Tiffany Hayes and Reshanda

ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG Dennis Schroder celebrated his 22nd birth-day on Tuesday. The German born guard entered the NBA as a 19-year-old when the Hawks se-lected him 17th overall in the 2013 draft. Schroder had a breakthrough season last year as he aver-aged 10 points and 4.1 assists per game in 19.7 minutes of action a night. His play solidified the bench and proved crucial in the Hawks’ success of winning a franchise record 60 games. Schroder has had a busy summer. He starred on Germany’s EuroBasket team in the Olympic qualifier. The Germans struggled in group play going 1-4 and will not be able to par-ticipate in the Olympics. Schroder finished with a game-high 26 points and led Germany’s fourth-quarter come-back that fell short. Schroder was the game-high scorer in each of the past three games, all losses. He also had seven assists, six rebounds and two turnovers.

PRESEASON SLATE Atlanta visits Cleveland on Oct. 7 and New Orleans on the 9th to open up its seven-game preseason schedule. Oct. 14 marks the Hawks first home game as they host the Spurs. A trip to Dallas is next and is followed by home games against Miami and Memphis. The final pre-season game will be Oct. 23 on the road against the Pistons.

HOME-COOKING JULIO Julio Teheran got a no-decision, but he gave the Braves a chance to win by scatter-ing five hits and four walks in 5.2 innings while striking out seven batters and allowing just two runs. Five different relievers combined for 3.1 innings of scoreless and even hitless work, with Arodys Vizcaino picking up his third win of the season. “They did a great job,” Teheran said of his team’s relievers. “We’ve got to give the credit to the bullpen because they made the pitches we needed, just in time. I didn’t want to come out of the game, but that’s a decision I can’t complain (about).” The 24-year-old is now 7-2 with a 3.23 ERA at Turner Field this season. Since the be-ginning of July, Atlanta is 8-6 in games started by Teheran, who is 5-3 with a 3.68 ERA during that span.

ONLY NL EAST RACE The on-fire New York Mets are running away with the National League East, 8.5 games clear of the slumping Washington Na-tionals. That leaves a cellar-dwelling battle between the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies as the only semblance of intrigue in the divi-sion. Not only are those teams neck and neck in the East, but they are also in race to avoid finishing with the worst record in baseball. At 56-90 as of Wednesday afternoon, Philadel-phia is rock-bottom by 1.5 games; Atlanta is 57-88. No other team is worse than 61-84 (the Colorado Rockies).

January in 2011. “He [Jones] doesn’t back down,” said Matt Ryan after the game. “Any challenge there, he’s ready to go. It’s one of the things that I most respect about his game. He’s one of those kinds of competitors that is ready for it every time. He’s the guy that wants it thrown to him and wants to take the last shot. I can’t say enough about him as a competitor.”

ROSTER MOVESThe other big news following Monday’s 26-24 Falcons victory over the Eagles came Tuesday afternoon as the Falcons welcomed former 2008 No. 1 pick Jake Long to Atlanta via a one-year deal. Safety Charles Godfrey was released to make room for the 6-foot-7, 322-pound line-man. Long was originally selected by the Mi-ami Dolphins with the first overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft out of Michigan. He started all 74 games he played in for the Dolphins from 2008 to 2012. He earned four trips to the Pro Bowl during his first four years with the Dol-phins, as well as a first team All-Pro selection in 2010. Long was signed by the St. Louis Rams in 2013 and started in 22 games for the team in 2013 and 2014. The Falcons begin their two-game road trip Sunday with a 1:00 pm kickoff with the Giants.

Gray added 10 points apiece. Ivory Latta led the Mystics with 14 points. Tayler Hill and Kia Vaughn scored 12 and 11 points respectively.

THE FINAL BLOW Shavonte Zellous had 14 points and five assists and the Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream 75-68 last Friday night to snap a three-game road losing streak and drive a dagger in Atlanta’s playoff hopes. Sancho Lyttle did the best she could to keep the Dream alive with 19 points, eight rebounds and four steals, but Natalie Achonwa scored four points, spark-ing a 10-0 run after the game was tied in the fourth quarter to give the Fever the final push they needed.

STATSHEET McCoughtry finished the season with a 20.1 scoring average to lead the team. It is the fifth time she has accomplished the feat of scoring more than 20 points per game. Her 5.3 rebounds tied a career-high but her .413 shooting percentage tied for second-worst of her career. McCoughtry did manage to shoot a career-high .363 from three-point land. Hayes slotted second on the team in scor-ing at 12.9. It ties her career-high she posted last season, but her percentages were down across the board this year, dropping from .464 percent shooting to .392 while her three-point shot sank from a .357 clip to .274. Atlanta will have a chance to improve through the draft this offseason and rebound from this year’s poor performance.

ATLANTA HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

ATLANTA FALCONS

ATLANTA DREAM

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

TRAINING CAMP ON THE HORIZON

BRAVES’ 12-GAME HOME SLIDE COMES TO AN END

JONES NAMED NFC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

THE DREAM IS OVER

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17Vol. 11 Iss. 30 | Sept. 17-23, 2015