Thursday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: Big football night; GHSA softball; Mercer Tennis Classic; Mercer/SoCon and Tech/ACC men's hoops; football updates
Thursday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media. Updates will be noted, so check back.
It was a great night for the option offense. Georgia Tech hammered host Virginia Tech, and Georgia Southern popped No. 25 Appalachian State. See the Peach State college football scoreboard in The Latest Coverage for more.
THURSDAY
Scores
High School
Football
Edmund Burke 28, Brentwood 26
Brentwood scored first and last. Unfortunately, Brentwood also failed on the two-point conversion on both scores, and that ended up being the difference. The Spartans twice after that, and then three times after another Brentwood score. Brentwood held Edmund Burke scoreless in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t take advantage. Edmund Burke had 13 more first downs, and outgained Brentwood 364-200 on offense, and survived not trying a pass. Brentwood lost two fumbles and was flagged nine times for 66 yards. McKinley Newton was 9 for 9 for 145 yards and a score for Brentwood, which was held to 45 yards on the ground.
College
Football
Georgia Southern 34, App State 14
https://gseagles.com/boxscore.aspx?path=football&id=6677
Georgia Tech 49, Virginia Tech 28
http://data.ramblinwreck.com/stats/football/2018/gt102518.htm
Volleyball
FVSU def. Benedict 25-22, 15-25, 18-25, 27-25, 15-8
Georgia College def. Valdosta State 23-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-12
http://www.gcbobcats.com/sports/wvball/2018-19/releases/20181025vm9fyv
Thursday’s high school menu is fuller than anywhere else
As always, you can find more results and info here than anywhere else, scores and details, in the Scoreboard.
Check out a quality night of option football for Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern with full coverage of their wins in The Latest Coverage.
Wet weather has interrupted the GHSA state softball championship in Columbus, with all nine area teams getting their first game, but winners bracket games among those biting the dust for Thursday.
Details and pairings are where they’ve been all week, The Latest Coverage.
Re-visitables: the state h.s. football polls and a roundup on the Central Georgia teams. There is the list of predictions by the Maxwell Ratings. And The Sports Report’s weekly predictions – don’t get testy, we’re doing pretty good – are up.
Head back to the Monday Afternoon Quarterback for a read, including how Central Georgia’s top 20 teams rank statewide in the Maxwell computer rankings.
Coming Friday morning, preview capsules on the top games of the week and the full schedule.
Mercer tennis classic rolls
Former champion Kayla Day is enjoying her latest visit to Macon, from the people to the courts. Story in The Latest Coverage.
Cummings an All-Conference pick, Mercer predicted fifth
Junior Ross Cummings is a Southern Conference preseason men’s basketball all-conference pick, and he hopes to lead Mercer to better than the fifth-place finish the media and coaches predict.
UNCG won the regular-season and tournament titles and is picked to repeat.
The Bears were the fourth seed entering the conference tournament after finishing 11-7 in SoCon play, 19-15 overall. Mercer yet again reached a national postseason tournament, the College Basketball Invitational.
Cummings filled in last year for injured Ria’n Holland and averaged 8.7 points, starting 12 games. He emerged as one of the conference’s top 3-point shooters, nailing a team-high 57 3-pointers, hitting 43.2 percent, which was fourth in the conference.
He had a career-high of 23 against UNCG.
Mercer opens the season on Nov. 6 at UAB, and hosts Piedmont three nights later.
ACC puts Tech near the bottom
There are 15 teams in the ACC. Not many were picked to do worse than Georgia Tech’s men’s hoops team. Of course, the Yellow Jackets were better than expected last year.
Several Braves among Gold Glove finalists
Five Braves are among the finalists for the defensive honor, tying Boston for the most in the majors.
Honor Roll
Georgia College had 10 players make the Peach Belt Conference women's soccer All-Academic team Thursday.
Senior Ashlee Graham shares the team's top GPA with a 3.97 in exercise science for her third appearance. Savanna DeValle made it a second time with a 3.64 in athletic training.
Mount de Sales grad Sofia Lekas, owner of a 3.46 in public health, now owns three all-academic honors as well. Anya Mancinelli earns a spot for the third time with a 3.45 in biology.
Junior Erin Ferris is a second-time honoree, with a 3.36 in marketing. Becca Morris has the team's top GPA with a 3.97 in exercise science. Sophia Bonser has a 3.84 in chemistry, Kai Jeffries carrying a 3.68 with a philosophy major and sociology minor.
Hannah Asbell has a 3.48 in marketing with a minor in psychology, while Cassie Balzano brings in a 3.34 in exercise science. ...
Georgia College dropped to eighth in the latest United Soccer Coaches Southeast Region poll. The Bobcats (10-3-3, 3-2-3) host Young Harris at 6 Wednesday. ...
Mercer's Maddie Nunley is the Southern Conference volleyball offensive player of the week.
The setter had 126 assists, 12.6 per set, in Mercer's two five-set conference road wins last week.
She had a match- and career-high 60 assists against UNCG, helping three teammates to double-digit kills, and had 10 digs.
Against WCU, she had 66 assists with six digs and five kills.
The Georgia College Golf team is ranked in the top-25 in the Golfstat Team Rankings.
The Bobcats are joined by Peach Belt rival Young Harris at No. 7.
Georgia College also received votes in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll today with 25 votes. ...
Another former Peach County kickers takes conference honors.
Omar Cervantes, a redshirt freshman, is the Gulf South special teams player of the week.
He hit a pair of field goals of 42 and 44 yards in the Wolves' 27-25 win over West Alabama. He had three touchbacks and hit all the PATs.
Irony No. 1: The last West Georgia to be so honored is Hunter Heck, a Houston County grad.
Irony No. 2: He's the second Peach County kicker to earn a weekly award, joining Mitchell Fineran of Samford, a two-time winner in the Southern Conference. ...
Miagh Downey of Middle Georgia State is this week's Southern States Athletic Conference women's soccer offensive player of the week, while teammate Ronja Andersson is the defensive player of the week.
Football updates
Georgia
Run game wise in WLOCP
Like the old days in Jacksonville
Falcons