Central Georgia Sports ReportOctober 19, 2023Comment

Thursday's Report: Scoreboard, HS playoffs, local FB games, Mercer Tennis Classic, SSAC/MGSU; Jim Poole, Falcons, UGA, Braves, Tech; MLB playoffs, WNBA finals, college sports, NFL, NASCAR, soccer

Central Georgia Sports ReportOctober 19, 2023Comment

Coming every day: The only place in Central Georgia with daily high school scores, and the only place with college – Mercer, FVSU, Georgia College, CGTC, MGSU, GMC, Wesleyan – coverage (when info is offered).

In Coverage: Central Georgia’s only playoff update for volleyball and softball

Coming Thursday: Maxwell predictions, Central Georgia in state composite rankings

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D

High School

🏈🏈🏈Flag football🏈🏈🏈

Callaway 12, Macon County 0; Columbus 34, Macon County 0
Northeast 12, Southwest 6
Veterans 12, King’s Ridge 7; Veterans 12, Norcross 7
Westside 40, Rutland 0

🥎 🥎 🥎Softball 🥎 🥎 🥎

GHSA Playoffs

6A-Houston County 8, Riverwood 1; Effingham County 3, Houston County 1
6A-Marist 8, Veterans 4; Veterans 9, Woodward 3
4A- West Laurens 12, Burke County 0; West Laurens 3, Bainbridge 0
4A- Perry 8, Island 0; Perry 6, Troup County 1
AA- ACE 7, Pierce County 6; Jeff Davis 6, ACE 0
AA-Dodge County 17, Washington County 0
AA-Vidalia 19, Central 0
AA-Washington County 15, Central 0
AA- Appling 12, Rutland 1; Rutland 6, Thomson 5
AA Toombs County 12, Northeast 0;
AA-Cook 19, Putnam County 3
AA-Northeast 10, Putnam County 2
A/I- East Laurens 4, Bryan County 3; Heard County 9, East Laurens 2
A/I- Crawford County 10, Pelham 2; Swainsboro 2, Crawford County 1
A/I- Commerce 7, Jasper County 6; Jasper County 3, St. Francis 1
A/I- Bleckley County 8, Claxton 0
A/I-Bacon County 8, Lamar County 0; Bacon County 3, A/I-Bleckley County 1; Lamar County 8, Claxton 3

🏐 🏐 🏐 Volleyball 🏐 🏐 🏐

3A-Savannah Christian 3, Upson-Lee 0
3A-St. Vincent’s 3, Mary Persons 0
A-Bryan County 3, Taylor County 0
A-Crawford County 3, McIntosh County Academy 1
A-Lamar County 3, Mitchell County 0
A-Woodville-Tompkins 3, Dublin 0

College

⚽ ⚽ ⚽Soccer ⚽ ⚽ ⚽

W-Georgia College 3, Tusculum 0

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Honor Roll

SIAC MBKB-FVSU’s Reynolds defensive POTY

Around/About Central Georgia

A busy Thursday in Central Georgia football

Four Central Georgia teams will get a head start on the weekend with Thursday games.

Howard welcomes Griffin to Ed Defore and homecoming, while Bleckley County visits East Laurens. Kendrick takes on Southwest at Thompson.

Howard and Griffin are in the middle of the race for likely the final playoff spot in 2-4A, with Perry and Spalding all but locking down first and second, and Westside with an edge for third.

The Huskies are 3-4 and 0-3 and the Bears are 1-7 and 1-3. Howard has scored at least 19 points in every game but one, and Griffin has cracked double figures only twice, being shut out by Ola, Veterans, and Spalding, held to three by Northgate.

Southwest and Kendrick are in the hunt for the final playoff spot in 2-AA, with Rutland.

The Patriots got an edge with a win over Rutland, and Kendrick is better than in recent years, eyeing its first three-win season since 2015, the Cherokees having won five games in the seven full seasons before 2023.

Bleckley County looks to avoid a huge upset and remain in a tie for first in A/I with Swainsboro. The Royals have sights set on a third straight double-digit season of wins under head coach Von Lassiter, who is 52-25 in his seventh season at his alma mater.

East Laurens has lost eight straight to Bleckley County, dating back to 2009. Only two – 28-23 in 2016 and 28-26 in 2011 – have a margin of less than 18 points with four games of 28 points or more.

Showdowns await as top seeds advance at Mercer Tennis Classic

Only one player seeded in the top eight had her week at the Mercer Tennis Classic end early with a first-round loss.

And that put unseeded Georgia sophomore Alexandria Vecic into the next round.

Other than that, most went as projected at John Drew Smith Tennis Center on a sun-kissed day of tennis.

Vecic, ranked 403rd, took down No. 158 and seventh seed Julia Riera of Argentina 7-6 and 7-6.

There were no three-set matches and only two sets went to full tiebreakers.

Top seeded Taylor Townsend of Atlanta rolled to 6-2, 6-2 win over Victoria Hu, and second seed Kayla Day, the 2016 MTC champ, had only a little more trouble in her 6-4, 6-1 win over Sophie Chang.

A notable second-round matches on Thursday include No. 136 Hailey Baptiste against No. 168 R Serban. And Townsend takes on another Georgian, McCartney Kessler, who she lost to recently in Rome, Ga.

The door to the doubles title opened a chunk with three of the four seeds – including top seeded Sophie Chang and Ashley Lahey being surprised 6-2, 6-0 by Jana Kolodynska and Tatiana Prozorova – went down.

Second-seeded Sofia Sewing and Anastasia Tikhonova remain alive after beating Lia Karatancheva and Maria Kononova 6-2, 6-1.

Action resumes at 10 a.m. Thursday.

SSAC men’s basketball preseason poll, and MGSU

SSAC women’s basketball preseason poll, and MGSU

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Column: Remembering Tech Hall of Famer Jim Poole for more than just one pitch in the World Series

Falcons mailbag: On Arthur Smith and the Falcons offense, Desmond Ridder and Cordarrelle Patterson

Ridder aims to eliminate turnovers while continuing to provide balance to offense

Column-Asking the Braves: What does work in October?

UGA MBKB SEC media days notebook

Filling the gap left by Bowers …

Tech’s Kelly talks about upcoming hoops season