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VOLUME 11 ISSUE 27 | AUGUST 20-26, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA Time to look great! START ME UP How the 24th Annual MetroPCS Corky Kell Classic kicked off the high school football season in convincing fashion| Pg. 7 Let it Loose... | Pg. 10 Florida’s best invade DeKalb County this weekend for the Battle of the Borders’ annual cross-state showdown. Time is on my side... | Pg. 5 Craig Sager II looks at the Atlanta Falcons beloved veteran Jonathan Babineaux’s role in this year’s defense

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Page 1: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

VOLUME 11 ISSUE 27 | AUGUST 20-26, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

START ME UPHow the 24th Annual MetroPCS Corky Kell Classic kicked off the high school football season in convincing fashion| Pg. 7

Let it Loose... | Pg. 10Florida’s best invade DeKalb County this weekend for the Battle of the Borders’ annual cross-state showdown.

Time is on my side... | Pg. 5Craig Sager II looks at the Atlanta Falcons beloved veteran Jonathan Babineaux’s role in this year’s defense

Page 2: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

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Page 3: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

3Vol. 11 Iss. 27 | August 20-26, 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) Dan Mathews (UGA) Craig Sager II (Falcons, Tech) Kyle Sandy (Hawks, Dream, GSU, Kennesaw) STAFF WRITERS Avi Goodfriend,

Evan Miller

TO ADVERTISE IN SCORE ATLANTA:404.256.1572

Copyright 2015 Score Atlanta Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Score Atlanta is published in print every other week on Fridays and a digital ver-sion is posted to ScoreAtl.com in-between print issues. Views expressed in Score Atlanta are not necessarily the opinion of Score Atlanta, its staff or advertisers. Score Atlanta does not knowingly accept false or mislead-ing editorial content or advertising nor is Score Atlanta responsible for the content or claims of any advertising or editorial in this publication. No content (articles, photographs, graphics) in Score Atlanta may be used for reproduction without written permission from the publisher.

Score Atlanta is looking for interns. Please visit www.scoreatl.com/internships for more information on our program.

Visit our website, ScoreAtl.com for the our weekly fall sports rankings. Download the free Georgia High School Scoring App www.scoreatl.com/mobile-app/ or in the app store for live scores all year long.

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5Vol. 11 Iss. 27 | August 20-26, 2015

The Atlanta Falcons have seen a tremendous amount of change over the last decade as

the franchise welcomed in an era of winning that put the team in the conversation as one of the League’s premier franchises. The energy transformed as the Falcons were no longer a seasonal passion, but became a 365 day a year symbol within the city and well beyond. This year has especially seen drastic changes. From head coach Dan Quinn’s hir-ing in February, to the forthcoming Monday Night showdown with the Eagles at the Geor-gia Dome, Atlanta not only built an almost en-tirely new coaching staff, but also surpassed the century mark with over 100 official trans-actions by the time the pre-camp roster was set. Throughout all the changes since 2005, however, two things have remained the same

and will once again this season. Roddy White will line up on the offensive side of the ball and Jonathan Babineaux will suit up on defense.

FALCONS FAMILY… The two 2005 NFL Draft picks are the lon-gest tenured Falcons on the roster and are the beloved veterans that represent all the growth seen since their first time putting on their Fal-cons jerseys. Babineaux or ‘Babs’ as the Fal-cons faithful refer to him as, has been a consis-tent force on Atlanta’s defense. His underrated play and shatterproof motor earned respect from his NFL peers and he has stacked up a ca-reer that has seen 323 tackles, 24.5 sacks and three interceptions. Quinn is the fifth head coach Babineaux has played for and he has seen five defensive

coordinators as he enters his 11th season, but his skillset is built around the grit and intan-gibles that translate from system to system. His leadership and coachable approach to the game has also resulted in years of consistent and productive play. “He’s [Babineaux] such a unique guy in that he has such a great get-off, so I can’t wait to see what he can become,” said Quinn. “As you know, almost half of the game is played in the sub-package, probably more than that. You’ve got to feature what guys can do best. With Babs, I know he’s got that quickness. So you’ve got to try and feature him inside. That’s what we’re going to try to do.’’

LEADING THE LINE… Babineaux managed a couple of sacks and eight quarterback hits last season on a thin defense and if the production surrounding the 34-year-old increases this year, Babs could have his most productive season to date at de-fensive tackle from a pass rushing perspective. In the preseason opener against the Ti-tans, Babineaux forced rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota to fumble as linebacker Paul Worrilow came running in for a scoop-and-score to give the Falcons their first defensive touchdown of the year. The following week, Atlanta took its new defense up to East Ruth-erford to visit the New York Jets and Babineaux gave Falcons fans a glimpse of Atlanta’s bol-

stered defensive attack. The veteran is built for the 4-3 style and has the quickness and strength needed to create disruption between the tackles. This was clear when he took down Jets running back Chris Ivory for a four-yard loss in the opening quarter. The system plays to Babineaux’s strengths as a push rusher and allows him to penetrate rather than defend in a two-gap role against the run. “I love this defense. I love this style of defense,” said Babineaux following Atlanta’s trip to take on the Jets. “It’s an attacking style of defense.” It was not easy for the proud Falcon to withstand the defense’s struggles over the last two seasons, but his message to his team-mates entering 2015 and his high expectations show what to expect from the former Iowa Hawkeye this season. “We’ve got to continue to get the ball out. That’s our style of football,” explained Babi-neaux. “We are going to continue to harp on it, game in and game out, throughout this year. We’ve got to continue to fight and make sure we are getting off the field.” Babineaux’s versatility helped carry him to this point of his career, but now it is com-bined with invaluable knowledge and experi-ence and proven big-play ability that extends beyond himself and to those taking the field with him. Photo Courtesy of Atlanta Falcons

Every year in every sport there is that one team that comes out of nowhere to surprise people.

In the NBA it was our Atlanta Hawks. Last year in the MLB it was the Kansas City Royals. But who are some potential sleepers for this upcom-ing high school football season? It’s not as easy to predict with stats and info not being read-ily available for every school, but taking a stab in the dark can still be fun. I’ll try to run down some teams who I think have a chance to sur-prise people this year, picking a team from each classification. Also, I’ll try to avoid notoriously strong programs that just had a down year.

Class AAAAAA A team that took its lumps after moving up to 6A is North Paulding (4-7). The Wolf-pack won a record 11 games in 2013 in their fi-nal season at the 5A level, but found out that

playing with the “big boys” was a whole other animal. Scott Jones is a strong coach with ex-perience coaching at the highest classification after a 10-year run at Kennesaw Mountain. The Wolfpack return an experienced group ready to take the next step. Senior quarterback Kyle Banks (MTSU) threw for 3,498 yards and 32 touchdowns in his first year starting last season. His two favorite targets also return with seniors D.J. Owens (67 receptions, 1,157 yards, 12 TD’s) and NC State-commit, tight end Dylan Autenri-eth (468 yards), back to make big plays. North Paulding also returns linebacker Javier Williams who totaled 97 tackles last season.

CLASS AAAAA Paulding County (5-5) took a momentous step forward last season and coach Scott Ham-ilton has the team believing a playoff berth is

within their grasp. The Patriots recorded their first winning season since 2003 and have near-ly everybody returning on offense. Senior Bailey Johnson and junior Marquis Tre’von Lewis split time at quarterback last year and combined for 2,069 yards and 14 touchdowns. Lewis added 500 yards rushing and 10 scores as well. Caleb Sailor returns to the backfield after a broken col-larbone ended his season after four games. He and Dondre Ledford will see the bulk of the car-ries. Ledford did most of his damage at receiver in 2014, catching 42 balls for 413 yards, but the top option will remain Antonio Gandy-Golden, who comes off a 54-catch, 891-yard season.

CLASS AAAA Under head coach Sean Gray, Southeast Whitfield (6-5) captured its first winning sea-son since 1986. That is 28 years! The Raiders return their top running back Tyler Brown along with dual-threat quarterback Will Swantic. Linebacker/running back Devin Fields brings back a two-way talent that could help spark the Raiders back into the playoffs. Pickens County should fall back to the pack with the graduation of Shannon Brooks (Minnesota) and Northwest Whitfield loses star quarterback Caleb Shiflett which gives reason to believe that Southeast Whitfield could find itself in the playoff picture again.

CLASS AAACoaching is critical in high school football and one of the best in the business to never win a

state title brings his 20 years of head coaching experience to the Dawson County Tigers (2-8). Sid Maxwell has compiled a 128-83 record and has only suffered five losing seasons as a head coach – three coming in his first three seasons at Sequoyah back in the mid-90’s. Maxwell runs a Wing-T offense and spent his first 15 years coaching at Sequoyah before moving to Lambert for five years to coach his son. He took off last season, but Dawson County should see success under the strong leader.

CLASS AA Wesleyan (6-5) was extremely young last year and started freshman Banks Ramsey at quarterback. Cedric Lynch is a game-breaker with the ability to play both receiver and quar-terback. Virginia-commit Jordan Mack may be the team’s best player, playing safety and all over on offense. The Wolves’ top two running backs return along with top receiver, junior Har-rison Cook. Drew Aspinwall led the team in tackles as a junior at linebacker with 77 stops. These young pups look to become full-grown wolves this season with some bite.

CLASS A Stratford Academy (6-5) and its domi-nant rushing attack (293.6 yards per game) can steam roll opponents. Dual sport standout Quintez Cephus controls the offense from un-der center while senior O’Showen Williams is coming off a 1,060-yard, 21-touchdown season. Photo Courtesy of Sonny Kennedy

SAGER SAYS

SANDY’S SPIEL

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

BELOVED VETERAN CONTINUES PRODUCING FOR FALCONS

SANDY’S SUPER SLEEPERS

Page 6: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27
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7Vol. 11 Iss. 27 | August 20-26, 2015

The weekend started early on Thursday with the fourth annual MetroPCS Corky Kell

Luncheon sponsored by Sprinturf. The 14 par-ticipating coaches in the Classic’s seven game lineup arrived with one star from their team and met with media and nearly 300 people in attendance. The state championship coaches from a year ago and eight of this year’s AJC Su-per 11 were on hand to celebrate the start of the new high school football season on the eve of its biggest event. Sandy Creek kicked off the 2015 Corky Kell Classic with a 41-0 rout of the Creekview Grizzlies in the first of two contests held at McEachern’s Cantrell Stadium on Friday. San-dy Creek outgained Creekview 375 to 102 in total yards and notched 22 first downs to the Grizzlies’ six. Jaelon Greene gained 84 yards rushing and scored twice while Bryant Walker threw for 135 yards and two scores. In the backend of the double-header, Archer’s Jamyest Williams set a Corky Kell record with five rushing touchdowns on 172 yards. Quarterback Will Bearden went a per-fect 8-for-8 with 198 yards and two scores. Aramis Bryant and Kyle Davis both scored a

touchdown and recorded three catches with Bryant gaining 97 yards and Davis 70. North Paulding’s Kyle Banks threw for 195 yards and three scores in the loss.

BACK IN THE DOME… For just the 10th time in Corky Kell history, the Kell Longhorns pitched a shutout in the first of five Saturday games at the Georgia Dome. Defense and special teams were the story for Kell as Kennesaw State-commit Bryson Arm-strong returned punts of 64 and 66 yards back for scores and added a 26-yard fumble recov-ery for a touchdown. By the end of the first quarter, the Long-horns had already piled up a 21-0 lead. Kell forced five fumbles and held the Trojans to 100 yards of total offense. Futral gained 75 yards on 12 carries to power the Kell running game.In the second game, Mill Creek stormed past Brookwood 42-7. After Daniel Lecounte scored on runs of 17 and one yards, Tanner Winskie of Brookwood found Dorian Miles over the middle for a 59-yard score to bring the game to 14-7 with 7:24 left in the first half. On 3rd-and-7 with 26 seconds left in the

second quarter, Cameron Turley hit Miles Ri-ley on a streak pattern for a 70-yard score that would ultimately change the entire complexion of the game. The Hawks held a 21-7 advantage at halftime and would go on to pour on 21 more points in the third quarter to put the game on ice. A blocked punt was returned 40 yards by Joe Thomas which proved to open the flood gates in the second half. Riley Snyder caught a 35-yard touchdown from Turley and later Aaron Anderson picked off a pass and went 66 yards to complete the scoring. Turley completed 13-of-19 passes for 214 yards and two scores while Lecounte finished with 63 yards and two rushing touchdowns on the day.

NORTH VS. SOUTH… The third game was this year’s closest game and Norcross escaped with a thrilling 34-31 win over Valdosta. The two teams set the stadium ablaze, trading big play for big play. Just 26 seconds into the game on Valdo-sta’s second play from scrimmage, Seth Shu-man hit running back Tim Griffin for an elec-trifying 80-yard touchdown pass that got the Valdosta faithful out of their seats early. But just 19 seconds later, on Norcross’ first play from scrimmage, quarterback Baron Radcliff ripped off a 57-yard run of his own to knot the game up at 7. Radcliff would finish the game with 27 yards passing and 130 rushing, while compiling three scores. JJ Strickland would tack on a four-yard touchdown reception from Shuman and Davis Baldwin booted a 33-yarder to give the Cats a 17-7 cushion, but with 1:52 left in the first, Radcliff hooked up with Jordan Palmer for a 23-yard score. The Wildcats would force five total turn-overs with their smashmouth defense, but Norcross gained the lead late in the second quarter after a controversial swing pass to the flats was ruled a fumble and was recovered by the Blue Devils deep in Valdosta territory. Just one play later, the tides turned when backup Max Tracey connected with Robert Sims for a 22-yard touchdown to take a 21-17 lead into the half. In the third period, the fireworks were on display again, highlighted by back-to-back-to-back touchdowns on consecutive plays. Radcliff rumbled 42 yards to give Norcross a short-lived 27-17 lead before Jayce Rogers re-turned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards. Not to be outdone, Norcross’ Jacobe Burrell sprinted his way through the Wildcat special teams and brought an 89-yarder to the house to regain a 34-24 lead. Valdosta would go on to cash in on a Nor-cross turnover and score on a three-yard Strick-

METROPCS CORKY KELL CLASSIC

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

DOMINATING PERFORMANCES HIGHLIGHT 24TH ANNUAL METROPCS CORKY KELL CLASSIC

land run to cut the lead back to three at 34-31. In the fourth quarter Valdosta had one last breath when it held Norcross and forced a punt, but the Cats were faced with the tall task of driv-ing 97 yards with zero timeouts remaining. Shu-man would drive Valdosta to the Norcross 47, but a last second hail marry fell short.

PACKER PRIDE… With youth under center after losing gun-slinger John Urzua to graduation, the Bulldogs struggled to move the ball on offense and to-taled just 174 yards through the air as Colquitt County stamped a 45-15 win over North Gwin-nett. Bulldogs starter Cade Fortin completed 10-of-17 passes for 96 yards but the veteran leadership of Kiel Pollard and quarterback Chase Parrish proved to be too much. Parrish finished with 16-of-28 for 191 yards and one score, with his favorite target be-ing Pollard. Pollard caught seven balls for 124 yards and one touchdown. The uncommitted wide out also scored twice on the ground.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION… In the final game, star-studded McEach-ern dazzled in a 50-14 rout over Tucker. With four defensive starters out, Tucker was un-able to slow down the explosive Indians. Sam Jackson ripped off 161 yards on nine carries and scored three first half touchdowns. Quay Holmes tacked on 64 yards rushing of his own. Bailey Hockman completed 5-of-12 pass-es for 101 yards and one score, finding Tyler Smith three times for 50 yards and the lone touchdown. The Indians led 48-7 at the half. Photos courtesy of Sonny Kennedy and Terrance Johnson

ON

TH

E CO

VER

Page 8: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

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

HOT

WH

O’S

NOT

Archer’s Will Bearden

Opening Week Underdogs

Matt RyanBackup

QuarterbacksMcEachern

IndiansAtlanta Braves

Class AAAAAA’s top-ranked team Archer took on North Paulding in the second game of this year’s MetroPCS Corky Kell Classic. Senior quar-terback Will Bearden made his first career start and led Archer to a 49-21 vic-tory while completing 8-of-8 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Bearden will get another chance to play on TV this Saturday against Peachtree Ridge.

North Paulding, Creekview, Carrollton, Brookwood, North Gwinnett and Tucker are proud programs that got off to a rough starts with embar-rassing losses at this year’s Corky Kell. Fumbled snaps, poor defense and absence of speed and size exposed a lot of areas for these six teams. It is just one game, but now everyone will be watching to see how they can respond.

The Falcons first string of-fense has dominated oppos-ing defenses this preseason and Matt Ryan has been near-perfect. Ryan has posted a 158.3 QBR in both games and has completed 10-11 passes for 161 yards and two touch-downs in his limited action. Now if only, offensive coordi-nator Kyle Shanahan had vet-eran talent at running back.

The Falcons signed veteran backup Rex Grossman on Wednesday to compete for the backup role behind Matt Ryan. If Dan Quinn and Thom-as Dimitroff were happy with how backups T.J. Yates and Sean Renfree have looked af-ter two exhibition games, they wouldn’t even be looking at Grossman so that should tell you something.

The Indians proved they are the most explosive offensive in the state on Saturday, racing to a 48-7 first half lead over Tucker before stamping a 50-14 vic-tory. McEachern has a defense to match its offense this year and for the first time, the sense of championship aspirations are legitimately materializing in Powder Springs, Ga.

The baseball season is wind-ing down, and the Braves are running out of the little steam they had. After losing their eighth game in nine outings, the team dropped 18 games below .500 for the first time this season on Tuesday. With just over a month of the season left, hopefully the organization sees more to be excited about with the roster.

SCORE LISTBy Craig Sager II

NUMBERSBy Craig Sager II

MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUMThe wait is over. The Falcons and Atlanta United FC announced on Monday that Mercedes-Benz has been named as the sponsor for the new Atlanta Stadium. The financial terms of the agreement, which runs all the way through 2042, were not disclosed. But Mercedes-Benz president and CEO Stephen Cannon said it is the richest marketing deal signed by his company.

One of the reasons I cannot wait for the college football season to start is the possibility that the University of Georgia’s quarterback competition will finally be solved. It has been a long offseason in Athens, but it looks like former Camden County quarterback Brice Ramsey has finally emerged as the favorite over transfer Greyson Lambert, although expect some late drama the next week.

QUARTERBACK BATTLE

BRAVES BLUESIt is hard to believe that the team that did nothing but win NL East titles during my childhood is in rebuilding mode as it gets closer to leaving Turner Field forever. The Braves have lost eight of their last nine games. Do yourself a favor and spare the frustration and just get into football mode because this season has long been over.

CORKY KELL CLASSICThe 24th Annual MetroPCS Corky Kell Classic saw one close game and six blowouts, but one thing is for sure. The three best teams in the state were on the field. Archer, Colquitt County and McEachern imposed their will on three playoff teams from a year ago and proved this season in Class AAAAAA is going to be as good as ever.

PRESEASON INJURIESFootball is a game familiar with injuries, but there is nothing more frustrating than seeing preseason injuries. The Packers lost wideout Jordy Nelson for the season and the Panthers lost their young and super talented receiver, Kelvin Benjamin. It will be a long offseason, but I wish those two and everyone else speedy recoveries.

? “

ANSWER ON PAGE 16- Jonathan Babineaux

on Dan Quinn’s style of defense

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

WHO ARE THE TWO LONGEST-TENURED FALCONS ON THIS YEAR’S ROSTER?

“We’ve got to continue to get the ball out. That’s our

style of football. We are going to continue to harp on it, game in and game

out, throughout this year. We’ve got to continue to

fight and make sure we are getting off the field.”

By

Ky

le S

an

dy

158.3

5

29.8

48

1,593

10

7

-1

Matt Ryan’s quarterback rating this preseason

Rushing touchdowns by Archer running back Jamyest Williams on Friday

Average margin of victory at this year’s MetroPCS Corky Kell Classic

First half points scored by McEachern against Tucker

Franchise record receiving yards by Julio Jones last season

Shutouts in Corky Kell history after Kell and Sandy Creek blanked opponents this weekend

Catches by rookie wide receiver Justin Hardy after the first two preseason games

Turnover margin for the Falcons this preseason

Page 9: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

9Vol. 11 Iss. 27 | August 20-26, 2015

McEachern High School

South Forsyth High School Roswell High SchoolSocial Circle High School

Valdosta High School

Northview High School

Over 1000 installations nationwide since 1998

Page 10: SCORE VOL 11 IS 27

Four of Dekalb County’s top teams will be put to the test as they host four of Florida’s most

successful programs for a third straight year in the Chick-fil-A Battle of the Borders this Satur-day. To open the day, Marist takes on Coconut Creek from Pompano Beach, Fla. Marist Coach Alan Chadwick is entering his 31st season at the helm and comes off a third round loss to eventual state champions Buford last year. Co-conut Creek started 2014 3-1 but eventually fell to a 4-6 record. Uncommitted recruits Trayvon Mullen and Binjimen Victor along with Georgia com-mit Malek Young and Arkansas commit Alexy Jean-Baptiste lead Coconut Creek. Marist used its relentless rushing attack and opportunistic defense to dominate time of position and score a dramatic 17-14 win over Godby in last year’s Battle of the Borders. Coconut Creek is making its first appearance in the event. The second game of the day will be the Hallandale Chargers against the Cedar Grove

Saints. The two teams are both making their first appearance at the Battle of the Borders. Coach Dameon Jones has the Hallandale pro-gram on the rise after a 10-win season and a playoff appearance in which they lost to even-tual state champion Miami Central 35-19. The Chargers feature top players such as wide re-ceiver and Florida-commit Joshua Hammond, Miami-commit and cornerback Deion Jackson and Florida Atlantic-commit and quarterback Tyler Huntley. Cedar Grove is also riding the momentum of a successful season after head coach Jermaine Smith led the Saints to a 9-3 finish, the school’s best since 1992. An unforgettable 28-21 win over Blessed Trinity in the region championship gave the Saints the top seed and a playoff berth for the fifth straight season. Cedar Grove crushed Westside-Augusta 45-7 in the first round, but like Hallandale, fell to the eventual state champs in their classification. Calhoun ended the Saints’ season with a 38-18 victory. Juniors Netori

Johnson, who has pledged to play at Alabama, and cornerback Tre Shaw are some of the top prospects in the state for the class of 2017 and highlight the Saints’ deep well of talent.

STAR-STUDDED SLATE… The final two games of the football mara-thon will star four southeastern giants and confirm the reality that no field in the country will host more top recruits than Hallford Sta-dium on Aug. 29. Godby faces Tucker in the evening game with an estimated 5:30 p.m. kickoff. Both teams are returning to the Battle of the Bor-ders are looking for their first win at the event. Tucker finished last year 10-3 in what marked the Tigers’ Class AAAAAA debut. Georgia. Godby stumbled to start the season with its loss to Marist last year but would finish 12-3 and make an appearance in the state finals. Tucker has never been short on talent and has been one of the winningest programs in the state the last several years. Jonathan Ledbet-ter (Georgia), Elijah Sullivan (Kansas St.), Duke Shelley (Kansas St.), Detric Bing-Dukes (Geor-gia), Dominick Sanders (Georgia), and Juwaan Williams (Oregon) have kept Tucker on the map in recent years and this year will be no differ-ent for the Tigers as they will still have some top tier talent with Tabarius Peterson, Demarko Durr and Chase Tyson. Like Tucker, Godby has been a factory and is known for sending kids to play at the collegiate level. Danny Thomas (USF), Brendan Loftus (Miami), PJ Simmons (Kent St.), Jacob Pugh (Florida St.), De’Eric Cul-

ver (Louisville), and Kenny Young (Maryland) have all played for the Tallahassee school. This year Godby will lead on Cedric Wood, Darius Bradwell and Tywuan Watson. The last game of the night will see two-time defending Florida state champion Ameri-can Heritage versus three-time Battle of the Borders participant Stephenson. Stephenson finished the season 8-4 with a loss to Stock-bridge in the second round of the playoffs. Ste-phenson is still in search for its first state title, but the Jaguars are the type of program has proven the ability to compete with the region’s most decorated programs. The Jaguars had the daunting task of playing Miami Central in last year’s Battle of the Borders and fell in a 21-20 heartbreaker. The Jaguars face another chal-lenge as American Heritage makes its Battle of the Borders debut.

PREP SPORTS

BATTLE OF THE BORDERS RETURNS WITH FOUR CROSS-STATE MATCHUPSBY: EVAN MILLER | [email protected]

2015 SCHEDULESATURDAY, AUG. 29

(All Games At Hallford Stadium)

11:45 AM Coconut Creek vs. Marist2:30 PM Hallandale vs. Cedar Grove5:30 PM Godby vs. Tucker8:30 PM American-Heritage vs. Stephenson

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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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It is the unfortunate time of the year, when we have to hear about injuries on the football

field. Last week was just another example of how football can be a cruel game on that front. It was simple quarterback and receiver drills for the Bulldogs with senior wideout Justin Scott-Wesley split out wide . He would then run his route, lose his footing and fall to the ground. What next? He started to grab his knee and then got up to walk off the field. He would be joined on the sideline even-tually by his fellow senior wide receiver Mal-colm Mitchell to check on him. Scott-Wesley soon left the field under his own strength while being accompanied by a member of the UGA medical training staff. As of right now, UGA has not released any details on the severity of the injury to Scott-Wesley. Do keep in mind, that Wesley also dealt with a season-ending torn ACL in the Tennessee game in 2013. Last season he missed seven games with an injury suffered during fall camp. In good news, UGA was able to get sophomore wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie back

With the season debut just weeks away, the football team held their first scrimmage

of the year on August 15. Quarterback Nick Arbuckle completed 9-of-14 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Emiere Scaife and true freshman Aaron Win-chester also saw time in the game, with Win-chester connecting with Glenn Smith on a 25-yard touchdown pass. Winchester played his high school ball in Alpharetta at Mount Pisgah Christian. Coach Trent Miles was pleased with his team’s effort but noted that they were still a long ways away. “The offense moved the ball in some spurts and the defense stopped them in some spurts,” he said. “Defensively, I thought our kids tackled better than I anticipated in the open field. They did a good job of running to the ball.” “We’re striving for perfection, so we’ve got to keep pushing these kids to make every play they can,” Miles added. “There are a lot of things we’ve got to work on, but at the same time, you see all the effort and much better ex-

Georgia Tech’s 1990 Championship Season will be broadcasted on Friday, Aug. 28, at 11

p.m. ET. On FOX Sports South. DRIVEN – Geor-gia Tech’s 1990 Championship Season chronicles an unforgettable year of Georgia Tech foot-ball, in which the team captured the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship, won the Florida Citrus Bowl and was named United Press International (UPI) National Champions. The show will include exclusive interviews with coaches and players from the 1990 team, in-cluding head coach Bobby Ross, offensive co-ordinator Ralph Friedgen, defensive coordinator George O’Leary, quarterback Shawn Jones, run-ning back William Bell and kicker Scott Sisson. Entering the 1990 season with little fan-fare, Georgia Tech started the season 5-0 be-fore settling for a tie against North Carolina. DRIVEN will explore how the team used that game as a catalyst for the rest of the season en route to an undefeated 11-0-1 record. “I’ve been a part of a lot of big football games and great football teams, but nothing compares to winning that national champion-

Midfielder Brittney Reed has kicked off the soccer season in a big way. The junior

scored once and added an assist in Monday’s 3-2 loss at Georgia State. The Owls fell behind 1-0 in the 42nd minute, but quickly found the equalizer by way of Cassidy Kemp’s foot off a Reed assist just under two minutes later. The Panthers again took the lead six minutes into the second half on an Alexis Thompson goal, but once again Kennesaw State wasted no time in finding the back of the net. Kemp was taken down in the box a minute and 26 sec-onds after the Panthers’ go-ahead goal and Reed stepped up and sank the penalty kick. Callie O’Conner put GSU ahead for good with 10 minutes remaining off a Monique Hundley cross, dropping the Owls to 1-1-0 on the sea-son while Georgia States moves to 2-0-0.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT On Tuesday, Reed was honored by the Na-tional Soccer Coaches Association of America

on the field Tuesday from a hamstring injury. If any news breaks on the Justin Scott-Wesley injury situation, we will have a story on ScoreATL.com. HUGE RECRUITING NEWS Quarterback Jacob Eason out of Lake Stevens, Washington has been on the mind of Georgia fans all the way back to last sum-mer when the five-star prospect committed to UGA following their annual ‘Dawg Night’ event. Even with the changing of offensive co-ordinators, the standout signal-caller has re-mained committed. The commitment took a step forward earlier this week, when he tweeted out that he would be signing his financial aid agreement with UGA. While the FAA doesn’t guarantee that Eason is Athens bound, it means that Georgia will be unlimited contact with their recruit. It also means that Eason will be able to enroll early at UGA. MORE ACCOLADES FOR UGA FOOTBALL Junior offensive guard Greg Pyke, sopho-more running back Nick Chubb and wide re-ceiver/punt returner Isaiah McKenzie have been on many preseason award lists heading into 2015 and you can now add one more. On Tuesday, CBS Sports released their preseason All-America team with these three names on the list. Chubb is a first team member, while Pyke/McKenzie are second team members. The first chance to see all three players in action will be on September 5, when UGA hosts ULM (Louisiana-Monroe).

ecution than we’ve had in the past.” Senior kicker Wil Lutz stood out with field goals of 56 and 58 yards. He will be counted on to get the Panthers three points if their offense stalls on the opponent’s side of the field.

BACK TO THE PITCH The women’s soccer team fell to Char-lotte 4-3 in an exhibition match. Junior Su-zanne Arafa scored a career-high two goals while freshman Monique Hundley added an assist and a goal of her own. “There were definitely a lot of positives to-day,” head coach Derek Leader said about the team’s performance. “We learned a lot about ourselves and we were able to rotate the girls in and out of the game, giving several new play-ers the chance to see the field. Now we need to build on our mistakes and prepare for Friday’s season opener.” The men’s team hosted Georgia South-western last Tuesday and won easily 10-0 thanks to a pair of hat tricks by Eddie Wilding and Jad Elkhalil. This past Saturday the Pan-thers rallied to beat Oglethorpe 2-1 in another exhibition match.

BOHANNON A BEASTSenior outside hitter Deidra Bohannon has been named an All-Sun Belt preseason selec-tion. She was named all-conference in 2013 and 2014 following strong seasons. She led GSU last season in kills with 432. Bohannon holds the GSU record for career kills (1,001) under the 25-point scoring format.

ship that day in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl,” said Friedgen. “Winners believe they are go-ing to win, losers hope they are going to win. The more we won that season, the more we expected to win.”

NEVER BEFORE SEEN… The show will feature a never-before-seen roundtable between Jones, Bell, Sisson and Friedgen, as they relive memories and remi-nisce about winning the UPI National Champi-onship. Filmed this summer at Friedgen’s home in Eatonton, Ga., the former players and coach also discuss the final Associated Press (AP) rankings, which awarded Colorado the AP Na-tional Championship. “We had our season – that couldn’t be taken away from us, and I was very satisfied with that,” said Ross. “We had that record to look back on and say it was the best in college football that season. I would have loved to have played a game with Colorado – I was all for a playoff, even back then in 1990.” “The 1990 football season is remembered as one of the greatest team performances in Georgia Tech history, including a historic win over No. 1 Virginia,” said Mike Bobinski, Geor-gia Tech Director of Athletics. “That season had many defining moments and included some all-time Tech greats. We remain tremen-dously proud of what this team accomplished and are honored to recognize the 1990 Nation-al Champions throughout the season at Bobby Dodd Stadium.”

(NSCAA) as the College Player of the Week. Aside from her effort against Georgia State, Reed began the season with a bang in a 12-0 win over Alabama A&M, scoring an incredible six goals in the rout. Her six goals and 12 points set program milestones for most points and goals in a single match. The Kennesaw, Ga., native’s six goals is just one off of the NCAA Division I record of seven goals scored in a single match that was set by Sarah Comeauz of Ole Miss in 1996 and equaled by Kristen Arnott of Saint Francis (PA) in 2000. “We are thrilled for Brittney,” said head coach Rob King. “She is our captain, a leader on the field, in the community and in the class-room. Brittney is also the national SAAC repre-sentative for the Atlantic Sun Conference and is a fully engaged student-athlete. On the field we have asked Brittney to take on a more at-tacking role this season and she had grasped that opportunity.”

THE WAIT IS NEARLY OVER Next Thursday will be historical for Ken-nesaw State University as it will play its first ever college football game against former longtime A-Sun foe East Tennessee State. The game kicks off at 7:30 P.M. The Owls’ first home game will be September 12 at 4 P.M. against Edward Waters and will be broadcast-ed on CW69.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY DAN MATHEWS | [email protected]

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

BY: CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

INJURY BUG HIT’S UGA FOOTBALL, HUGE RECRUITING NEWS, & MORE ACCOLADES

FOOTBALL AND FÚTBOL BOTH EYE OPENERS

FOX SPORTS SOUTH SET TO DEBUT DRIVEN

REED NAMED NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

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Looking to improve their depth on the wings and add some veteran experience, the

Hawks signed 13-year pro Jason Richardson to a non-guaranteed deal. Now 34, Richard-son was the fifth overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, selected by the Golden State Warriors. After sitting out a year with knee surgery, the former Michigan State Spartan played spar-ingly for the young Philadelphia 76ers. He ap-peared in 19 games and started 15 while scor-ing 9.1 points per game in 21.9 minutes a night. Over his lengthy career, Richardson has been known as one of the game’s most electrifying dunkers and a reliable three-point marksman. He won back-to-back NBA Slam Dunk Contests in 2002 and 2003 and lost in the finals in 2004. Richardson holds a career average of 17.1 points per game and 5.0 rebounds while connecting on 37 percent of his attempts from downtown. Atlanta will be Richardson’s sixth team of his career after stops at Golden State, Charlotte, Phoenix, Orlando and Philadelphia.

The Atlanta Braves lost their first two games at the San Diego Padres on Monday and

Tuesday. Former Braves Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton, Jr. certainly played a part in the outcomes. In the series opener, Atlanta trailed 5-2 go-ing into the ninth inning. As he often did with the Braves, Kimbrel dug himself into a hole only to dig himself right out of it. The flamethrower gave up a single to Nick Markakis and walked A.J. Pierzynski to put two men on with nobody out. But Kimbrel struck out two of the next three batters. An RBI single by Jace Peterson proved to be inconsequential when a harmless pop fly off the bat of Andrelton Simmons end-ed the suspense as the Padres prevailed 5-3. It was Upton, Jr.’s turn to do the damage on Tuesday. His average had been stuck in the .220s since August 7 and he had gone 10 straight games without a multi-hit performance. Nonetheless, Upton, Jr. broke out in a big way by

The Atlanta Falcons announced Wednesday morning that they have signed quarterback

Rex Grossman and waived/injured running back Evan Royster. Grossman, 6-1, 225, was originally drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2003 NFL Draft out of the Uni-versity of Florida. Grossman played for the Bears for six years and played in 36 games with 31 starts. He completed 521 passes for 6,164 yards and 33 touchdowns for Chicago during his tenure with the team. In 2006, Grossman played all 16 games and had 3,193 passing yards and 23 touchdowns – both career highs – as he led the Bears to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1985. The former Gator signed with the Hous-ton Texans on June 12, 2009 and played in one game for the Texans. He then signed with the Washington Redskins on March 17, 2010 and played in 17 games with 16 starts over the next four years with the team. Grossman complet-

The Dream blew a 16-point lead and fell to the Minnesota Lynx 84-82 at Philips Arena.

The Lynx (18-6) rallied behind a season-high 36 points from none other than former Collins Hill superstar Maya Moore, who celebrated her homecoming in style by shocking the Atlanta fans. Her big night along with Sylvia Fowles’ 19 points, eight rebounds and five blocks helped the Lynx sneak past a Dream team who thought they had an insurmountable lead in the second half. Angel McCoughtry scored a team-high 32 points while Shoni Schimmel added 18 points, six rebounds and eight assists. Atlanta led 59-43 with 5:13 remaining in the third quarter when it took the foot off the gas. A 19-7 surge closed the gap to 66-62 to end the third. At the 2:19 mark in the fourth quarter, a Moore three-point-er gave the Lynx their first lead of a second half; part of an 11-3 run to finish the game.

SUN BLOCK Atlanta (11-16) took three games in a four

SUMMER SIGNINGS Strong summer league performances were cashed into contracts back on July 24 as guard/forwards Lamar Patterson and Terran Petteway were both signed by the Hawks. Pat-terson, the 48th overall pick in the 2014 draft, led Atlanta during the summer with 13.1 points, 3.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 5.1 rebounds in 25.8 minutes. Patterson was an All-ACC performer while at Pittsburgh. Petteway went undrafted this year after leaving Nebraska after his junior season. He averaged 10.9 points this summer and netted 18.2 points per game during his fi-nal season as a Cornhusker.

SCHEDULE RELEASED The NBA schedule was released two weeks ago and Atlanta will receive much more love than it has in years past. The Hawks will be featured on eight nationally televised broad-casts (twice on TNT, six times on ESPN) and will be seen on NBA TV for nine games. Atlan-ta will open up the season at home against the Detroit Pistons on October 27 at 8:00 P.M. The Hawks have 19 back-to-backs sched-uled this season which will be less than last season’s 20-plus. Atlanta however will face two stretches which include four games in five nights; a league-high. They will avoid holiday games this season, missing out on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but will still be slated to play on MLK Day against the Orlando Magic at 5 P.M.

going 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs as San Diego trounced the Braves 9-0. “It happens all the time,” Braves’ manager Fredi Gonzalez said of players coming back to haunt their former teams. “[Cameron Maybin] is doing it to them. It’s just one of those things. I think it’s the baseball gods. [Dan Uggla] hit one out against us earlier in the year. [Upton Jr.] put two good swings on those pitches and got two home runs.”

MAYBIN STILL HOT … Atlanta has lost eight of its last nine to fall 18 games below .500 (54-72) for the first time all season. In spite of it all, center fielder Cam-eron Maybin has remained in stellar form at the plate. Maybin put together a seven-game hitting streak and five of those seven were of the multi-hit variety. He had eight multi-hit outings in his last 13 contests. On Aug. 16 against the visiting Arizona Di-amondbacks, the 28-year-old launched a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Braves a 2-1 win. One day later in San Diego he went deep again. Thus Maybin be-came only the third player in franchise history (joining Hank Aaron, 1971, and Kelly Johnson, 2008) to record at least two hits with at least one extra-base hit in five consecutive games.

ed 339 passes for 4,035 yards and 23 touch-downs for the Redskins.

BACK ON THE ROAD… Atlanta’s third preseason game will re-quire a trip to Miami this weekend for Satur-day’s 7 pm kickoff with the Dolphins. The Fal-cons are coming off a 30-22 loss to the Jets last Friday and will face a Miami squad that is 0-2 this preseason. The Dolphins boast a talented defensive line, which includes tackle Ndamukong Suh. Facing one of the top defen-sive forces in the NFL will be a great test for Atlanta’s offensive line. “Obviously I’ve played against Ndamu-kong Suh a number of times in my career. You know that he’s a special player,” said Matt Ryan. He’s tough to go against. You’ve got to know where he’s at. He’s one of those guys in this league that you have to account for where he’s at. So it will be a good test for us. And hopefully we’ll be prepared and ready to go.” Ryan also gave credit to the talent sur-rounding Suh. He’s not the only one,” Ryan said of Suh. “Cameron Wake’s a great player. They’ve got a lot of talent on that defense. I think it’s a great opportunity for us.” The Falcons return to the Dome on Thurs-day for their last preseason scrimmage against the visiting Ravens.

game span against the Connecticut Sun. In game one, the Dream outscored the Sun 51-35 in the second half to cruise to a 90-77 victory. Reshanda Gray and McCoughtry both paced the Dream with 18 points apiece. Schimmel played another strong game as the starting point guard, scoring 15 points on 5-of-6 shoot-ing. The Sun (12-15) took a 20-6 lead in the first half and banged home seven of their first 15 three-pointers before cooling down. Jennifer Lacy scored a game-high 21 points and nailed three three-pointers to lead Connecticut to the hot start. The Dream negated the Sun’s hot shooting by attacking the basket. They would attempt 36 free throws on the day and convert 31 of them. On Sunday and Tuesday the Dream scored wins of 102-92 and 71-57 over the Sun. Mc-Coughtry dropped 33 points in Sunday’s win as it marked the eighth time in her career she has scored 30 or more points against Connecticut.

SINKING IN THE STANDINGS Atlanta still is currently sitting on the outside looking in with the worst record in the Eastern Conference. The Dream are 7.5 games back of first place New York with seven games remaining. The top four teams from each con-ference secure a playoff berth. Atlanta is five games out in the loss column behind fourth place Washington and have two games re-maining with the Mystics.

ATLANTA HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

ATLANTA FALCONS

ATLANTA DREAM

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

BY RICKY DIMON | [email protected]

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

VETERAN INKS DEAL, SCHEDULE RELEASED

BRAVES BURNED BY FAMILIAR FACES IN SAN DIEGO

FALCONS SIGN BACKUP QB REX GROSSMAN

DREAM BECOMES NIGHTMARE THANKS TO MAYA MOORE

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