A Faith Willoughby hat trick in the first 5 minutes of the match sparked a huge Westwood Middle School soccer win over Liberty on 8th grade night. Honoring the 8th grade Lady Rockets was a new event for Westwood, but winning another conference match was not as Westwood steamrolled the Lady Patriots 6 to 0. Anna Coker and Abygail Hernandez combined in goal for the shut out win as Coker turned back 4 shots in the 1st half and Hernandez stopped a pair of shots in the 2nd.
Willoughby, an 8th grader, made her last home match a memorable one as she scored 30 seconds into the match. Faith added goals in the 4th and 5th minutes to earn a hat trick before the fans in attendance could get settled in their seats. Brittney Hernandez added a goal in the 13th minute before Willoughby added goal #4 in the 18th minute to give Westwood a 5 to 0 lead at the half. Brittney Hernandez added a goal in the last minute for the final tally.
The game was the final regular season for Westwood prior to next week’s conference tournament. The Central Tennessee Soccer Conference Tournament will take place all next week. The tournament quarterfinals take place on Tuesday as Westwood travels to Fayetteville to take on the Lady Tigers. A win there would advance the Lady Rockets to Friday’s semifinals to be held at either St. Andrews or Huntland. Thunder Radio will keep you updated with Westwood’s schedule and results.

The Coffee County Middle School soccer team celebrated 8th grade night in grand fashion on Wednesday with a 4 to 1 win over North Franklin at the Lady Raiders home pitch. The win improved the Lady Raiders record to 8-1-1 on the year overall as Coffee County had already finished the conference slate with a record of 6 and 0.
North Franklin got on the board first as they scored in the 8th minute. Reagan Ellison leveled the score in the 10th minute unassisted to settle down the Lady Raiders. Katie Cotton added a pair of goals, in the 11th and 18th minutes, to give Coffee County a 3 to 1 halftime lead. Ellie Fann wrapped up the scoring for the Lady Raiders in the 43rd minute off a corner from Marley Perry. Perry finished the game with 2 assists as she also assisted on Cotton’s first score.
The game ends the regular season for Coffee County as they prepare for conference tournaments. The JV tournament will be held on Saturday in Shelbyville hosted by Harris. The varsity tournament will take place on Saturday, October 1st at Tullahoma. Keep your eye on the Thunder Radio sports page for schedules and results.

The Westwood Rocket and Lady Rocket cross country teams competed in a match at Fayetteville on Tuesday at Fayetteville’s Don Davidson Park. The Rockets and Lady Rockets each won team titles on the day. The Lady Rockets finished 1st out of a field of 5 teams while the Rockets were 1st out of 6 teams.
For the Lady Rockets, Patricia Barrera was the top finisher for Westwood as she took 4th place out of a field of 44 runners in a time of 11:45. Sunshine Mai was 13th, Lizabeth Martinez was 14th, Alaya Barnes was 16th, Elizabeth Brown was 17th, Zoe Mills came in 20th and Kennedy Norman-Young was 21st.
For the Rockets, Bradey Nugent was the 4th place finisher in the boys race that had a field of 72 runners. Nugent, who finished in a time of 10:47, finished just ahead of 4 teammates. Louie Frazier was 5th, Bodey Todd was 6th, Jack Beachboard was 7th, Lukas Workman was 9th, John Dobson was 13th and Wyatt Nugent finished in 22nd place.
The Fayetteville race closed out another successful season for the Westwood runners. Coach Jim Dobson will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to talk about the season.

The Coffee County Central High and Middle School cross country teams traveled to Normandy on Tuesday to take part in a meet on the hilly Arrowhead Ranch course.
The Red Raiders remained perfect on the season as they outdistanced second place Warren County by 5 points. James Lynn was the overall top finisher as he won the boys race. Bradley Kishbaugh was 4th, Andrew Godwin was 5th, Andres Cavalie was 6th, Reuben Chaput was 16th, Larson Meltzer was 30th and Neil Slone came in at 37th place.
The Lady Raiders had a respectable showing in spite of having several runners missing. Official team results and times have not been released for the meet as of yet but Sarah Pearson finished in 2nd place as the top Coffee County runner. Emily St. John was 5th, Byanka Woods finished 20th, Jasmine Farrar was 31st, Kelsey Selvage was 33rd and Keisheal Norton was 35th.
The CCMS runners had the best showing of the year as Raider runners won both the boys and girls races. For the Red Raiders, Ethan Welch finished first followed by Jacob Rutledge in 2nd and Jaylen Selvage in 7th place. For the Lady Raiders, Shelby Watkins was the first place runner followed by Jasie Willis in 2nd place.
The CHS thinclads are back in action on Friday when they travel to St. Andrew’s-Sewanee for the Mountain Lion Invitational meet.

To keep pace with the Cardinals and Giants in the National League Wild Card race, the Mets understand they must take advantage of every opportunity. Less than two weeks to go in the regular season. No slip-ups now.

But the Mets allowed a prime opportunity to fall through their fingers this week at Citi Field, losing a 4-3 game to the Braves on Wednesday that completed a series sweep for Atlanta. Taking a three-run lead into the seventh inning, the Mets lost it amidst a lengthy string of pitching changes and pinch-hit plate appearances, going behind for good in the ninth.
Yoenis Cespedes nearly won the game for the Mets on a walk-off, three-run homer in the ninth, but center fielder Ender Inciarte robbed him with a leaping catch at the wall. The resulting win was the sixth in a row for the Braves at Citi Field and their fifth straight overall.
According to Statcast™, Cespedes’ drive had an exit velocity of 101.7 mph and a launch angle of 28 degrees. Batted balls with those traits go for a hit 84 percent of the time and a home run 72 percent of the time.
Inciarte broke a lot of Mets fans’ hearts with his amazing grab
Inciarte had a first step of -0.73 seconds on the play, which means he was actually moving before the crack of the bat. He reached a top speed of 19.2 feet and covered 104 feet.
The loss ensured the Mets would remain tied with the Cardinals, who lost earlier Wednesday, while temporarily dropping them a half-game behind the Giants in the NL Wild Card race.
Jumping out to a 3-0 lead on Asdrubal Cabrera’s two-run homer in the first inning and Rene Rivera’s solo shot in the fifth, the Mets seemed as if they might cruise to victory from there. But an Anthony Recker two-run shot in the seventh inning brought the Braves back within a run of the lead, before a Dansby Swanson single chased starter Bartolo Colon from the game.
Mets manager Terry Collins made a series of unorthodox bullpen decisions at that point, bringing setup man Addison Reed into the game in the seventh, lefty specialist Josh Smoker in the eighth and, with the game on the line, closer Jeurys Familia in the ninth. The moves backfired when Matt Kemp tied things with a sacrifice fly off Familia.
An inning later, with Familia still in the game, Inciarte hit a go-ahead RBI groundout.
The Braves executed almost perfectly to get the winning run home in the ninth. After Jace Peterson led off with a single, manager Brian Snitker had Swanson bunt Peterson to second base. Pinch-hitter Emilio Bonifacio followed with a single to shallow left, but third-base coach Bo Porter had to hold Peterson at third. Inciarte followed with a slow grounder past the mound that allowed Peterson to score.
Freddie Freeman’s fourth-inning single off Colon gave the Braves’ first baseman a 41-game on-base streak, equalling the longest by his mentor, Chipper Jones. Only two players in Atlanta Braves history and three in franchise history have had longer streaks: Gary Sheffield, 52 games in 2002; Dale Murphy, 48 games in 1987; and Hank Aaron, 43 games for the 1962 Milwaukee Braves.
After the Mets coughed up the lead in the top of the eighth, they had an opportunity to take it right back in the bottom of the inning. But Cespedes did not run hard out of the box on his one-out double, which saw Kemp leap at the wall in an unsuccessful catch attempt. The Braves loaded the bases on intentional walks, before pinch-hitter Kevin Plawecki struck out on five pitches — four of them outside the strike zone — to end the threat.
Recker caught Colon in 17 games with the Mets from 2014-15. He got in the batter’s box against Colon for the first time in a game on Wednesday night and helped make it close with a two-run home run. Recker left the Mets as a free agent last offseason and signed with the Indians, then was acquired by the Braves in May.
The Braves move on to Miami, where they’ll play their final four road games of the season. Right-hander Josh Collmenter (2-0, 4.61 ERA), who beat the Nationals in his Braves debut, starts Thursday night’s 6:10 CT series opener at Marlins Park. Right-hander Jose Urena (4-7, 5.59 ERA) starts for the Marlins.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast beginning at 6 PM on the Braves Radio Network.