Leah Kate Sullivan of Westwood Golf

The Westwood Middle School golf welcomed the South Franklin Middle School team to Willowbrook on Monday for a 9 hole battle. Using the Junior PGA Flag scoring system, the Rockets fought their way to close win over the Trojans. The Rockets won by a final score of 6 ½ to 5 ½ .
The team of Lyndsey Paschall and Leah Kate Sullivan led the way for Westwood as they won their match 2 to 1. The Rocket duo of Evan Edison and Danny Hawkins also nabbed a pair of flags. The team of Araya Hughes and Marli Miller also grabbed a flag for Westwood.
The Rocket golfers will return to action on Monday when they travel to Tims Ford to take on North Franklin at Bear Trace. The shotgun start will go off at 3:30 PM.

Caleb Cargile of Westwood soccer

The Westwood Middle School soccer team traveled to Shelbyville on Monday for a conference match with Liberty.  After a scoreless first half, the Rockets notched a pair of goals in the second half to capture a 2 to 1 win.

In the second half Caleb Cargile and Lex Dodson combined for a pair of goals to lift Westwood to the crucial win.  Cargile scored both goals and Dodson had both assists.  The win clinches the regular season conference championship for Westwood.

Westwood closes out the regular season on Tuesday at home as they play host to Cascade.  That match will kick off at 5 PM at Dyer-Bouldin Field.

Kaitlyn Davis of CCMS softball

The Coffee County Middle School softball team traveled to Tullahoma on Monday riding a a perfect record for the season.  The Lady Raiders made short work of the Lady Kittens as Katelyn Davis pitched a 1 hitter and shut out Tullahoma.  Coffee Middle won by a final score of 13 to 0.

“Little Girl” was masterful in the circle as she struck out 8 in 4 innings of work.  Tullahoma got a bloop single in the 2^nd inning to spoil the perfect game for Davis as the Lady Cats never got a runner to 2^nd base in the game.  Davis did a pretty good job at the plate too as she ripped a pair of doubles and drove in 2 runs.  Cheyenny Vickers had a triple and a double and 2 RBI.  Savannah Cooper and Channa Gannon both finished with 2 singles and 2 RBI.

The Lady Raiders and Tullahoma will square off again on Tuesday at CCMS.  First pitch is set for 5 PM.  Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast as part of the Gilley Crane Hometown Sports Series.  Jonathan Oliver will have the call of the action beginning with the pregame show at 4:50.  The Coffee County athletic department will be hosting an Open House for their recently completed indoor athletic facility beginning at 4:30 PM.

Kolby McCormick of CCMS Golf

The Coffee County Middle School golf team welcomed North Franklin to Willowbrook on Monday.  Competing using the Junior PGA Flag scoring system, the Raiders rolled to a big win over the visitors from Decherd.  Coffee Middle won by a final score of 10 ½ to 1 ½ .

The team of Zach Tidwell and Avery Hill captured all 3 flags in their matchup.  Madison Winn and Liza Freeze also won 3 flags for the Raiders.  The trio of Cadie Prater, Kira Jarrell and Maggie Crouch won 2 ½ flags while the team of Kolby McCormick and Austin Dockery won a pair of flags.

Coffee County will return to action on Monday when they travel to Tims Ford to take on South Franklin at Bear Trace.  The shotgun start will go off at 3:30 PM.

Benedict Edinger of CHS tennis 2019[Photo courtesy of Janice Talley]

The Red Raiders got wins in singles play from Benedict Edinger(8 to 3), Jaden Talley(8 to 1) and Jonah Rollman(9 to 7).  The Red Raiders clinched the match with a pair of wins in doubles play as Edinger and Talley teamed up for 9 to 7 win while the team of Rollman and Johnathan Welch won 9 to 8 in a tiebreaker.

The Lady Raiders only got 1 win in singles play as Wren Lawson fought her way to an 8 to 4 victory.  In doubles action, the team of Lauren Perry and Emma Fulks shut out their opponent winning 8 to 0.

The Raider tennis teams will travel to Columbia on Thursday for their final regular season match of the year.  That match will get underway at 4 PM at Columbia Central High School.

Jonathan Nelson of Westwood baseball

The Westwood Middle School baseball team welcomed Middle Tennessee Christian to Fred Deadman Park on Monday.  Opening up their last week of the regular season, the Rockets took on the Cougars in a make-up game from March.  MTCS had too much firepower as they rolled to a 21 to 3 win.

MTCS jumped out to a 3 to 0 lead in the first inning and pushed that lead to 5 thru 3 innings.  In the 4^th, the visiting Cougars blew the game open as they sent 22 batters to the plate scoring 14 runs.  Westwood finished the game with 6 hits led by Jayden Carter who had a double and a single, with one run scored.  Jonathan Nelson added a pair of singles and Blake Hillis had a single and a run scored.

The Rockets will end the regular season at home on Wednesday when they welcome Fayetteville to Looney Riddle Field.  First pitch is set for 5:30 PM at Fred Deadman Park.

Jeffery Hale of Westwood tennis

The Westwood Middle School tennis team traveled to Shelbyville on Monday.  The Lady Rockets fell in a hard fought match 4 to 3.  The Rockets struggled against the talented Eagles falling 6 to 1.

For the Lady Rockets, Rylea McNamara(6 to 2) and Anna Johnson(6 to 4) captured wins in singles play.  The duo also teamed up for a 6 to 4 win in doubles.  For the Rockets, Jeffery Hale and Caelan Ducker teamed up for a 6 to 2 win in doubles play.

The Westwood teams return to the court on Thursday when they visit the Coffee County Raider Academy to take on Coffee County.  First serve is set for 4 PM.

Pekka Rinne

Rocco Grimaldi started it, Filip Forsberg continued it, Mikael Granlund clinched it and Pekka Rinne saved the night.

Three goals and the save of the series led the Nashville Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 3 on Monday night. The result gives the Preds consecutive wins and a 2-1 lead in Round One.

The Predators say Game 3 didn’t showcase their best – Dallas outshot Nashville by a 42-28 margin and came back from a 2-0 deficit, but Rinne stopped 40 on the night, and Granlund’s seeing-eye shot found a way to steal one in Texas.

“It’s huge,” Granlund said of the win. “I’m sure we can play better, and we maybe didn’t get our best tonight, but we still got the win and that’s the main thing.”

“At the end of the day, all in all we played really well defensively,” Rinne said. “We blocked a lot of shots and the rebounds I gave up they didn’t really end up on their stick, so it was a good night like that.”

The first period was fast, physical and full of chances, the majority of which belonged to the Predators, but neither team had anything to show for it on the scoreboard. In the middle frame, that all changed.

Just as he did in Game 2, Grimaldi scored the first goal for the Predators when a seemingly harmless wrister from the right side found its way past Ben Bishop for a 1-0 lead.

Shortly after Rinne and the Preds killed a one minute, 29-second 5-on-3 advantage for the Stars, Nick Bonino lifted a puck into the atmosphere, and Forsberg was waiting on the other end. The Nashville winger then drove to the net and neatly deposited his first of the series to give his club their first multi-goal lead against the Stars in Round One.

However, before the second stanza was out, Mats Zuccarello beat Rinne on a partial break, and that led to Tyler Seguin tying the game at 8:15 of the third.

Just moments later, Dallas almost took the lead, but Rinne committed grand larceny on Stars Captain Jamie Benn on the doorstep by kicking out his pad to take away what was sure to be another goal.

“Flat out, he probably stole the game for us,” Grimaldi said of Rinne. “It definitely wasn’t our best performance. We’re obviously happy to get the win, but just thinking about some of the saves that he made, the one on Benn late in the third, I thought it was a goal for sure. I don’t know how he did it.

“They kind of took it to us in spurts in the second and third and we were on our heels, but a win’s a win and we’ll take it any way we can get it.”

Just moments after that, Granlund threw a puck at the net that eluded Bishop for what turned out to be the game-winner, while RInne and his mates held the Stars off the board for the rest of the night.

“It’s always nice to score, but that was a big one,” Granlund said of his second overall goal as a member of the Preds. “You just try to go out there and work hard and you have to believe they’re going to come sooner or later, and it was fun to have one tonight.”

On a night that carried a few storylines, Rinne seemed to garner the most attention, especially thanks to what equated to a game-saving stop in the third. It was a classic postseason performance from the netminder, no surprise to the rest of the Preds.

“He was terrific all night, and he played a heck of a game,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of RInne. “That save was big, but for me it resembles his whole night.”

Throughout the season, and especially in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it really doesn’t matter how the wins come, they just have to be there.

It was a complete team effort on Monday night in Dallas, and now the Predators have a chance to go home with a commanding lead in the series – but, as Rinne cautioned, let’s not think too far ahead.

“You don’t want to go too far ahead of yourself,” Rinne said. “It’s a slippery road in the playoffs… It’s a huge win for us after going down in Game 1, but I don’t want to talk about momentum or anything like that because it’s such a dangerous thing. You lose that grip right away when you start thinking about it, so I think we have to prepare for Game 4 like it’s Game 1 or Game 7.”

“We had some self-inflicted wounds out there,” Laviolette said “There’s things I think we can do better, so we’ll take a look at that and prepare ourselves for Game 4.”

Notes:

Prior to Game 3, the Predators announced forwards Wayne Simmonds (lower-body) and Brian Boyle (appendix procedure) are both week-to-week due to their respective injuries.

As a result, Grimaldi remained in the lineup, and forward Miikka Salomaki dressed for the Preds for the first time since being injured back on Jan. 4.

In addition to Boyle and Simmonds, Yannick Weber, Rem Pitlick, Zac Rinaldo, Matt Irwin, Cody McLeod, Frederick Gaudreau and Niclas Westerholm were scratched for Nashville in Game 3.

Game 4 comes on Wednesday night in Dallas at 7 p.m. (CT) before the series shifts back to Nashville for Game 5 which will come on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena, time to be determined.