Members of the Coffee County Youth Bass Club hit the water on Saturday to open up the spring portion of the 2017-2018 season.  The CHS anglers headed to Tims Ford to battle the elements in a South Central Tennessee Region meet.  At the end of the day, the Team of Joe White and Adam Petty had the top finish notching 13^th place out of 98 boats.

White and Petty were the top boat for Coffee County as the Raider anglers posted 3 boats in the top 40.  White and Petty finished with a stringer of 5 fish totaling 8.85 pounds.  Their big fish came in weighing 3.2 pounds.  The team of Isaac Turner and Cameron Rutledge landed 2 fish weighing 3.7 pounds for 34^th place.  Garret Davis and Isaiah Owens finished in 40^th place with a 2.4 pound stringer of 2 fish.

The Coffee County anglers are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Smithville to compete in the Tennessee Bass Nation Trail tournament on Center Hill Lake.  This is the 4^th state qualifying meet on the state BASS trail and will feature anglers from across the state.  The boats will begin launching around first light at the Ragland Bottom Recreation Area.

For more information about the Coffee County Youth Bass Club, visit their Face book page at: https://www.facebook.com/coffeecountyfishing/

A young Temple Baptist Christian School basketball team closed out their season on Saturday with a 5^th place finish in the own Eagle Invitational Tournament.  The Eagles finished the tournament with a 2 and 2 record culminating in an overtime win in the 5^th place game.  Temple finished the year with no seniors and a core of young JV players that will move up to the varsity level next season.

The Eagles opened tournament play with a pair of pool games on Friday.  Temple opened up with a loss in their opening game to Shenandoah Christian Academy of Cleveland, TN 73 to 51.  Cody Swayze scored 40 points to highlight the win.  The Eagles bounced back to capture a win over Faith Christian Academy of Jamestown in Friday’s nightcap.  Temple won 55 to 29 as 4^th grader Brennan Davis and 6^th grader Issac Stewart each scored baskets in the win for the Eagles.

On Saturday, foul trouble plagued Temple as they fell by 4 points in the opening round game of the double elimination tournament.  The Eagles bounced back on Saturday afternoon to take the 5^th place game in overtime over Faith.  Victory Baptist of Shelbyville won the tournament with a championship win over Shenandoah.  Dogwood Christian of Tunnel Hill, Georgia beat Georgia rival Philadelphia Christian of Calhoun in the 3^rd place game.

Another try at a comeback came up short as the Nashville Predators fell by a 3-1 final on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. It’s the second consecutive regulation loss for the Preds, the first time they’ve done so since Dec. 19-21, 2017, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the locker room following the contest.

Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette and Nashville players say Saturday’s effort was a step in the right direction when it comes to playing the way they want to be successful. The Preds could’ve easily had the game tied, as they hit the post at least twice – maybe more – on the night, but the bounces didn’t fall.

And even though they feel they may have played well enough to win, as Laviolette said, it doesn’t matter how many chances the Preds had – it ultimately wasn’t enough.

“I thought we did a lot of good things out there tonight, but at the end of the day it’s not enough,” Laviolette said. “I give Detroit credit, they played hard, they checked hard, they defended hard, they blocked a lot of shots and were able to walk out with the two points.”

“I thought we played well,” Preds defenseman Ryan Ellis said. “We had a lot of shots, we had a lot of good chances and we were competing hard. That’s a fast team over there. They worked just as hard, and they earned that win. I thought we did a lot of good things, but there are obviously still areas to improve. I think from Juuse [Saros] out, we had a solid effort, it just wasn’t there.”

Detroit took a 1-0 lead when Luke Witkowski scored his first NHL goal by beating Saros on a breakaway, and Gustav Nyquist gave his club a 2-0 advantage before the period was out.

After a scoreless second period, Craig Smith gave the Predators life when he scored on the power-play to snap an 0-for-21 streak and get Nashville on the board. But with a minor penalty taken late for either side, Detroit iced it with an empty-net tally to give them the last goal of the night.

“I think we worked hard tonight, and we had a lot of energy,” Predators Captain Roman Josi said. “Everybody cares in this room, and everybody is trying, but we have to get back to 100 percent playing our way. When we are at our best, we get pucks deep. With our forechecking, it’s so hard for other teams to break out – we have zone time, we have a lot of pressure – but we’re doing that a little inconsistently right now. We have to make sure we do that for 60 minutes, and that’s how we win games.”

The Predators will host Ottawa on Monday night before traveling to Detroit to face these same Red Wings on Tuesday – two more chances to get back into the win column and play to the level those in the Nashville room know they’re capable of.

“For me, it was a step in the right direction,” Laviolette said. “A power-play goal [means] we’re doing the right thing out there. At the end of the day, though, like I said you have to score goals. If you score one goal a game you’re going to lose a lot of games. So, we have to find a way to put that puck in the back of the net.”

Notes:

Saturday’s attendance of 17,561 at Bridgestone Arena set a building record for a hockey game.

Kyle Turris returned to the Nashville lineup after missing Thursday’s game due to illness.

Defensemen Alexei Emelin and Yannick Weber were both healthy scratches on Saturday; blueliners Matt Irwin and Anthony Bitetto took their places in the lineup.

Nashville concludes their four-game home stand on Monday night when the Ottawa Senators come to town before jetting off to Detroit to play the Red Wings once more on Tuesday.

The District 8AAA basketball district tournament resumes tonight in Columbia.  Quarterfinal action will take place beginning at 4 PM.   The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday at Columbia Central High School.  The girls’ championship and consolation games will be held on Monday night at Columbia with the boys to follow on Tuesday night.

The Lady Raiders will open up tournament play on Saturday at 2:00 PM against the winner of tonight’s matchup between Lawrence County and Tullahoma.  The Red Raiders will take the court at 6:30 PM on Saturday against the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal between Lawrence County and Franklin County.  Saturday’s Coffee County games will take place at Columbia Central High School and Thunder Radio will be on hand broadcast the action for you.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcomes, both Raider cage teams will advance to next week’s consolation or championship games. It also guarantees a Region 4AAA Tournament berth for each team.  The 1^st round region tournament games will take place on Friday, February 23^rd and Saturday, February 24^th.  Teams that advance to the district championship games will host the first round region tournament games.  The region tournament semifinals and finals will take place at Columbia.

Coffee County senior wrestler Alicean Stottlemyer begins her quest for a state title on Friday as the TSSAA State Wrestling Championships get underway in Franklin.  Stottlemyer is the first Lady Raider wrestler to qualify for the state meet.  Stottlemyer advanced to the girls’ state tournament on Saturday, January 27th with a 4th place finish in the TSSAA West Region Individual Tournament at Nolensville.

Weigh-in will take place at 9 AM on Friday with 1st round action set to begin at 11 AM.  The championship match is scheduled for 9 AM on Saturday morning.   The state wrestling tournament is held at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin.   Alicean will open up against top-seeded Haley Brown of Elizabethton in the first round of the double elimination tournament.

You can keep track of live results at: http://tssaasports.com/sports/wrestling-girls/

A bid at another comeback fell short as the Nashville Predators dropped a 4-3 decision to the Calgary Flames on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees Nashville’s seven-game point streak come to an end, just the second time in their last 17 outings they’ve failed to record at least a point.

Despite Nashville’s ability to collect points in the standings with regularity as of late, the Preds have admitted there have been some holes in their game – a fact that may have been accented in Thursday’s loss.

“They all look the same – they’re not good enough,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of Nashville’s recent games. “We’re not working hard enough. I don’t know what else to say. If you don’t invest a lot, you won’t like it at the end. The stretches that aren’t going our way, the stretches where we are getting outplayed – it’s because we are missing some bite. We’re missing some bite in our game.”

“We weren’t sharp,” Preds defenseman Yannick Weber said. “You don’t want to be chasing the game like we have in the past. I think we were all disappointed with the effort today. We know we had a chance in the third to win it, but I think overall we can’t be happy with it.”

Ryan Johansen got the Preds a 1-0 lead when he poked home a loose puck at the 13:45 mark of the first period, but Matthew Tkachuk evened the score on the power play with less than a minute to play in the opening 20.

The second period saw Viktor Arvidsson sprung on a breakaway halfway though, and after he hit the post, Weber followed things up to slam his second of the season past David Rittich to give Nashville a 2-1 lead. Another power-play opportunity – this time a 5-on-3 man advantage – saw the Flames tie it once more before the second stanza was out, thanks to a goal from Dougie Hamilton that eluded Pekka Rinne.

Calgary struck twice to open the third period, and although a goal from Nick Bonino gave the Preds yet another chance to force overtime, Rittich made a number of key saves late to save the victory for the Flames.

“Our energy – I think we’re losing too many battles,” Nashville Captain Roman Josi said. “It seems like teams are playing faster especially early in the game. We just have to win battles. You can’t win games if you don’t win battles.”

Nashville will have a chance to start a new streak on Saturday night when Detroit comes to town, a chance they’ll be eager to capitalize on after a string of efforts that have been less than satisfactory in the Predators locker room.

“We lost the game and we are better than that,” Laviolette said. “We know it. There’s no sugarcoating that.”

“It’s definitely a wake-up call that we can’t just watch and be satisfied and think we [will] still win every game,” Weber said. “Maybe we needed that one. It shows us that we do have to go back to the way we need to have success. We’ll do that Saturday.”

Notes:

Predators center Kyle Turris missed Thursday’s game due to illness; forward Pontus Aberg entered the lineup in his absence.

Nashville’s home stand continues on Saturday night when the Detroit Red Wings come to town before finishing things off on Monday with the Ottawa Senators.

Former Coffee County Lady Raider and current Motlow freshman Haley Hinshaw drove in classmate Ace Hanson with a two-out line drive to center field to cap a five-run seventh inning and give the Motlow Lady Bucks an 8-7 win over Northeast Mississippi in the softball season opener Thursday afternoon in Booneville, Miss.

The Lady Bucks (1-3, 0-0) dropped the second game of the doubleheader 7-4. Motlow resumed action on Tuesday, traveling to Decatur, Ala., where they fell short in a pair of games to Calhoun 3-0, 5-4. Next is a trip to Pulaski on Monday for a doubleheader against the Martin Methodist College JV, with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

Heading into the seventh inning in game one in Booneville, the Lady Bucks trailed 7-3. With one out, Jennifer Corbitt started the rally with a double. Kylie Thackerson singled, with Corbitt advancing to third. On the first pitch to Madison Hopkins, Corbitt stole home and Thackerson stole second. Hopkins drew a walk and Thackerson advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Ariel McAtee then ran for Hopkins. With two outs McAtee stole second and Thackerson scored on a passed ball, closing the gap to 7-5. Madison Woodruff drew a walk before Breanna Owens singled to left, driving in McAtee and advancing Woodruff to second. Hanson then entered to run for Owens and advanced to second when Miranda Cooksey singled, scoring Woodruff on the throw. Hinshaw then delivered her game winner, with Hanson scoring on the throw from center field.

Corbitt got the win in the circle, pitching the final 1.2 innings with four strikeouts and only one hit allowed. Samantha King was the starter for Motlow, pitching four innings and allowing three runs. Sarah Wilson pitch the middle 1.1 innings and allowed four runs, although only one was earned.

Owens went 2-4 and drove in a run, while Cooksey was 2-3 and Hinshaw had a pair of runs batted in. Corbitt was 2-3 with two doubles, and the Lady Bucks stole six bases.

Game two saw Motlow get on the board with two runs in the second, but Northeast tied it with two of their own in the bottom of the inning, then scored four more in the third. The Lady Bucks fought back with two runs in the sixth, but a second comeback was not in store.

Corbitt (1-1) took the loss, allowing six runs with two strikeouts in her two innings of work. Owens pitched well over the final four innings, scattering five hits and allowing only one run with three strikeouts. McAtee went 3-4 and Hinshaw slammed a home run, while both Hinshaw and Chelbie Gannon drove in a pair of runs.

Game one against Calhoun featured a fine pitching performance by Calhoun’s Sydnee Uhlman, who shut the Lady Bucks out, allowing six hits and striking out four. King (0-1) took the loss for Motlow, pitching 4.1 innings and allowing all three runs on eight hits with two strikeouts. Corbitt pitched the final 1.2 innings and allowed just one hit with one strikeout. Owens had a double, the only extra-base hit for Motlow.

The Lady Bucks led game two 4-1 after three and a half innings before the home team scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the sixth to steal the win. The game was called after six innings due to darkness.

Kendall Durard (0-1) started in the circle, pitching into the sixth inning and allowing five hits with five strikeouts. Owens took over with one out and hit one batter, then walked in two batters, including the winning run. Hinshaw and Corbitt each had two hits, with Hinshaw slamming two doubles and driving in a pair of runs.