On a cool Saturday morning in Woodbury, the Lady Raider basketball team got off to a red hot start in the Mitch Wilson State Farm Classic at Cannon County High School. Coffee County held the Smyrna Lady Bulldogs to 3 points in the first quarter as they rolled to a 61 to 18 victory. Nine different Lady Raiders scored in the contest as Coffee County improved to 4 and 0 on the season.
The Lady Raiders jumped out to a 16 to 3 lead after 1 quarter as they held Smyrna to a single 3 point basket in the first 8 minutes. Coffee County extended the lead to 31 to 12 at the half before outscoring the Lady Bulldogs 20 to 4 in the 3rd quarter. The Lady Raiders were led in scoring by Bella Vinson who finished with 29 points. Jacey Vaughn scored 8 points and Ellie Graham and Ashley Starks each added 6 points.
The Raiders and Lady Raiders return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Fayetteville High School for a 6 PM doubleheader. Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast of Tuesday’s game. We will begin our live coverage with the Powers Storage Pregame Show at 5:50.
Nine members of the Coffee County CHS football were named to the Region 3-6A All-Region team on Saturday. The announcement was made following Oakland’s loss in the TSSAA semifinals and the selections were made after a vote of the region football coaches. Senior Alontae Taylor was named the Region 3-6A Athlete of the Year. Five members of the Red Raiders were named to the all-region 1st team. 1st team selections are:
LB – De’Aaron Rozier, Sr.
OL – Tyler Luttrell, Jr.
LB – Hayden Skipper, So.
DB – Andrew Mahaffey, Jr.
LB – Cameron West, Sr.
Recognized as Honorable Mention were:
DL – Elijah Norton, Jr.
DB – Keishaun Creel, Sr.
DL – Aaron Cope, Jr.
The Titans didn’t start well here on Sunday against the Colts.
The finish? Well, it was big time.
The Titans rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat the Colts, 20-16.
It gave the Titans their first series sweep over the Colts since the 2002 season, and their first win ever in Lucas Oil Stadium.
Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota completed 17-of-25 passes for 184 yards, with a touchdown and two interceptions. Running back Derrick Henry played a key role down the stretch, and finished the game with 79 yards on 13 carries.
The Titans got a much-needed break late in the third quarter, and cashed it in.
First, the break: Titans safety Kevin Byard recovered a fumble at the Indianapolis 4-yard line late in the third quarter.
Mariota then connected with tight end Delanie Walker for a two-yard touchdown, which cut the lead to 16-13 with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter.
After getting a stop on defense, the Titans went to work to take the lead.
A nine-play, 77-yard drive was capped off with a one-yard touchdown run by running back DeMarco Murray, and it gave the Titans a 20-16 lead with 5:59 left. Henry played a huge role on the drive, both running the ball and catching it out of the backfield.
The Titans improved to 7-4 with the win.
The Titans sacked Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett eight times in the contest.
The Titans took a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter on a 29-yard field goal by kicker Ryan Succop. It capped off an 11-play, 53-yard drive that included a 17-yard completion from Mariota to receiver Eric Decker on third-and-seven. The Titans defense forced a three-and-out on the game’s first series, as defensive lineman DaQuan Jonesended the possession with a sack.
The Titans extended the lead to 6-0 on another Succop field goal, this one from 45 yards.
The Colts cut the lead in half with a 26-yard field goal by kicker Adam Vinatieri with 10:15 left in the second quarter. Indianapolis tied the game at 6-6 on another Vinatieri field goal, the second one from 28 yards.
The Colts took a 13-6 lead at the half on a 14-yard touchdown run by running back Frank Gore. Vinatieri’s third field goal of the game made it 16-6 midway through the third quarter.
Mariota and the offense struggled to get on track. Playing without receiver Rishard Matthews (hamstring), the Titans couldn’t finish drives early, and they couldn’t get them started during a long stretch in the middle of the game.
Mariota threw an interception in a ball intended for receiver Harry Douglas early in the second quarter. Mariota’s second interception came after receiver Taywan Taylor fell down in the middle of the field, and the ball sailed into the arms of a Colts defender.
The Titans face the Texans next Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
Juuse Saros made 33 saves, but the Carolina Hurricanes got the win in the shootout over the Nashville Predators, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at PNC Arena. The result ends Nashville’s four-game win streak, just their second loss in their last 11 tries, but still gives them a point in the standings, now 31 on the season.
The two teams went back and forth in each period, combining for 71 shots on the afternoon, before eventually reaching the breakaway competition.
“It was a competitive game,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “They lead the League in a lot of categories with regard to offense and puck possession. I thought that they were a little quicker than us in the first period. I thought the second and third we played better and had our looks, had our chances, but traded goals and scored a big goal to tie it up and push it into extras.”
“I thought we could’ve played better defensively,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said. “They have a lot of speed, tough to defend, and we could’ve done a better job. But I thought Juuse was great.”
After Carolina took an early 1-0 lead, Viktor Arvidsson executed a masterful toe drag around a defender and drove to the net, beating Scott Darling top shelf for his ninth tally of the season and one of the nicer goals of the campaign to date.
The teams traded goals again in the second stanza with Mattias Ekholm giving Nashville their first lead of the afternoon before Victor Rask evened the score once more.
Carolina retook the lead in the third period, before Craig Smith’s eighth of the season sent the game to overtime where the Preds were unable to capitalize on a power-play opportunity. It was then off to the shootout where Carolina got the victory.
It was the first game for Saros since a two-game trip back down to AHL Milwaukee, designed to get the goaltender some extra playing time. And although Saros didn’t get the win on Sunday, those in charge weren’t discouraged with his effort.
“I thought [Saros’s] performance today was excellent,” Laviolette said. “They had 36 shots, so three goals on 36 shots, there’s a lot going on out there for him. I thought he played really well coming off of the L.A. game. I thought he played well, had a good game in Milwaukee and another strong performance here today, so I think he played well.”
Notes:
Saros collected an assist on Viktor Arvidsson’s goal, the second helper of his career.
Nashville will now return to Bridgestone Arena for a four-game home stand, beginning on Tuesday night when the Chicago Blackhawks come to town for the first time since last spring’s postseason meeting.
Pekka Rinne posted his 45th career shutout and the Nashville Predators defeated the St. Louis Blues by a 2-0 final on Friday night at Scottrade Center. It’s Nashville’s fourth consecutive victory, giving them nine wins in their last 10 tries – and with the fathers watching live – the Preds found a way to defeat one of the League’s top teams.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was a tough game, it was a 1-0 game and they’re a good hockey club. It went our way.”
“We were super excited to play against one of the best teams in the NHL,” Rinne said. “We’ve been feeling good and feeling confident, so thats a good feeling to have.”
Ryan Johansen scored the only goal through the first 40 minutes of regulation and it came just 2:32 into the contest when he blasted his third of the season past former Preds goaltender Carter Hutton for a 1-0 lead.
Rinne continued to stymie the Blues attack into the third period, and then with less than a minute to play, Austin Watson deposited the puck into an empty net to seal the deal for Nashville; plus, allow Johansen to record his 200th career assist in the process.
But the story of the night was the Nashville goaltender, just doing what he’s now done 45 times in his career.
“He deserves a lot of credit tonight, like most nights,” Johansen said of Rinne. “He’s been stellar to start the year so far, and you need good goaltending to win in this League. He’s been the backbone and we need him to keep doing what he’s doing.”
King of Finland:
With his father and brother-in-law watching from the team suite, Pekka Rinne further established himself as the greatest goaltender in his country’s history.
Rinne stopped 34 shots to record his 45th career shutout, the most ever by a Finnish-born goaltender. Sure, the shutout means plenty to begin with, but the fact Rinne passed one of his idols – Miikka Kiprusoff – to attain the feat meant that much more.
“It’s a fun little thing,” Rinne said of passing Kiprusoff. “He’s a guy I always look up to, and I was really happy when I had a first chance to play against him, against one of my idols. So [tonight is] pretty cool.”
And of course, having family there to witness the shutout firsthand put a smile on Rinne’s face that will likely last until the team finally arrives in Carolina in the early morning hours.
Bet you can guess who will get the game puck.
“It’s special for sure,” Rinne said. “For all of us, our dads mean so much to us. Him being there, it makes it really special.”
It Takes All Kinds:
Prior to Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout win over Montreal, the Predators had scored at least four goals in five consecutive contests, a clear show of force on the offensive side of the puck.
On Friday, the Preds only needed one goal for more than 59 minutes of regulation – the defensive unit and the goaltender did the rest. It wasn’t the ideal situation, allowing 34 shots against to a Blues team that scored eight goals in their last outing, but it worked for the Predators. As defenseman P.K. Subban said just 48 hours earlier, good teams find a way to win, no matter the circumstances.
He was right again.
“We can find ways to improve, and that’s just how it is early in the season, but we’re finding ways to win hockey games right now and that’s really all that matters,” Johansen said. “We’ll keep fine tuning our game and polishing it up and try and work our way to the top of the West and maybe the top of the League.”
Notes:
With an assist on Ryan Johansen’s goal, Filip Forsberg extended his point streak to seven games, recording three goals and seven assists during that span.
The Predators now head to Carolina to conclude the Fathers Trip with a matinee contest against the Hurricanes on Sunday, a noon CT start.
PROPOSED” building plan. There have been a few small changes made since this picture. One change is the bathrooms are now in the back of each locker room instead of having to walk through them to get into the locker room.
In August, talks began between local businessman Robert Gilley and Coffee County Middle School (CCMS) Athletic Director Kyle Harris about a possible indoor practice facility for football at the school.
As Communications continued between Gilley, Harris, Principal Kim Aaron and others it became evident that there was a need for other sports as well. It was after those talks that it was decided that if a facility was going to be built that it should be used by other outdoor sports including football, baseball, softball and boys’ and girls’ soccer. The facility being proposed would have a 60 by 75 foot practice facility with artificial turf, locker rooms, weight room and offices for the coaches.
The proposed building would be erected near the softball field at CCMS.
As talks continued it became about money and how much this facility would cost. Gilley, the owner of Gary Crane talked to other businesses and community leaders and they decided that they should be able to get a lot of the work and needed materials donated. This brought down the need for money drastically.
Gilley told WMSR Radio that there is still a need for monetary donations for equipment and other various needs for the complex. Harris says that people can make donations to the CCMS Athletic Facility and he added that NO taxpayer money will be used for the facility, it will be 100% funded by donations. Donations can be made at the Coffee County Schools central office, CCMS or Robert Gilley.
The school board has approved the building of the facility on the campus of Coffee County Middle School but there is no money in the budget for such a facility, so it would take the community to get this done. Gilley added that this complex will be built, and he has great confidence in the community that they will help in every way so that the young athletes we’ll have a fantastic facility to practice in, no matter what the weather brings.
Gilley and Harris will be special guest on the Coffee Coaches Show on Thunder Radio this Saturday with Dennis Weaver from Al White Motors beginning at 10 a.m. They will have additional information about the building of the facility and making donations.
CHS Lady Raider basketball coach Joe Pat Cope talks to his team during a timeout.
The Lady Raider basketball team opens play on Saturday in the annual Mitch Wilson State Farm Classic in Woodbury. Coffee County was set to play on Friday afternoon but that game was cancelled on Wednesday. On Saturday morning, the Lady Raiders will square off against Smyrna in a 9 AM contest at Cannon County High School.
Thunder Radio will keep you updated on the Lady Raiders’ game on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show. The Raiders and Lady Raiders return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Fayetteville High School for a 6 PM doubleheader. Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast of Tuesday’s game. We will begin our live coverage with the Powers Storage Pregame Show at 5:50.
Coming up on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show, we will have a full slate of guests. We will talk to Kyle Harris, the athletic director for Coffee County Middle School, about the new privately funded, multi-purpose sports facility that has been approved for the CCMS sports teams.
We will also talk to Coffee County Central High School wrestling coach Roger Barlow as the wrestling team opened their season this week. Coach Barlow will talk about the new faces in the program and give us a season preview.
And we will also talk to Coach Lana Ray, the coach for the CHS and CCMS swimming teams. She will be joined by assistant coach Mike Ray as they talk about the upcoming season. The Raider swimmers opened the season earlier this month.
The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast live each Saturday morning from the showroom of Al White Ford/Lincoln at 10 AM. The Coffee Coaches Show is heard exclusively here on Thunder Radio.
Filip Forsberg scored twice and Pekka Rinne was perfect in the shootout as the Nashville Predators defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a 3-2 final on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The win gives Nashville a perfect 3-0-0 home stand and victories in eight of their last nine outings, enough for 16 points in the standings over that span.
Facing an opponent that had lost four straight coming in and had played the night before, the Preds were expecting a better effort from themselves, but ultimately still found a way to collect two more points.
“I don’t think we were particularly smooth with execution with what we were trying to do; some of that could have been us, I think some of it had to do with them,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’ve played in some games where there’s been a lot of room and a lot of space, and we were able to execute and have it look a little better, but tonight, it just wasn’t that game. This was the game that was dealt to us, so I give our guys a lot of credit for staying in and playing that game.”
After Montreal struck first in the game’s opening period, Forsberg evened the score on the power play, potting his 10th of the season with just 1.5 seconds remaining in the first stanza. The goal extended Forsberg’s point streak to six games with three goals and eight points during the stretch.
A scoreless second period led to another power-play tally, again from Forsberg, for a 2-1 advantage that held until Joe Morrow tied with game with less than a minute left in regulation time. After the teams traded chances in overtime, Kyle Turris was the only skater to find twine in the shootout to give Nashville the win.
“I feel like we’ve been getting a lot of results, even if sometimes after the game, we feel like we could’ve played better,” Rinne said. “So that’s a good sign of a team. You know, everyone’s demanding a lot from each other and asking a lot so that’s good. I like that.”
“We haven’t played our best hockey yet,” defenseman P.K. Subban said. “That’s the exciting thing about our team is that we haven’t played our best hockey game yet, and we still have guys who are coming back into the fold who have been out for a while and trying to get their feet under them. But our leadership group has done a really good job of setting the tone and making sure that we do all the right things to be competitive every night”
Rinne Wall:
The Predators streak of scoring at least four goals in five consecutive games came to an end on Wednesday night, in turn allowing the spotlight to shine a little brighter on the man between the pipes.
Steady as ever, goaltender Pekka Rinne collected his 12th win of the season by turning aside 27 saves through 65 minutes of time, and then denied all three Canadiens he faced in the shootout. Plus, the veteran netminder showed a side of his game that is rarely seen with some heightened involvement in a scrum in his crease by shoving Brendan Gallagher aside and then mixing it up with Karl Alzner.
But in true Rinne fashion, the Finn revealed afterward whatever anger was directed at his opponents quickly dissipated.
“I said sorry afterwards,” Rinne smiled, recalling his run-in with Gallagher.
“I think [to still win a game like this is] the sign of a good team,” the goaltender continued. “Everybody is expecting a lot from each other. I really like that as a player. Another good penalty kill effort to start the game, and we got it going a little bit better after that. But still a little bit of ups and downs. We thought about that game a lot. That’s a desperate team, but anyway, that’s obviously still a big two points.”
And as is the case with regularity, Rinne was there to make the clutch save when needed to give Nashville a boost on the bench and two more points in the column. But that’s just another night on the ice for Rinne, whether he gets the accolades or not.
“He was outstanding tonight,” Laviolette said of Rinne. “He played great right at the beginning. He had a huge save, backdoor, on the 5-on-3. Really from that point he gave us an opportunity to win and get under it once we killed those penalties – get ourselves a lead and try to build on that. Even through the course of the game, there were still some big saves he had to make, and he probably saved his best for last in the shootout.”
Notes:
Nashville has earned at least one point in 11 of its last 12 meetings with Montreal dating back to Nov. 14, 2009.
The Preds have now scored a power-play goal in all 10 of their home games this season, which is the second-longest streak in team history in the category. Nashville’s franchise record for consecutive home games with a power-play goal is 11 and was set from Nov. 16-Dec. 26, 2006.
The Predators will now head out for their annual Fathers Trip with players bringing their dads along for the next two games, Friday at St. Louis and Sunday at Carolina.
The Coffee County CHS wrestling team opened their season on Monday night as they hosted a three-way match at the Raider Academy. Fielding a team with a lot of new names, the Raider grapplers welcomed in perennial state powers Mt. Juliet and Stewarts Creek to “The Dojo.” In spite of several strong individual performances, Coffee County fell in both dual matches.
Against Stewarts Creek, the Raiders fell 60 to 24. The Raiders got pin fall wins from Christopher Speegle(at 220 pounds), Andrew Lawson(182), Dakota Chalker(160) and Ethan Pike(285).
Against Mt. Juliet, Coffee County lost by a final score of 64 to 12. Ethan Pike(285) got his 2nd pin of the night in 51 seconds. Hunter Massey was credited with a forfeit at 106 pounds.
Coffee County returns to the mat on Tuesday, December 5th when they host another tri-match at the Raider Academy. The Raiders will welcome Riverdale and Cascade to “The Dojo.” First match is set to begin at 6 PM. Head coach Roger Barlow will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to preview the season.
On a cool Saturday morning in Woodbury, the Lady Raider basketball team got off to a red hot start in the Mitch Wilson State Farm Classic at Cannon County High School. Coffee County held the Smyrna Lady Bulldogs to 3 points in the first quarter as they rolled to a 61 to 18 victory. Nine different Lady Raiders scored in the contest as Coffee County improved to 4 and 0 on the season.
