The Coffee County Middle School 6th grade basketball teams ended their season on the road Thursday night at Sparta. The Raiders and Lady Raiders were swept at White County on the Warriors home floor. The Lady Raiders fell 38 to 21 while the Raiders dropped a 45 to 24 decision.
In the girls’ game, White County shot 24 free throws to Coffee County’s 9 in the loss. The Warriorettes were able to power out to a 10 point lead and the Lady Raiders could not close the gap in the 2nd half. Maggie Crouch led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 12 points. Alivia Reel added 3 points for Coffee County. The Lady Raiders end the season with a record of 4 and 5.
The Red Raiders dropped their 2nd decision to White County on the year. White County built a 15 point halftime lead thanks in large part to a 22 point outburst in the 2nd quarter. The Raiders finish the season with a record of 7 and 2 with the only other loss being on October 20th to the Warriors. Jacob Holder led Coffee County in scoring with 8 points. Dayne Crosslin added 5 points for the Red Raiders.
The Nashville Predators saw a third-period lead slip away and fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night at Gila River Arena. The result sees the Preds collect at least a point in consecutive games for the first time this season, but finish the road trip with a 1-2-2 mark and 3-5-2 record overall.
The Preds outshot the Coyotes 18-6 in the opening period, but were only able to capitalize once, giving their opponent the chance to come back.
“We played a really good first period and had a lot of shots, lot of chances, just couldn’t convert, and I think we have to do a better job of playing 60 minutes,” defenseman Roman Josi said. “The second period, we didn’t shoot the puck enough, didn’t have enough zone time… We have to play 60 minutes, otherwise we’re not going to win.”
Arizona seized a 1-0 lead when Christian Dvorak recorded his first career NHL goal, but Matt Irwin got his second in as many games to even the score.
Craig Smith took over the Preds goal-scoring lead when he potted his fifth of the season on the power play to give Nashville their first advantage of the night that they carried into the second intermission. Early in the third, Arizona got it back in the third when Anthony Duclair tied the game off a loose puck in front.
Nashville had their chances in the overtime session, including a power play for the final 1:39, but were unable to beat Louis Domingue. Duclair and Radim Vrbata then beat Pekka Rinne in the shootout to seal the win.
“We started the way we wanted to and then we kind of got away from it again,” center Ryan Johansen said. “We got a little comfortable I guess, and there’s no letting off the gas in this League, or else teams find ways to get back in games and win games.”
After putting together a complete effort two nights earlier, the Predators weren’t happy with how the second half of Thursday’s game played out, something that was stressed postgame, and will continue to be emphasized as the team returns home.
“We’ve just got to stay with the game plan,” Johansen said. “Throughout this trip, we’ve seen what we’re capable of. We’ve had moments where we’ve been really good; we have a young team in here and it’s all about consistency, as individuals and as a team. We have to bring the same effort, same game every single time we get on the ice.”
Notes:
Preds Captain Mike Fisher (upper-body, day-to-day) did not play against the Coyotes on Thursday. Winger Kevin Fiala re-entered the lineup in Fisher’s absence.
Nashville’s total of 18 shots on goal in the first period was their highest total of any period this season.
The Predators return home to Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night when they host the Carolina Hurricanes to begin a four-game home stand. Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast as part of the Nashville Predators Radio Network beginning at 6:30 PM.
In order to provide local families with a better Thanksgiving this season, Coffee County High School, Spring Street Market, and Al White Motors will be teaming up to host the 2nd annual 30 N a Turkey baseball camp on November 12th at the high school. The camp will be 10am thru 12:30pm for all age players including tee ball. The camp will cover the basics like fielding, throwing, hitting, and base running.
30 N Turkey will be put on by former professional and Division 1 baseball players, a National Champion College Coach, and current Coffee County baseball players.
Sign-ups are available beginning NOW at the Thunder Radio website and campers will also be able to sign-up the day of the camp beginning at 9am at the baseball clubhouse.
The camp cost is $30 along with a $10 minimum voucher which can be purchased from Spring Street Market located at 801 South Spring Street in Manchester. Vouchers may also be purchased at sign-ins for campers from out of town. The $10 minimum vouchers along with $30 will be due at sign-in before camp begins at 10am on the November 12th. The vouchers will be delivered to the local food banks for supplies to help less fortunate families enjoy their thanksgiving holiday at the conclusion of the camp and the $30 will help the Coffee County Baseball program in their upcoming season.
If you have an interested camper this holiday season and are concerned about the cost or are interested in making a donation, we have other options available to make others holiday season better. Please call 931-570-3928 so we can make this bird fly.
Campers are encouraged to bring their personal baseball equipment and tennis shoes for the gymnasium session. Bats can be provided for the hitting session if your camper does not bring one.
Please help Coffee County High School meet its goal of being able to help at least 100 area families this Thanksgiving season with your attendance and support as well as get a little better at the game we all love.
Facilities:
Clubhouse- Sign-in & Sign-up, Hitting
Field- Throwing (RF), Fielding (IF)
Gym [Rain-throw, field, hit]- Baserunning
The Westwood Rockets and Lady Rockets traveled to Fayetteville on Tuesday night for a doubleheader at Fayetteville Middle School. The Lady Rockets captured their 1st win of the year 28 to 4 while the Rockets lost back to back games for the first time all season 42 to 27.
Holding the Lady Tigers scoreless in the first half, the Lady Rockets built a 12 point halftime lead. In the 2nd half, Coach Angela Houck was able to empty her bench to race to the conference win. Ten different Westwood players scored on the night led by Allie Roberts who finished with 9 points. Kasen Holt added 4 points while Kennedy Norman-Young and Haidyn Campbell chipped in 3 points each.
The Rockets could not overcome Fayetteville’s distinct rebounding advantage as Westwood fell in the boys’ contest. Trailing by 5 at the half, Westwood saw Fayetteville explode on their home floor for 28 second half points to pull away for the win. John Dobson led the Rockets in scoring with 8 points. Wyatt Nugent added 4 points and Trenton Thompson and Bodey Todd each added a 3 pointer.
The Rockets will return home on Thursday night when Liberty visits the Joel Vinson Gym. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of those games as part of the 1st National Bank Hometown Sports Series. Tipoff for the girls’ game is set for 6 PM and Lucky Knott will begin the broadcast with the pregame show at 5:50.
The Nashville Predators knew they had too much skill, too much talent and too much desire to win to continue ending up in the loss column. And while their 5-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night at Pepsi Center won’t solve everything, it could do a great deal in continuing to build confidence for a Preds team that picked up their first road win of the season.
Matt Irwin, Ryan Johansen, Roman Josi and Craig Smith (twice) all found the back of the net, and Pekka Rinne turned aside 28 shots on the evening for a quality result over a division rival they’ll play four more times this season.
“It’s a big win,” Irwin said. “I think we built off of our third period in San Jose and strung together a pretty solid 60 minutes. We just have to be happy with it; we got contributions from everyone, Peks was good in net. Our game plan was just to get the puck out of our D’s hands, get it up to the forward with speed, and I think we executed that.”
Getting off to a quick start on Tuesday night was a point of emphasis for the Preds heading into the contest. Scoring a goal just 1:33 into the game did the trick.
Mike Ribeiro found Craig Smith streaking to the net, and the winger redirected the puck past Semyon Varlamov for his third of the season and an early Nashville lead, a huge confidence boost for a club that had only scored the first goal of the game once before tonight.
“It’s huge anytime you can get it in the first couple shifts of the game, and it gives everybody on the bench some life,” Irwin said. “They answered pretty quickly, and then were fortunate enough to get another pretty quick one after that, so going into the first intermission with the lead was huge for us.”
A game after James Neal found the back of the net for the first time this season, another one of Nashville’s offensive weapons put the puck over the line for the initial time.
In the same building where he scored his first goal in his first game as a member of the Preds last season, Ryan Johansen collected a loose puck at the side of the net with the man advantage, and with his entire body behind the goal line, managed to deposit the mail for a two-goal lead – and then breathe a sigh of relief.
“Things are turning a little bit just offensively,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “We seem to be staying in a little bit longer, getting more looks, more attempts and with that’s going to come more results. It’s nice to get those guys going, and I think that you gain confidence from that.”
And while Johansen was certainly happy to get his first, he couldn’t help but note all the other contributions made throughout the lineup.
“It feels good to put pucks in the back of the net, so that was nice, but we had guys contributing tonight,” Johansen said. “Matty Irwin, huge goal, really happy for him. it was a great, all-around team effort. Colton Sissons blocking shots at the end of the game there, sacrificing his body, making plays to get the puck out… [Austin] Watson’s fight, has been playing tremendous for us within his role, so a lot of good things.”
When asked what he needed to see out of the Preds on Tuesday night, Mike Ribeiro made it pretty simple. The centerman emphasized that it didn’t matter how it happened, Nashville just needed to win. And the Predators produced an effort that Head Coach Peter Laviolette and his players liked, and it got the job done.
“We played some pretty good hockey on the road trip here; we haven’t gotten the results, it hasn’t been as consistent as it was tonight,” Laviolette said. “I would say that’s probably the biggest difference is we were consistent with our game. We did good things in San Jose, we just fell behind and a couple tough bounces that happened in San Jose and couldn’t come back from it, so I thought tonight was a pretty good effort.”
The chance to even the record before the road trip is out on Thursday in Arizona is appetizing, and the Preds are already shifting their focus to continue building off of a strong effort.
“We’ve still got work to do,” Laviolette said. “We have one game left on the road trip, and to go get a win in Arizona, it’ll be a big ending to a trip that didn’t start the way we wanted.”
Notes:
With an assist on Ryan Johansen’s power-play goal, Mike Fisher recorded his 200th point as a member of the Preds. Later, Fisher left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return.
Matt Irwin’s first-period goal was his 17th career NHL goal and his first tally since March 28, 2015, as a member of the San Jose Sharks.
Winger Cody Bass was activated off Injured Reserve prior to the game and skated on a line with Austin Watson and Colton Sissons against the Avalanche. Kevin Fiala, Harry Zolnierczyk and Matt Carle were scratched for Nashville.
The Preds wrap up their five-game road trip on Thursday night in Arizona against the Coyotes before returning home on Saturday to host Carolina at Bridgestone Arena.
The Westwood Rockets and Lady Rockets traveled to Wartrace on Monday night for a doubleheader at Cascade. The girls lost a 4th quarter lead as they dropped a 34 to 30 decision. The boys saw Cascade race to a 55 to 14 win.
The Lady Rockets had a 2 point lead entering the 4th quarter but were held to 2 points in the final period in the loss. The Lady Rockets stormed out to a first quarter lead only to see Cascade storm back in a game that stayed close all night. Westwood was led in scoring by Valerie Barger who had 8 points, Kasen Holt had 7 points and Allie Roberts added 6.
Eliot Sain of Westwood basketball
The Rockets fell into a 22 to 0 hole in the 2nd quarter before Coach Will Pannell emptied his bench. Ryan Gravely led Westwood in scoring with 6 points. Eliot Sain added 3 points as the Rockets fell to 4 and 3 on the year.
The Rockets will travel to Fayetteville on Tuesday night to take on the Tigers of Fayetteville Middle School. The next home game for Westwood will be on Thursday night when Liberty visits the Joel Vinson Gym. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of those games as part of the 1st National Bank Hometown Sports Series. Tipoff for the girls’ game is set for 6 PM and Lucky Knott will begin the Thunder Radio broadcast with the pregame show at 5:50.
Emily St John of Coffee County CHS XC (Photo by Pascal Randolph)
The Coffee County Cross Country season came to an end on Thursday for each Raider team at the conclusion of the Region 4AAA Championship at Sharp Springs Park in Smyrna. No Raider or Lady Raider runners qualified for Saturday’s State Cross Country Championships.
For the Lady Raiders, Emily St. John was the top finisher with a time of 23:41 to capture 29th place. Makenzie Webb was 31st at 24:05, Byanka Woods was 52nd at 29:10 while Jasmine Farrar was right on her heels in 53rd place. Sarah Pearson was forced to pull out of the race due to injury.
For the Red Raiders, James Lynn was the top finisher as he finished the race in 17:57 good for 23rd place. Bradley Kishbaugh finished at 18:28 for 30th place. Andrew Godwin was 32nd (with a time of 18:42), Andres Cavalie was 39th (29:07), Larson Meltzer was 58th (20:35), Reuben Chaput was 59th (20:40) and Neil Slone was 77th (22:33)
James Lynn of Coffee County CHS XC(Photo by Pascal Randolph)
Coach Nathan Wanuch will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to talk about the season. The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast live each Saturday morning from the showroom of AL White Ford/Lincoln. The show gets underway at 10 AM and fans are encouraged to tune in OR come out to Al White each Saturday to watch the show.
The Coffee County Red Raider football team honored 12 seniors on Friday as Coffee County celebrated Senior Night prior to the regular season finale against Siegel. The Stars spoiled the rest of the night as they dropped the Raiders by a final score of 36 to 16.
The Stars got a touchdown in the last 90 seconds of the 2nd quarter to take a 22 to 0 lead into the half. Siegel then scored in the first minute of the 3rd quarter to spoil any Coffee County upset bid. Pablo Sanz kicked a 27 yard field goal in the 3rd quarter and Alontae Taylor ripped off a 65 yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 29 to 10 entering the 4th quarter. DeAaron Rozier bulled his way into the end zone with 1:32 remaining in the game to close out the scoring for the Raiders.
The Raiders were led offensively by Taylor as the junior quarterback rushed 15 times for 137 yards and a touchdown. He also passed the ball 9 times with 3 completions for 42 yards and had 2 receptions for 27 yards. Rozier finished with 23 yards rushing on 11 carries and Colton Prater was 3 for 3 for 44 yards passing. The Thunder Radio/Crazy Daisies Player of the game was Alontae Taylor
The Raiders will open the TSSAA playoffs on Friday night as Coffee County will travel to Maryville to take on the nationally ranked Rebels. Kickoff for all playoff games is 7 PM local time, so the game will begin at 6 PM CDT. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast live beginning at 6 PM.
CCMS Lady Raiders with the Border Wars championship trophy[Photo provided by Matt Vinson]
For the 2nd year in a row the Coffee County Middle School basketball teams captured the Woodbury Border Wars tournaments. The Lady Raiders defeated Woodland in the semifinals before capturing a come from behind win over DeKalb County in the finals. The boys drubbed Westside in the semifinals before holding off Swiss Memorial in the finals.
The Lady Raiders opened the day on Saturday as they took out Woodland 39 to 22. Bella Vinson led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 15 points and Keri Munn added 10. In the finals, the Lady Raiders needed a 4th quarter comeback to defeat DeKalb County 31 to 27.
CCMS Lady Raiders named to the Border Wars All-Tournament team (left to right) Keri Munn, Bella Vinson, Kiya Ferrell & Marley Perry[Photo provided by Matt Vinson]
Trailing 24 to 21 entering the final 6 minutes Keri Munn and Kiya Ferrell each netted 4 points in the 4th quarter to capture the championship. Bella Vinson again led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 12 points while Ferrell added 11 points and Munn finished with 6 points. Munn, Vinson, Ferrell and Marley Perry were all named to the All-Tournament team.
The Red Raiders blasted Westside in their semifinals by a score of 45 to 18. The Raiders held Westside to 6 points in the second half as they coasted to the win. Ten Red Raiders scored on the afternoon led by Jaxon Vaughn and Trenton Scrivnor who each netted 11 points.
CCMS Red Raiders with the Border Wars championship trophy[Photo provided by Kyle Harris]
After trailing 16 to 13 after the first quarter of the finals, Coffee County held off a hot shooting Swiss Memorial team to capture the tournament title by a final of 44 to 36. Swiss hit nine 3 pointers in the game, including 5 in the 4th quarter, but it was not enough to overcome the 11 made free throws by the Raiders in the 4th quarter. Jaxon Vaughn led Coffee County in scoring with 11 points while Marshall Haney and Kyle Farless each added 8. Vaughn, Haney, Farless and Hayden Hullett were named to the All-Tournament team.
CCMS Red Raiders named to the Border Wars All Tournament team. (left to right) Hayden Hullett, Jaxon Vaughn, Kyle Farless & Marshall Haney. [Photo provided by Kyle Harris]
The Raiders and Lady Raiders will be off this week as their next game will be on Monday, November 7th at White County. The girls’ game will get underway at 6 PM.
![CCMS Red Raiders with the Border Wars All Tournament team. (left to right) Hayden Hullett, Jaxon Vaughn, Kyle Farless & Marshall Haney. [Photo provided by Kyle Harris]](http://www.thunder1320.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CCMS-Boys-Border-Battle-All-Tournament.jpg)
