Category: Sports

As 2015 draws to a close, it is time to look back at the highlights from out local prep teams in the past 12 months.  We begin our review today with a look at the Raiders and Lady Raiders of Coffee County Middle School.  On Thursday, we will visit the highlights of the year from Westwood Middle School and on Friday, we bring look back at 2015 sports at Coffee County CHS.

2015 began with a championship for the Lady Raiders basketball team as they finished the season with a record of 19 and 1 and claimed the conference title.  The Lady Raiders defeated South Franklin 25 to 24 in the tournament finals before a packed house at CCMS.  The Red Raiders advanced to the tournament semifinals before falling to eventual champ, White County.

2015 also saw a first in spring sports for Coffee County Middle School as the baseball and softball teams enjoyed their first on-campus, home fields.   The Lady Raider softball team also claimed the CTC title as they battled out of the loser’s bracket to defeat Warren County twice in the tournament championship.  The Lady Raiders finished the season with a record of 15 and 5.  The Raider baseball team got off to a 5 and 1 start in conference play before a late season slump ended their season in the conference tournament.  On the links, the Red Raider golf team battled their way to a 2^nd place finish in the conference tournament.  Samuel Prater finished with a 1st place individual finish while Austin Farris was 1 stroke back to finish in 2^nd place.   In track, the Lady Raiders won their 3^rd straight CTC conference title.  The Red Raiders saw their 3 year string as conference champion come to an end as they finished in 2^nd place to Tullahoma.  On the soccer pitch, the Red Raiders finished with a winning record and a 4^th place finish in the conference championship.

The fall season saw the Lady Raider soccer team finish with an unbeaten record and a CTC championship of their own.  The Coffee County team allowed only 9 goals in their 10 games while the JV team won their conference tournament as well.  The Red Raider football team finished tied for the CTC regular season title with a record of 7 and 1 on the year.  Coffee County lost a hard fought bowl game to Harris in the postseason.   The Lady Raider volleyball team finished their 3^rd season of competition with a record of 12-7-1.  2016 will see the CTC begin conference play in volleyball and expect Coffee County to compete for a conference crown in September.   2015 closed out with the completion of the 6^th grade basketball season which saw both Raider teams have outstanding performances.  The Lady Raiders finished with a mark of 9 and 0 while the Red Raiders compiled a record of 7 and 2.

2016 promises to be another great year for Coffee County Middle School sports and Thunder Radio will keep you updated with all the great performances daily.  We will also bring you exclusive coverage of Coffee County Middle School basketball as we will broadcast the Raiders and Lady Raiders home game on January 11^th as Coffee County hosts Warren County.  We will continue our look back the highlights of 2015 on Thursday as we check out the year in sports at Westwood Middle School.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

Alexander Steen scored with 58.2 seconds remaining in overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Scottrade Center on Tuesday.  Steen got a breakout pass through the Nashville zone from Paul Stastny and took a wrist shot past Nashville goalie Carter Hutton.  “Yes, and a good first pass by [Alex Pietrangelo] to go to [Stastny] as opposed to me,” Steen said. “And [Stastny], I knew he was coming to me. Nice play.”

The Blues outshot the Predators 6-0 in overtime and had the majority of zone time.  “We started with the puck, which is huge in OT and kind of waited for our chance to shoot,” Steen said. “We didn’t waste anything. For the most part, we were pretty good in OT. It’s all puck possession.”

Dmitrij Jaskin had a goal and an assist, Kevin Shattenkirk and Robby Fabbri scored, and Jori Lehtera and Pietrangelo each had two assists for the Blues (23-12-4). Goalie Jake Allen made 30 saves to defeat the Predators for the third time this season, though the Predators got a point after trailing 3-1 with four minutes left in the third period.

St. Louis, which has won six of eight, is an NHL-best 17-5-0 against the Western Conference.

St. Louis defeated Nashville 2-1 here on Dec. 17, but according to coach Ken Hitchcock, the Blues got too comfortable in this game.

“If you’re sitting on the bench, you’re hoping you get to the end of the buzzer because we weren’t really in control of anything,” Hitchcock said. “Other than the first two-thirds of the first period, which was exceptional, we weren’t in control of anything. We were trying to keep up to them and they were trying to keep up to us, but neither team was checking very well. Both teams looked like they were a little bit tired for whatever reason. When you come off your checking against that team, you’re going to get beat.”

Mattias Ekholm had a goal and an assist, and Shea Weber and Colin Wilson scored for the Predators (18-12-7). Hutton made 21 saves; he is 0-2-3 lifetime against St. Louis.

The Predators are 0-6 in overtime this season but were pleased to battle back and get a point being down two goals on the road on the second of back-to-back games. Nashville defeated the New York Rangers 5-3 at home Monday.

“It was good,” Weber said. “It’s a huge character [point], especially against a team that defends so well usually as a team. This team, when they get a lead, it’s so hard because they collapse and they block a lot of shots. The way Allen’s played against us this year too.

“I think that was the first time we’ve scored even strength on them this year, so to get two late, that’s a big deal for us here and to get one point in a division game is big.”

Weber’s 11th of the season cut the lead to 3-2 on a quick shot from the high slot after taking Roman Josi’s feed with 3:52 remaining. Wilson collected a rebound and beat Allen with 1:32 remaining after the Predators pulled Hutton for an extra attacker.

“I think we were just pressing,” Predators center Mike Fisher said. “We felt good about our game and we were getting pucks and getting chances. We felt like it was just a matter of time that we were going to get our break and we did. … We ended up with those last two goals, which were key.”

Fabbri broke a 1-1 tie on a give-and-go play with Lehtera. Fabbri skated toward the slot and pulled the puck around sliding defenseman Seth Jones before beating Hutton five-hole 12:04 into the second period to give the Blues a 2-1 lead.

Shattenkirk gave the Blues a 3-1 lead when he took a breakout pass from Lehtera and beat Hutton with a slap shot from the top of the right circle 1:55 into the third period.

Jaskin’s first goal in 20 games put the Blues ahead 1-0. He was able to tip Jay Bouwmeester’s shot on goal, then collect the rebound and backhand it past Hutton 9:38 into the first period.

The Predators tied it 1-1 on Ekholm’s shorthanded goal, his first goal in 21 games. Fisher won an offensive-zone faceoff back to Ekholm, who seemed to catch Allen off-guard with a quick shot inside the near post at 14:00.

“We had a great start and the first goal was exceptional, and then when we got scored on, we sagged, and it took us a whole [period] to catch it back up,” Hitchcock said. “Then when we started to play again, we started to play, but we were vulnerable defensively. We had too many just-abouts. We were vulnerable back there, so I think we became hesitant and when you become hesitant defensively, that’s usually when you get in trouble.”

Things looked good for the Blues after Shattenkirk’s goal, but they caught themselves fending off a late Nashville push and had to refocus to get the second point.

“The win’s the win at the end of the day but to give up with five minutes left a two-goal lead and let them back in the game and give them hope, it’s not the right thing to do and we all know that,” Allen said. “You can’t really say anything about it now, but we wish we could take those five minutes back and do it a little differently, but we got the win, we found a way, and move on to the next game.”

The Predators are back in action on New Years Eve when they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast beginning at 7:30 PM.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

James Neal of the Nashville Predators

Mike Fisher returned to the lineup and James Neal tallied twice as the Nashville Predators defeated the New York Rangers 5-3 at Bridgestone Arena on Monday night. The final home game of the calendar year for the Preds saw the team score three times in the third period on the way to their 18th victory of the season.

“I thought it was a solid effort,” Fisher said. “Periods one, two, three, I thought we played well. Made it a little interesting at the end, but I thought everyone played really well, so it was a fun game.”

Filip Forsberg extended his point streak to five games when he struck on the power play before the opening frame was out, one-timing a Roman Josi cross-ice feed under the arm of Henrik Lundqvist to give Nashville a 1-0 advantage. Forsberg’s 10th of the season was his third in two games.

Jesper Fast redirected a Dan Girardi point shot at 6:59 of the second period past Pekka Rinne to even the score at 1-1, but James Neal snapped home his team-leading 14th goal of the season from the slot at 13:48 to give Nashville the lead once more.

Forsberg thought he had registered his second of the night with a nifty bank shot from behind that net that caromed in off a Rangers defender, but New York called for a coach’s challenge and won, as Craig Smith was judged to have interfered with Lundqvist.

Smith answered that call with a goal of his own at 7:34 deflecting Josi’s shot from the blue line into the twine for a two-goal lead. Ryan Ellis got in on the party at 9:52 for Nashville’s second power-play goal for the night, and then Neal deposited his second of the evening less than two minutes later, spelling the end of Lundqvist’s night, pulled in favor of Antti Raanta.

Rick Nash and J.T. Miller added late goals for the Rangers, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Preds finished the game off.

Fisher logged one shot on goal and three hits in 16:47 of ice time during his first game action since being injured on Dec. 1. The centerman also won 10 of his 17 face-offs on the night.

“He was really good,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of Fisher. “We played him in a lot of different situations and rolled the bench, got a lot of minutes out of everyone tonight, but Mike looked really good. It’s nice to have him back in there. He really provides a steadiness to our lineup, a good balance and he takes on a lot of different roles.”

The Preds are right back at it Tuesday night in St. Louis, before heading to Dallas in another Central Division showdown, and Nashville is hoping to utilize a victory against a strong Rangers team to their advantage.

“We need to string them together here and put some wins together in a row,” Laviolette said. “We certainly realize what we have ahead of us and the difficulty of our schedule. We have to build off of this, take the confidence from this game and move on… We wake up in the morning and [tonight’s win will] be old news. We’ve got to focus on the job at hand.”

Filip Forsberg thought he had scored his second goal of the night, but a coach’s challenge from New York Head Coach Alain Vigneault went in the Rangers favor early in the third period, keeping the Nashville lead at just one goal.

As Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette acknowledged after the game, a result like that can be deflating. Instead, the Preds went out and got it right back. And then they got another. And another.

“We talked about it on the bench before it even happened that the next shift was a big one,” Laviolette said of the call. “Just to come back and press and push; they had to go to Toronto on the high stick too, [but it went back to Craig Smith] again, so it was good to get rewarded.”

Goals from Smith, Ryan Ellis and James Neal all within four minutes of each other proved to be too much for the Rangers to handle down the stretch, the ultimate difference in the contest.

“We started off the third really good and got that disallowed, but after that we just kept going for it. I think that’s the biggest thing you have to do.”

The Preds face the Blues in St. Louis on Tuesday night in the second half of a back-to-back set, before taking on the Central Division-leading Dallas Stars in Texas on New Year’s Eve. Nashville will then finish off their three-game road trip in Carolina on Jan. 2 before returning home.  As always, Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcasts of those games as part of the Fifth Third Bank Radio Network

With their season set to begin in early February, the Motlow Lady Bucks softball team turned in an outstanding performance in the classroom during the fall 2015 semester.

The Lady Bucks posted a team grade point average of 2.91 and placed four members on the Dean’s List and another five on the Honor Roll. Students earn Dean’s List distinction with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and are named to the Honor Roll with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.49.

Leading the way were sophomores Riley Long and Cameron Pearson, who each earned a perfect 4.0 GPA. Joining them on the Dean’s List were fellow sophomore Traci Shelton and freshman Caroline Abernathy.

Softball team members named to the Honor Roll for fall 2015 were sophomores Aubrey Crowell and Taylor Wolaver, along with freshmen Taylor Honea, Riley O’Neal and Ashton Watkins.

Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at <www.motlowsports.com> for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics at <Facebook/MotlowSports> and <Twitter@MotlowSports>.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

Filip Forsberg

Filip Forsberg tallied twice, but it wasn’t enough as the Nashville Predators fell to the Detroit Red Wings by a 3-2 final on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena in the 91st all-time meeting between the two clubs. The loss closes out the season series versus Detroit, with the Preds going 0-1-1 against their former divisional foe.

The Predators never held a lead in the contest, but were resilient in answering Detroit twice, before a final push came up short.

“I thought we did a great job playing from behind,” Captain Shea Weber said. “We fought hard all night, we battled back from two deficits, we didn’t get the last one back, but like I said, it was a good game both ways. They played well, and I thought we did a pretty good job as well.”

“We knew it was going to be a low-event game,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Tight, not a lot of room, the neutral zone both ways can be tight at times and doesn’t lead to a lot of things that can happen off the rush. I thought we got better at it in the third period and found some holes. Our defensemen got pretty active in the third period, but the one goal is a difference maker in the game.”

Brendan Smith tallied first for the Red Wings at 5:34, beating Pekka Rinne with a slapper. But just 45 seconds later, Forsberg converted on a Nashville odd-man rush, sending a perfectly-placed wrister through goaltender Petr Mrazek to even the contest at 1-1.

Detroit regained the lead in the middle frame on the power play, thanks to a Riley Sheahan goal, but before the frame was out, Nashville evened things once more. Off an offensive-zone, face-off win from Mike Ribeiro, Craig Smith’s shot from the top of the circle deflected off of Forsberg’s left leg and over the shoulder of Mrazek. Forsberg’s second of the night, and ninth of the season, sent the two foes into the second intermission tied at 2-2.

The Red Wings went up 3-2 when Smith’s point shot was tipped in by Luke Glendening, a marker that ultimately proved to be the game winner.

A slew of Nashville chances came in the closing minutes, but Detroit held on to hand the Preds their 12th regulation defeat of the season.

“It’s the wins that matter,” Weber said. “Especially in a division that’s so tight and with every other team winning, at the end of the night, it’s about the two points.”

It’s a quick turnaround after the holiday break for the Preds, with a practice Sunday, followed by a game against the New York Rangers in Nashville before traveling to St. Louis for a Central Division outing against the Blues.

“There’s still a lot of games left, but we have big games coming up again against the Division on Tuesday and big game against New York Monday,” forward Mike Ribeiro said. “When you lose, you’re frustrated like I am right now, but the only thing you can do is really focus for the next one and really come out like we know we can. When we do that, we come out strong in the first most times, we’ll win games.”

Nashville hosts the New York Rangers on Monday, before jetting off to St. Louis for a Tuesday night contest against the Blues.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of Monday’s game beginning at 7 PM

Cole Sons poses with his trophy deer in October of 2013(photo provided)

This story starts as we remember a young man that was just 18 at the time, Cole Sons. Cole was taken from this earth October 13, 2013 in a car accident. Cole was an awesome young man that touched many lives during his short time here on this earth. He was a great friend to many and an awesome child of God, with a quick witness. Cole had made arrangements with Shannon Frame to meet with him the day of his accident to cape out a deer that he had harvested just two days earlier. Sadly he never made this appointment so Shannon took it upon himself to get the deer from Cole’s family recently.

Shannon Frame(left) presents the mounted deer head to Cole Sons’ mother, Valerie Drake(right) and step father, Dee Drake(middle) (photo provided)

The deer looks a little different in the pictures due to the cape, or hide, on Cole’s deer being messed up. Shannon had a deer in his freezer that he had harvested and used his cape on Cole’s deer. Shannon had a good friend Kyle Harris, who works part time as a taxidermist and is the athletic director at Coffee County Middle School, who helped cape out the deer and mount it. Shannon explained the situation to Kyle and he never asked for any monetary reimbursement. Shannon just wanted to tell Kyle thank you from Cole’s family as well as himself, for Kyle took the time to mount this deer at no charge so that the memory of this young man could be hung on the wall and stories be told of his great accomplishments as an outdoorsman .

CCMS athletic director Kyle Harris (photo provided)

It is the wish of Shannon and Kyle that every time the family looks at this deer head, it fills their heart with wonderful memories. Since Cole’s accident, his family has started an annual turkey shoot, silent auction and shirt sale in his remembrance. It is The Cole Sons Memorial Scholarship Fund and is held each year at Blanton’s Chapel Community Center. It was created to give back to the community in the form of scholarships and charitable donations. For more info on the scholarship and to follow the great work done by this charity, check out the Cole Sons Memorial Scholarship Fund Facebook page.

Savannah Quick of CHS Golf tees off on the back 9 at the TSSAA Golf Tournament at Willowbrook (Photo by John StClair – JohnStClairPhoto.com)

Coffee County Central High School junior Savannah Quick was named to 2nd team Tennessean All-Midstate Golf Team on Monday. Quick led the Lady Raider golf team to their 3rd straight state tournament berth this fall where the Lady Raiders finished in 4th place. Quick’s individual score was low enough to place her in 12th place overall on the individual leaderboard.
During the regular season, Quick garnered first place finishes in the Keith Maxwell Invitational High School Tournament and the Murfreesboro High School Invitational. Quick also tied for first place in Region 4AAA Tournament this past September. During her summer amateur season, Quick finished in the Top 10 in the Tennessee Girls Junior Amateur. Savannah also had the 7th lowest season stroke average in the Tennessee Golf Association Sneds Tour, and was a qualifier for the Sneds tour Tournament of Champions.

CHS basketball player Grant Sadler

A quick and effective full court pressure forced the Coffee County Red Raiders into turnovers and missed opportunities as the visiting Oakland Patriots dropped Coffee County 50 to 25 on Tuesday evening in the final game of the Red Raider Christmas tournament. Oakland scored the first 11 points of the game as they built a 21 to 7 halftime lead. Coffee County was able to cut back on the backcourt turnovers in the 2nd half, but the half court trapping defense of Oakland kept the Red Raiders from establishing any consistent half court offensive flow.
Grant Sadler and Garrett Eldridge led Coffee County in scoring as each had 6 points. Stephen Sullivan added 5 points in the 4th quarter while Wyatt Day finished with 4. For his tough play in the paint, Sadler was named the Gateway Tire & Service Center Player of the Game.

The loss drops Coffee County to 6 and 6 on the season as they enter the Christmas break. Coffee County will be off until January 2nd when they travel to Coalmont to take on Grundy County. The girls’ game will tip off at 4 PM and Thunder Radio will bring you exclusive coverage beginning at 3:50.

Aerial Williams of CHS Basketball

During this weekend’s Whitwell Christmas Tournament, Coffee County coach Herb Horton has gotten key performances from several of his young players. No performance can match the show that Alisha Jennings put on in Monday afternoon’s game with Sequatchie County as the freshman hit a pair of 3 pointers in overtime to lift the Lady Raiders to an exciting 56 to 51 win. “Our kids played to win” said coach Horton following a game that saw the short-handed Lady Raiders win with Alliyah Williams unavailable due to illness. After falling behind by 9 points at the end of the first quarter, Coffee County clawed their way back into the game to force the overtime period. In overtime, Jennings’ 3 pointers helped lift the Lady Raiders to their 6th victory of the season. Aerial Williams picked up the slack for her missing sister as she led Coffee County in scoring with 16 points and rebounds with 22. Abby Morgan added 14 points, including 8 in the 4th quarter. Bailey Morgan netted 8 points and Jennings finished with 7. Coffee County will be off until January 2nd when they travel to Coalmont to take on Grundy County. The girls’ game will tip off at 4 PM and Thunder Radio will bring you exclusive coverage beginning at 3:50.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber

Shea Weber and Colin Wilson each had a goal and two assists as the Nashville Predators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 at Bridgestone Arena on Monday night. The win gave Nashville consecutive victories for the first time since Nov. 14 and 17.

Scoring was prevalent for the Preds, but Pekka Rinne also played a large role, making 35 saves on his way to win No. 14 on the season.

“He was really good tonight; he was sharp,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of his goaltender.

“Not only was it the quantity of saves he had to make, but the quality as well; there was lots of chances, big saves at the right time.

“Our guys were opportunistic. We got on the power play, scored some goals by our defensemen and when we had the opportunity, we made the most of them. We didn’t have that many, but when we did have the looks, we were able to get it behind him.”

The Preds top defensive pair of Weber and Roman Josi teamed up to give Nashville a 1-0 lead at the 8:40 mark of the opening frame. Josi lugged the puck across the top of the Montreal zone before dropping to Weber for a one-timer at the right point. The Captain blasted a shot past the blocker of Dustin Tokarski for his 10th goal of the season.

It was the same defensive duo combining again in the second, this time with the man advantage, as Weber fed Josi, again at the right point, as the Preds leading scorer wired a shot home for his ninth on the campaign. The marker was Nashville’s third power-play goal in the last three games.

The scoring from the blue line continued in the third, when Ryan Ellis looked for Craig Smith across the crease, but the pass instead deflected off a Montreal defender and into the net, giving Ellis his third on the season and Nashville a 3-0 lead. The tally also brought about the end of Tokarski’s night, in favor of Mike Condon in goal.

Calle Jarnkrok welcomed Condon to the game by beating him top shelf at 8:58 of the third period to give the crowd Frostys and the Preds a 4-0 advantage. Alex Galchenyuk broke Pekka Rinne’s shutout bid on the power play at 12:08, but Wilson tallied his second goal of the season into an empty net to seal the victory for the Preds.

Combined with two assists, Wilson registered his second multi-point night of the season, an outing that can provide confidence to the forward who is hoping to soon break through with regularity.

“He was strong,” Laviolette said of Wilson. “It’s nice to see him cash in some points and he can take that and build some confidence from it.”

The Preds will enjoy some time off, but look forward to returning soon enough to improve from the win over Montreal.

“When you get some time off it’s always nice to do well and win,” Weber said. “Obviously not our best game, but that was a desperate team over there, and you could tell how hungry they were. I thought guys did a good job battling, blocking shots and killing some penalties. They got on a 4-on-3 there, but Pekka did great; you can’t say enough on how well he did. He gave us a chance to win there.”

Four days off between games can seem like an eternity in the middle of an NHL season, but with the Christmas break arriving, the Predators will enjoy the respite before hosting Detroit on Saturday. No doubt entering the hiatus with two-straight wins makes for a happier holiday.

“I think anytime putting two wins together, it’ll make the break a little bit nicer,” Wilson said. “For four days I think everybody will be thinking about it. It felt good, and we’ll try to use that momentum after the break.”

The remaining 48 games won’t get any easier for the Preds, but Nashville is more than willing to take on the challenge. They know there is still ground to gain in the ultra-competitive Central, the perfect test for what may be ahead come this spring.

“It was good for us to get this last win before we go on the break and try build our momentum a little bit, try to get our record back up,” Laviolette said. “We’re in a funny, peculiar situation where we’re a few points out of a playoff spot and then we’re a few points off second place. We have to continue to win if we want to push up north in the standings.”

With three points against the Canadiens, Shea Weber has scored 15 points in the month of December, more than any other player in the NHL.

The Predators have points in eight-straight games against the Canadiens (5-0-3) and have not lost a game in regulation to Montreal at Bridgestone Arena since March 10, 2003 (their only home regulation loss to them).

The Predators will now have four days between games due to the NHL’s Christmas break. The Preds host the Detroit Red Wings Dec. 26, and then welcome the New York Rangers to town two days later.