Full court defensive pressure and hot outside shooting helped the Lady Rockets dethrone the Viqueens of Community on Monday night in a 54 to 25 win for Westwood. Leading 23 to 16, Westwood used their transition offense off of Community turnovers to outscore the visiting VIqueens 31 to 9 in a fast paced 2nd half. “I can’t say enough about how well they are playing as a team” said Lady Rocket Coach Angela Houck after the game. Karen Medina led Westwood with 20 points. Ashley Starks finished with 16 and Morgan Jones netted 15. The win improves the Lady Rockets to 8 and 2 on the season.
Jake Hollandsworth of Westwood basketball
The Rockets had little luck in stopping the excellent ball movement of Community in the boys game falling by a final score of 34 to 24. Westwood, who trailed from the opening minute, cut the deficit to 1 point late in the first quarter but never could track down the streaking Vikings. The Rockets were led in scoring by Jake Hollandsworth who had 9 points. Shaun Anderson added 6 points for the Rockets.
The Rockets and Lady Rockets travel to Chapel Hill on Thursday night to take on Forrest. The girls game tips off at 6.
2015 Raider Golf Captains Hayden Proffitt and Teagan Perry(Photo Provided)
2015 CHS Golf Award winners(left to right) Reid Lawrence – Most Improved, Sophie Vinson – Coaches Award & Austin Farris – Newcomer of the Year. Samuel Prater (not pictured)also won the coaches award(Photo provided)
The Coffee County Central High School golf team celebrated another strong season with their end of season banquet on Monday night. The Lady Raider golf team came home with a 4th place team finish while Red Raider John Parigger competed as an individual. Parigger was the 3rd Red Raider golfer to compete in the state tournament in the last 3 years. The Lady Raider team was the 3rd consecutive girls’ team from Coffee County to make the state tournament and this year was the 4th year in a row that Coffee County has been represented at the girls’ state tournament. The Lady Raider team was also the District 8AAA and Region 4AAA Champions while the boys were runner up in District 8AAA. The Lady Raider golfers finished the year with a record of 64 and 8 while the boys finished with a record of 54 and 26.
Award winners were as follows:
Captain’s Award – Hayden Proffitt and Teagan Perry
Newcomer of the Year – Austin Farris
Most Improved – Reid Lawrence
Coaches Award – Sophie Vinson & Samuel Prater
Most Valuable Players – John Parigger & Savannah Quick
2015 Golf MVP’s John Parigger & Savannah Quick (Photo provided)
The Nashville Predators tallied their second-highest shot total of the season, but Jake Allen and the St. Louis Blues prevailed 4-0 on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. Allen stopped all 45 shots the Predators threw his way and Nashville suffered their first regulation loss on home ice this season.
Nashville had a slew of chances on the night, and hit the post on multiple occasions, doing everything they could to score.
“It wasn’t from a lack of trying,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Attempts, opportunities, quality scoring chances, they’re all heavily stacked and [Allen] played a good game in net. We hit the post six times, couldn’t get it to bounce.”
St. Louis capitalized on a first-period power play, with defenseman Colton Parayko finishing off a quick passing play to put the puck past Pekka Rinne. It was the first goal Rinne has allowed in the first period this season and just the fourth time the Preds have surrendered the first goal of the game.
The Predators weren’t able to convert on a 1:20 worth of a 5-on-3 man advantage late in the second period, but the team headed into the locker room sensing they were close to breaking through.
“The guys thought we were going to win the game,” Laviolette said. “We went out in the third period to win the game and it didn’t take place tonight so we move on. There’s a lot of good things we can take from tonight.”
Alex Pietrangelo, Scottie Upshall and Alexander Steen added goals for the Blues in the final frame, putting Nashville’s record at 8-3-2 on the season.
“It seems like most games we’ve lost, we actually played pretty well,” defenseman Roman Josi said. “We out-chanced them the whole game, and it’s frustrating if you can’t score but you have to give them credit, they capitalized and their goalie was really good.”
With four more home games on the horizon, the Preds are ready to take the good out of Saturday’s outing and look ahead to Tuesday night at the Ottawa Senators.
“We’ve got four more at home here and we want to be really solid at home and make it a hard building to play in,” forward Mike Fisher said. “We’ve got to be ready for Tuesday.”
The Predators host Ottawa on Tuesday before Toronto, Winnipeg and Anaheim all come to town over the next 10 days. Thunder Radio will bring you Tuesday’s game on the Fifth Third Bank/Nashville Predators Radio Network beginning at 7 PM.
The Coffee County Central High School swimming team opened the regular season on Thursday afternoon at LaVergne. Freshman Anna O’Conner led the Lady Raiders as she got a first place individual finish in the 200M individual freestyle and swam the anchor leg for the winning 200M freestyle relay team. O’Conner teamed with Emma Allen, Emily Warner and Ariah Tucker. O’Conner also scored 2nd place finishes in the 100M individual freestyle and the 100M butterfly. O’Connor qualified for the region in 200M freestyle, 50M freestyle, and 100M butterfly. Emma Allen qualified for the region in the 50M freestyle. The 400M freestyle relay team of Bailey Baker, Samantha Brunelle, Svetlana Miaddzvedzeva and Lacey West swam to a 3rd place finish.
Other Top 10 finishes for the Lady Raiders were recorded by:
Emma Allen – 3rd place (50M individual freestyle), 5th place (100M individual freestyle)
Emily Warner – 4th place (50M individual freestyle), 6th place (100M individual freestyle)
Ariah Tucker – 6th place (50M individual freestyle), 3rd place (100M individual freestyle)
For the Red Raider swimmers, freshman Jack Beachboard claimed a pair of 2nd place individual finishes in the 200M individual medley and the 400M freestyle while junior Ryan Farless added a 3rd place finish in the 100M freestyle to pace Coffee County. Beachboard qualified for state in the 200M IM, 400M freestyle, and 50M freestyle. Farless and Beachboard also teamed with Donald Ridner and Trevor Ivy-Bodman to finish in 4th place in the 400M freestyle relay and 5th place in the 200M freestyle. Farless added a 3rd place finish in the 100 butterfly and a 6th place finish in the 200M freestyle while Ridner got a 10th place finish in the 100M freestyle race. The Raider swimmers return to the water on Thursday as they return to LaVergne for a 6 PM meet.
The Coffee County Elementary Basketball League had a full slate of games on Saturday.
Girls’ Results
North Coffee 22, East Coffee 4
Hickerson 24, Deerfield 15
Westwood 24, Hillsboro 12
New Union 10, College Street 8(OT)
Boys’ Results
East Coffee 22, North Coffee 17
Hickerson 25, Deerfield 21
Westwood 28, Hillsboro 12
College Street 24, New Union 22
Current Girls’ Standings
New Union – 3 & 0
College Street – 2 & 1
Hickerson – 2 & 1
Hillsboro – 2 & 1
Westwood – 2 & 1
North Coffee – 1 & 2
Deerfield – 0 & 3
East Coffee – 0 & 3
Current Boys’ Standings
College Street – 3 & 0
Westwood – 3 & 0
Hickerson – 2 & 1
New Union – 2 & 1
East Coffee – 1 & 2
Hillsboro – 1 & 2
Deerfield – 0 & 3
North Coffee – 0 & 3
Alontae Taylor eludes a Science Hill tackler in action on Friday (Photo by Jay Bailey – Manchester Times)
Four touchdowns from Alontae Taylor were not enough to lift Coffee County to an upset of Science Hill as the Red Raiders season ended with a 52 to 26 loss in the first round of the TSSAA playoffs on Friday night. The Hilltoppers scored on their first 2 possessions on a pair of 3 play drives to take an early 14 to 0 lead. Taylor got his first touchdown with 94 seconds left in the first period in a 31 yard scamper. Taylor’s 4th touchdown came on a 19 yard run and the ensuing Mill Harner 2 point conversion made the score 38 to 26 with 9 minutes remaining. Science Hill tacked on a pair of late touchdowns to make the score look a little more lopsided.
Taylor rushed 25 times for 168 yards and completed 4 of 8 passes for another 118 yards to lead the Coffee County offense. Mill Harner rushed 19 times for 70 yards for the Red Raiders and Boone Riddle had 2 pass receptions for 98 yards. Taylor was named the Farm Bureau/Thunder Radio Player of the Game. Coffee County finished the year with a record of 3 and 8.
A 40 point 1st half was more than enough to improve the Coffee County Middle School Lady Raiders to 2 and 0 on the year as they dropped North Franklin 59 to 30 on Thursday night. The Lady Raiders hit six 3 point shots in the first half to build a 40 to 16 halftime lead. Julia Duncan was high scorer for Coffee County as she had 27 points. Bella Vinson added 14 points and Keelie Hills finished with 8 points.
Jalen Morris of CCMS Basketball
The Red Raiders took a 22 to 19 lead into the half, before dropping a 52 to 32 decision to the Gators. North turned up the defensive pressure in the second half forcing numerous Raider turnovers. Jalen Morris led the Raiders in scoring with 10 points. Blanton Brown added 7 points as Coffee County’s record fell to 1 and 1. The Lady Raiders and Raiders will travel to Tullahoma on Monday night for a 6 PM doubleheader with East Middle School.
A 19 point 4th quarter by the Cougars of Middle Tennessee Christian ended the Westwood Rockets 5 game winning streak on Thursday night at the Joel Vinson Gym. Trailing by 2 points entering the 4th quarter, Middle Tennessee Christian turned up the defensive pressure as they claimed a 51 to 49 win over the Rockets. Isaiah Owens was the leading scorer for Westwood as he finished with 14 points. Roderic Brinkley and Shawn Anderson each finished with 9 points.
Morgan Jones of Westwood basketball
The Lady Rockets led from start to finish in a 37 to 13 win over the Lady Cougars. Westwood held Middle Tennessee Christian scoreless in the 1st quarter as they build a 16 to 0 lead. Westwood was led in scoring by Ashley Starks who had 11 point and Morgan Jones who finished with 9 points as neither player played in the 4th quarter. The win improves the Lady Rockets record to 7 and 2 on the season. Westwood will play host to Community on Monday night. The girls’ game will begin at 6 PM.
