Middle School Sports Update

Avery County's middle school baseball and softball teams have been busy this week with lots of action.

On Tuesday the Avery Middle School girls softball team picked up a 9-8 victory over Bowman. The Lady Panthers built a commanding 9-0 lead with the hot bat of Serena Ramos and her teammates' offensive firepower, while starting pitcher Paige Henderson kept the Lady Bulldogs in check for the first four innings of play.

Bowman's bats woke up in the fifth inning, however, to score seven runs to cut the Avery lead to a pair at 9-7. Shannon Smith came on in relief and was able to quell the Lady Bulldog threat to preserve the advantage. The Lady Panthers could not add to its lead, but Smith finished the game strong inside the circle, striking out eight Lady Bulldogs in her three innings of work to pick up the save and preserve the Avery win.

Tuesday afternoon the Avery Middle baseball team hosted Johnson County for a doubleheader. A talented Longhorns middle school squad defeated Avery 22-1 in the first game of the twin bill, but the Panthers played much better in the second game, holding Johnson County to its lowest output of the season offensively and playing the Longhorns to its closest game of the year in a 4-2 loss.

Avery rallied in the fifth and final inning, scoring a run and loading the bases. With the potential winning run at first base, however, Johnson County recorded the final out to hold on for the win. Avery fell to 0-5 on the season and plays two additional games this week, highlighted by a game this afternoon against Bowman in Newland.

Cranberry softball took on Harris Middle School on Wednesday afternoon in Newland in a make-up game from a rainout on Monday. The Lady Wildcats played with tenacity and intensity, but the talented Lady Blue Devils squad was victorious in a 13-1 final score.

The Cranberry baseball team was also in action on Wednesday afternoon at home, hosting the Harris baseball team in its own make-up contest from Monday. Cranberry gave up eight runs over the course of the first two innings, but refused to give in, rallying to tie the contest. Harris broke the tie in the latter innings. Cranberry mounted another rally in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, but Harris held on to take a 12-9 victory.

Ian Franklin with 3 for 4 at the plate in the game, while Hunter Guinn started on the mound and threw four solid innings. Bryce Pittman and Ian Franklin came on in relief to finish the game for the Wildcats.

Cranberry returns to action with a doubleheader this afternoon at home against East Yancey. More information on the entire week of middle school sports action can be found in next week's edition of the Avery Journal-Times!

Avery Soccer Update

The Avery Lady Vikings have played a pair of matches this week with mixed results.

On a wet and rainy Monday evening Avery blasted the Owen Warlassies 9-1 in Swannanoa. All nine goals occurred in the first 62 minutes of a highly physical match.

Emily Banner scored an unassisted goal in the 6th minute to break the ice. Seven minutes later the Warlassies knotted the score at 1-1. In the 25th minute Rachel Buchanan found Emily Banner with a pass, who scored her second goal of the night to put Avery on top 2-1. Three minutes later Mary Chesnut Smith was fouled. She then laced a free kick past the Owen keeper to stake the Big Red to a 3-1 lead. Banner recorded a hat trick on an unassisted goal to take a 4-1 lead which Avery maintained for the remainder of the first half.

The Big Red picked up where it left off in the second half with five additional goals. The first tally came two minutes into the half off a corner kick from Mary Chesnut Smith. Katelynn Eudy headed the ball to the ground, which Melinda Eggers then passed to Emily Banner who netted her fourth tally of the match to push the Lady Viking margin to 5-1.

Seven minutes later Eudy sent a through pass to Smith who scored a second goal for a 6-1 Avery lead. Smith then lent a helping hand on an assist to Rachel Buchanan, who got on the scoreboard in the 55th minute to give the Lady Vikings a half-dozen goal lead. A couple of minutes later, Katelynn Eudy assisted on a fifth goal from Banner to continue the scoring onslaught. The final goal came in the 62nd minute when Kaley Faulkner drew a foul. Smith took a free kick and registered her own hat trick as her kick slipped through the Owen keeper's fingers and into the net, closing out the scoring in the victory.

Avery met a tougher foe on a warm Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland County to square off with traditional 2A girls soccer power Burns. The Lady Vikings played without the services of a number of players, as Katelyn Beverly, as well as Hayley Pyatte and Mary Chesnut Smith were unavailable for the match.

Burns netted a pair of goals in the first half off the revamped Avery lineup before the Lady Vikings calmed their collective nerves and settled into a comfortable playing groove.

In the second half, a Burns’ player was ejected after a flagrant and aggressive foul. Due to the reasoning for the red card, Avery should have had the luxury of playing the final 25 minutes of the match with an 11 to 10 player advantage. However, the officials allowed the Lady Dogs to continue playing at full strength until the decision was questioned by the Avery coaching staff.

Burns added a third goal in the second half to lead 3-0. The Lady Vikings refused to give up, however, as Emily Banner took an outside shot that surprised the Burns defense and found the back of the net in the 77th minute. Unfortunately, Avery drew no closer as Burns took the 3-1 victory.

The Lady Vikings enter a crucial portion of the regular season schedule next week with a pair of 1A conference duels, at Hendersonville on Monday and at Polk County on Wednesday.

Highlander Gameday: From the 'Boro

8:44 (7:44CT): It's a beautiful gameday in the Nashville area today. The Cloudland Highlanders start their quest for a gold ball in the round of eight in the Murphy Center today. We have you covered with all kinds of information from the TSSAA state championships. All four 1-A games are today starting at 11:00ET and 1-AA will have two of their games this afternoon. It looks to be a great day and we hope you keep checking with us all day.

Live Stats and Live Radio broadcast are available on www.tssaa.org for today's game.

9:00ET: The TSSAA is also hearing a proposal from Chattanoga Christian School to make the state tournament just four teams instead of the current eight and having the boys and girls tournament at the same times. For information on this can be found at The Daily News-Journal at http://dnj.com/article/20090317/SPORTS08/90317016/1006/SPORTS.

9:15ET: Looking around the 'net and have found an awesome story about today's game by Trey Williams of the Johnson City Press. http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=SPORTS&ID=67711 .

10:45ET: We are live in the Murphy Center for the 1-A contests now. Humboldt and Manassas are on the court warming up. We will bring you updates as allowed. Just another reminder that a live radio feed of these games are on www.tssaa.org.

11:15ET: The first quarter is over in this game, and it was exactly what everyone expected. Manassas leads 14-12 in a evenly matched affair.

12:00ET: Humboldt pushed out to a 12 point lead before Manassas has came back and took a one point lead with 2:27 remaining. Some quick facts on the 'Landers and Tennessee Temple. This will be CHS' fifth apperance in the state championships with the last time coming in 2007. The 'Landers are looking to grab their first win today as they are 0-4. Temple has made eight appereances and has captured three state championships with the last one being in 2007. They are 12-5.

12:22ET: We are coming closer to the wire as Manassas leads 58-57 with 1:13 remaining. We will have a brief recap up as soon as it is over. Up next is Grace Christian vs. Grace Baptist.

12:30ET: What a big time shot! Humboldt drained a 3-pointer with 15.2 seconds left, but it left plenty of time for Manassas to drain a major 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left to survive and advance.

1:04ET: Chattanooga Grace leds by 23-22 at the end of the first quarter. It has been just like our first one as neither team could get an advantage on the other.

1:20: Halftime and Chattanooga Graces leads 42 to 36. The Rams of Knoxville have knocked down nine 3-pointers so far. It is almost game time for the 'Landers as they are set to tip off at 1:30CT (2:30 ET).

1:46: Chatt Grace leads 50-42 at the end of the third quarter.

1:56: Grace Christian of Knoxville has begun to pull the starters as they trailed by 20 with 2:41 remaining in the contest. Chattanooga Grace will move on with the victory as they have a 70-48 lead at the moment. They will meet Manassas on Friday at the 10:00am CT slot. Up next: the 'Landers look to capture their first win in MTSU's Murphy Center,aka the "Glass House" against the Crusaders of Tennessee Temple. We will have you covered with updates as we can.

3:00: It's halftime as the 'Landers trail by six points 31-25. Logan Morgan has nine for the 'Landers and Matthew Potter has eight. Cloudland is still in game. We will update as soon as possible ater the contest.

4:37: The 'Landers made a comeback late, but they could not overcome a 20 point Temple lead as they fell 64-50. The 'Landers never gave up in the contest. We will have more on this contest later, and also a full recap in the Journal next week. As I type this, the Summertown Eagles lead Clarksville Academy by one with 1:00 left in the first half.

4:48: The official box score from the Cloudland game has just been posted below:

Cloudland vs Temple
3/18/09 1:30 PM at Murfreesboro, TN (Murphy Center)
At Murfreesboro, TN (Murphy Center)
TEMPLE 64, CLOUDLAND 50

CLOUDLAND (20-11)

Morgan, Logan 5-19 3-7 16; Potter, Matthew 5-11 3-4 15; Clawson, Lucas 4-5
1-3 9; Chambers, Tyler 2-6 0-0 5; Clark, Dillon 1-5 0-0 2; Johnson, Randall
1-6 0-0 2; Presnell, Sha 0-2 1-2 1; Bullwinkle, Cody 0-0 0-0 0; Stevens,
Kevin 0-0 0-0 0; Hyden, Michael 0-1 0-0 0; Starnes, Mikey 0-0 0-0 0; Farmer,
B.J. 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 18-55 8-17 50.

TEMPLE (27-5)
Sexton, Jeremy 6-14 6-10 19; Kemp, James 5-10 3-5 15; Johnson, Jarrod 5-5
1-10 11; Andrews, Brandon 3-7 0-0 8; Reaves, Josh 2-3 2-5 6; Pendergrass,
Nathan 1-1 1-3 3; Peterson, Dexter 1-3 0-0 2; Montgomery, Ben 0-0 0-0 0;
Rudolph, Ezekiel 0-0 0-0 0; Armour, Jamaal 0-0 0-0 0; Robinson, Jacqueze 0-0
0-0 0. Totals 23-43 13-33 64.

Cloudland.....................   10   15    6   19  -   50
Temple........................   14   17   17   16  -   64

3-point goals--Cloudland 6-22 (Morgan, Logan 3-9; Potter, Matthew 2-4;
Chambers, Tyler 1-5; Johnson, Randall 0-3; Hyden, Michael 0-1), Temple 5-16
(Andrews, Brandon 2-4; Kemp, James 2-7; Sexton, Jeremy 1-5).

Fouled out--Cloudland-Potter, Matthew; Clawson, Lucas; Presnell, Sha, Temple-None.

Rebounds--Cloudland 33 (Clawson, Lucas 8), Temple 38 (Sexton, Jeremy 11).

Assists--Cloudland 11 (Johnson, Randall 6), Temple 8 (Sexton, Jeremy 3).

Total fouls--Cloudland 26, Temple 14.

Technical fouls--Cloudland-None,Temple-None.

5:05: Summertown leads 35 to 25 with 1:24 remaining in the third quarter.

5:15 Summertown leads 43 to 34 with 5:27 in the contest.

5:33: Oh how momentum can swing. The Cougars of Clarksville Academy made a run to pull within three. The Cougars have the ball with 9.3 seconds left.

5:35: Clarksville couldn't score as they fall 53-50 in the contest. They will face Tennessee Temple on Friday. That wraps up the 1-A portion of the day. We have the first 2-A matchup with Bolivar and Livingston Academy.

Championship Recaps-TSSAA 1-A

By Matt Laws (matt.laws@averyjournal.com)

Avery Journal-Times

*Blog Exclusive*

Humboldt (33-1) 60 vs. Manassas 63 (25-2)-

Everyone expected this to be the game of the day. It didn't disappoint. Two late second shots sent Manassas into the semifinal round of the TSSAA 1-A championship.

The first quarter saw both teams fight through opening round jitters as Manassas took a 14 to 12 lead into the second quarter. Manassas started the second quarter on a five point run before Humboldt started their run back. The teams knotted the score at 19 before Humboldt pushed out their lead. Manassas responded and closed the gap before halftime. The Vikings of Humboldt made led by 28-24 at the break.

In the start of the second half, Humboldt quickly went on a 6-0 run in the opening minute. They pushed that out to eight to take a 36-24 lead. Manassas responded with another run of their own to cut the Viking lead to three. The Tigers eventually took the lead, but not before both teams began trading shots. Humboldt got a quick bucket and steal to spark a five point run that gave them a 49-45 lead entering the final frame.

In that frame, it was an even match as neither team could pull away. The Tigers managed to streak away and take a five point lead with two minutes remaining as Humboldt missed four key throws down the stretch. The Vikings got back on the board with 1:30 then got a steal off the inbound pass to pull within one in a ten second stretch. Manassas missed two free throws with 20 seconds left. Humboldt nailed a 3-pointer with 15.2 remaining to tie the game. However, Manassas’s Marcus Holloway hit a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left on the clock to send the Vikings home with their first loss 63-60.

Tevin Crayton led the Vikings with 16 points and Charles Taylor added 12 points. Kendall Woodard also scored 16 for the Tigers and Hollaway added 15 points. Humboldt shot 49% while hitting 24 of 49 shots while Manassas hit 25 of 50 for an even 50%.

The Tigers advance to play the winner of Grace Baptist and Grace Christian.

BREAKING NEWS: Fancher Resigns as ASU Men's Head Basketball Coach

Courtesy Appalachian Sports Information

BOONE, N.C. ­— Houston Fancher resigned as men’s basketball head coach at Appalachian State University on Monday evening, effective immediately.

In nine seasons at the helm of the program, Fancher posted a 137-136 overall record, which included three Southern Conference North Division championships (2002-03, 2006-07 and 2007-08). In 2006-07, he led Appalachian to a school-record 25 wins, the San Juan Shootout championship and a berth in the National Invitation Tournament. He was named the SoCon Coach of the Year in 2002-03 after winning the first of his three North Division titles.

In addition to the success on the court, the NCAA presented Fancher’s squads with NCAA Public Recognition Awards in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The NCAA Public Recognition Awards honor programs that rank among the nation’s top 10 percent in their sport in Academic Progress Rate scores. ASU men’s basketball fell just hundredths of a percentage point shy of receiving the recognition for a third-consecutive year in 2007-08.

Prior to taking the reins as head coach in 2000, Fancher spent two seasons as an assistant coach and two as associate head coach at ASU under Buzz Peterson. During that time from 1996-2000, Fancher helped lead the Mountaineers to three 20-win seasons, three North Division crowns and the 2000 SoCon Tournament championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Before his arrival at Appalachian, Fancher spent one season as an assistant at Vanderbilt (1995-96). He began his coaching career with four seasons as an assistant at Maryville College (1988-92) and cut his teeth as a head coach with three seasons at North Greenville College (1992-95). In 12 total years as a head coach, Fancher sports a 181-177 overall record.

“We appreciate everything that Coach Fancher has done for Appalachian men’s basketball, Mountaineer athletics and the University as a whole over the past 13 years,” director of athletics Charlie Cobb said. “He has been a terrific ambassador for ASU, a valued member of the community and an outstanding leader of young men. We wish Coach Fancher nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to represent Appalachian State University for the past 13 years, including the last nine as head coach. I hope that I have done so with the class and dignity that the position deserves” Fancher said. “I want to thank Chancellor (Dr. Kenneth E.) Peacock and Charlie Cobb for their support. It has been a wonderful experience for me to build a program. The next head coach at ASU will be fortunate to coach the terrific group of kids that are in the program.”

Fancher will be paid the remainder of his contract which runs through March 2010. A nationwide search for the 15th head coach in Appalachian men’s basketball history will begin immediately.

NCAA Men's Tournament Bracket Contest IS BACK

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is only days away, and again this season the Avery Journal-Times Sports department staff invites YOU, the fan, to demonstrate your prediction prowess.

Again this year we have set up a group with ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge contest to see who can earn bragging rights as the greatest local prognosticator of this year's Big Dance.

You can get into the action by registering an entry at:
http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/group?groupID=13060&entryID=166029

The group is: AJ-T Sports Blog Fans

The Opening Round game is Tuesday night, with the first round starting around noon on Thursday, March 19th. Good Luck!