DerekWiley Life ofWiley Sports Sports OCHS football team falls to Jefferson B2 B1 SECTION TWO THURSDAY • 6 NOVEMBER 2014 B3 NOHS golfer signs college scholarship Last Wednesday, I received a phone call from my father-in-law in Kansas City. It was just after 10 a.m. and he wanted to know if Hillary and I were interested in going to Game 7 of the World Series that same night. He would pay for the flight and the tickets. We just had to come together and drop everything we were doing because the flight was leaving Atlanta at 4:15 p.m. After trying to get a hold of my wife, who didn’t answer her phone because she was teaching at Athens Tech, I called my father- in-law back and pretty much told him no. Wednesday’s are hectic at The Oconee Enterprise. It’s the day we lay out the paper so I had no idea when I’d be able to leave the office. But I still texted Hillary. I needed her to tell me the idea was crazy. At 12:45, she finally did. My wife also said she had a meeting at 3. There was no way she could go. So I let it go, sort of. At 1:30, once the paper was nearly done and I realized I had a shot at making a 4:15 flight, I called my father-in-law. He didn’t answer. So I let it go again. Until, he called me back 10 minutes later. I told him Hillary couldn’t go but if the offer was still on the table that I couldn’t turn down the opportunity and that I would make it to the airport. He began looking at flights. The original Southwest one was now sold out. But there was a Delta flight that departed at 4:10. I raced home to let my dogs out. I put on my Royals jersey and grabbed my phone charger. I packed nothing, not even a tooth- brush and took off for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The GPS on my phone said I would arrive at 3:30, when the plane was scheduled to begin boarding. But I had to stop for gas. After parking my car, I ran to the ticket counter where more than one person told me there was zero chance I would make my flight. I was too late. I didn’t have time to get through security. But at 3:45, after I told her I was trying to get to the World Series, a sweet lady finally gave me the boarding pass and by 3:57 I was sitting in first-class. I had run through the airport. I was a sweaty mess, had no idea when exactly I would return to Atlanta or even what would happen when I arrived in Kansas City. My conversations with Hillary’s father hadn’t gone that far. We had only discussed the flight there, which I had somehow made. When I landed, my mother-in-law was at the airport to pick me up. In the passenger seat of her Chevy Tahoe was my World Series ticket and a jacket. She gave me $100 and dropped me off at Kaufman Stadium. When I arrived at my seat, which was in the upper deck behind home plate, I got a fan behind me to take my photo and posted it to Twitter and Facebook to make all of my friends jealous. The game itself was unlike any other I had experienced. I was at Fulton County Stadium on Oct. 5, 1991 when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros to clinch the National League West, but I had never been to a MLB playoffgame, much less Game 7 of the World Series. The Kansas City crowd was electric, on their feet in every inning, chanting, “Lets go Royals,” or the name of their favorite player. Unfortunately there wasn’t more to cele- brate as the Royals lost 3-2. After the game, I found out my flight home would depart from Kansas City at 9:25 a.m. However, there was a layover in St. Louis and I wouldn’t get back to Atlanta until 2:30 p.m., which was later than I was hoping. I needed to be at Athens Academy for a cross country meet by 5. The layover turned out to not be so bad. On my flight to St. Louis, I sat next to sportscaster Joe Buck. He had called the World Series and was flying home. I put on my Royals jersey and took off to the airport The Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week BY DEREK WILEY Prince Avenue Christian has asked senior Jonah Doster to do a lot this season. He’s the Wolverines leading rusher but also starts at corner- back, returns kicks and is the team’s punter. Doster had his most productive game of the season Friday at Lakeview Academy, finishing with 373 all-purpose yards to go with four tackles and a pass break up on defense in Prince’s 49-10 Doster carried the ball 11 times for 181 yards but his favorite play The Wolverines allowed just one touchdown on a 19-yard pass at the end of the first half. “It was challenging but I knew our defensive backs had been working at it all week to be ready for the pass before the run,” Doster said. “We let up a few big plays that kind of set them up for their touchdown but overall I think we did pretty good in the secondary.” Doster likes playing on offense the most but will do whatever Doste r l eads Wolve rines past Lakev iew in all phas es ATHENS-BOGARTROYSTON Reservation for two BY DEREK WILEY TOCCOA—A week after giving up 58 points, North Oconee’s defense got its groove back Friday night. On fourth down from the 1- yard line, Titans safety Zantravious Shields sacked Stephens County quarterback Mason Long to secure a 21-14 overtime victory. The Indians, who were averaging over 37 points per game and hadn’t scored less than 28 all season, had three shots from the 2-yard line to punch it in but North Oconee’s defense stood tall. Shields recorded seven tackles but none bigger than the one to end the game. “We thought they were going to pass it on that last play and our defensive line and linebackers really did a great job of coming up in support and he [Long] just ran it outside,” Shields said. “I saw him fake the ball and I saw him pull it and I just knew that was my responsibility. He definitely slipped up. It would have been a nice foot race if he hadn’t fallen a little bit. It definitely helped.” The Titans got the football first in overtime and scored in four plays on a 3-yard run by Kawon Bryant. Bryant, who went over 6,000 career years in the game, got all four carries in the extra period and finished with 148 yards on 28 carries. When asked if he planned on doing anything other than giving the ball to Bryant in overtime, NOHS head coach Terry Tuley responded, “Not unless they made us.” The Titans jumped on Stephens early, scoring in just five plays to take a 7-0 lead with 7:24 remaining in the first quarter. A 43-yard run by Bryant got NOHS well into Indians’ territory and Shields then broke free for an 18-yard touchdown. Stephens County began moving the ball in the second quarter but NOHS senior lineman Brackin Smith recovered a fumble at the Titans’ 29-yard line. After Stephens County missed a 40-yard field goal, NOHS went into halftime up 7-0 but feeling like it should’ve done more on offense. “We let them beat us to the punch up front,” Tuley said. “I thought we could actually block them and run out stuff and we did that first series and went down the field and it was 7-0 just liked we owned it and maybe I got a little too believing in that and didn’t do as much of a scheme and adjusting kind of stuff. I just called the plays and let’s go run them and then we get into halftime and I was pretty hard on the offensive line because it felt like they had let me down but I thought we played hard in the second half.” Taking advantage of a short field after a NOHS fumble, the Indians tied the game at 7-7 on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Long to Isaiah Mighell with 1:28 remaining in the third quarter. Stephens County then took a 14-7 lead with 7:50 left to play on a 7-yard touchdown run by Desmond Wheeler. With less than 5 minutes remaining, the Titans thought they had answered but a 46-yard touchdown run by Shields was called back for holding. On third-and-13 from the 26- yard line, Tate Adcock connected with Shields for a 25-yard gain. Bryant then punched it from the 1-yard line to tie the contest at 14-14 with 2:12 left to play. The touchdown gave Bryant 87 for his career, which is one more than Herschel Walker. After stopping the Indians’ offense, NOHS got the ball back with 40 seconds remaining and two timeouts. But the Titans turned the ball over on downs after they were unable to convert a fourth-and-1 at midfield. “I almost blew it there on that fourth down pass but all I was really trying to do was get a sideline out and then get another one and give [kicker Justin] Peachey a shot,” Tuley said. North Oconee senior Zantravious Shields put the Titans on the scoreboard first with an 18-yard touchdown run past the Stephens County defense. [Photo by Tony Vismor] North Oconee tops Stephens, now in second in 8-AAAA Lady Wolverines second in Class A BY DEREK WILEY Prince Avenue Christian made progress in its third trip to Columbus in three years but not as much as the Lady Wolverines were hoping. After falling to Eagles Landing Christian 8-7 in extra innings Friday night, Prince was able to battle its way out of the loser’s bracket and into Saturday afternoon’s “if necessarily” game for the first time. But the Lady Wolverines didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to dethrone the Lady Chargers as Prince fell 14-7 to finish second in Class A Private for the third straight year. “We’re disappointed but we’re very proud of the season that we had, obviously,” PACS head coach Lacy McClendon said. “To be able to come in second in the state three years in a row is definitely no small feat but this was the year that we thought we just really had the team to go all the way. It just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to work out but we’re still very proud of the girls for what they did.” The Lady Wolverines opened play in the Elite Eight last Thursday with 1-0 victories over Tattnall Square and First Presbyterian to set up their first game against ELCA. Prince fell behind 7-4 after four innings before fighting back with a run in the top of the fifth, sixth and seventh to tie the game at 7- 7. The Lady Chargers won the game with a run in the eighth. SEE NOHS FOOTBALL PAGE B2 Prince Avenue Christian’s softball team finished second in Class A Private to Eagles Landing Christian for the second straight year. [Photo by Linda Zeagler] SEE PACS SOFTBALL PAGE B2
