TheState.com: High School Sports

Blythewood beats Lexington to even Class 4A title series

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:58 EDT

Blythewood wasn’t ready to call it a season.

With a 7-2 win against Lexington at home on Wednesday, the Bengals (27-6) evened the Class 4A baseball championship series.

The title will be settled in game 3, on Friday at 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium.

“Our backs were to a wall. There’s a little sense of urgency with our crowd. And you’ve just gotta try to win that next game, get it to a third game, and anything can happen,” Bengals coach Barry Mizzell said.

Lexington (27-5) won the opening game 5-2 on Monday.

A.C. Flora wins 4th straight Class 3A boys golf championship

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:16 EDT

Keenan Huskey was meticulous in the tabulation of his scorecard Monday and Tuesday in the Class 3A boys golf tournament at the Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina.

He had good reason.

The Greenville High junior shot a 69 in the opening round of last year’s 3A championship at the Hackler Course, including a 35 on the back nine. Or so he thought. He accidently wrote the back-nine total in the space for the 18th hole, thereby giving himself a 35 on the 18th and turning his 69 into a 100.

He correctly tallied the scores for his rounds of 71 and 72 this week, allowing him to win the individual title by four strokes over runner-up Andrew Orischak of Hilton Head with his 1-under 143.

“It definitely is a little bit of payback, I guess you could say,” said Huskey, who has committed to South Carolina. “If that wouldn’t have happened I would have had a chance to win last year. I shot 173, and surprisingly I still beat some people, but … it was just a big ol’ mess.

Irmo beats Nation Ford in 4A soccer semifinal

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:24 EDT

With 40 minutes and a Nation Ford team between the Irmo Yellow Jackets and the Class 4A state soccer championship game, the Yellow Jackets seemed to flip a switch.

After a scoreless first half of the state semifinal game at W.C. Hawkins Stadium, Irmo turned up its offense and powered to a 3-1 victory.

“The one thing this team hasn’t done all season is come from behind, and they did that tonight,” Irmo coach Phil Savitz said.

Two minutes into the second half, Nation Ford took the lead, knocking in a shot over the heads of Irmo’s defenders as they recovered from a previous shot.

“You could just see, instead of being scared that they were going to lose the game, that they were just determined to win the game,” Savitz said of his team, which answered seven minutes later.

Lexington boys soccer tops Dutch Fork in state semifinals

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:36 EDT

Lexington completed a run through the Lower State boys soccer playoffs on Tuesday, defeating Region 5 rival Dutch Fork 3-1 to advance to the Class 4A state championship match for the first time.

It was the fourth consecutive postseason road triumph for the Wildcats, who entered the playoffs as a No. 4 seed.

Lexington (17-9-1) will tangle with archrival Irmo in Saturday’s title match at Gilbert.

“This is awesome,” Lexington coach Will Gettys said. “It’s what coaches tell their teams all the time — just get into the playoffs because once you’re in anything can happen. Even though we lost twice to them during the season I really felt this was going to be an even match because we’ve really been playing well.”

In fact, the Wildcats dominated play after Dutch Fork opened the scoring with a goal by Tyler Bass in the fifth minute.

Westwood caps fine first season

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:49 EDT

It’s been a rough inaugural sports year at Westwood High, but Redhawks fans have had much to cheer during the spring track and field campaign.

Two weeks ago, Westwood swept the boys and girls Region 4-3A championships for the school’s first conference titles. On Friday, the Redhawks were impressive on the statewide level at the Class 3A finals at Lower Richland.

On the team side Saturday, both Westwood teams cracked the top 10. The girls rang up 47 points and finished fifth, while the boys were eighth with 26 points.

Individually, Brianna Pressley and Kelcey Briggs earned gold medals, and Jai Lykes grabbed a silver prize.

Anthony Friday led the boys team with a silver in the shot put and a bronze in the discus.

Socastee ends Chapin’s title era

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:39 EDT

Chapin coach John Rodgers had a plan for the Eagles as they headed into Saturday’s Class 3A championship against Socastee at Otarre Point.

But things did not go according to plan for the Eagles, as Socastee won 4-3, snapping Chapin’s championship streak at three.

“We were hoping to win the lower courts and steal (singles courts) 1, 2, or 3, but that didn’t happen,” Rodgers said. Instead, Socastee won the top three courts, and secured the win with a 6-2, 2-6 (10-4) victory by Kyle Barr and Robert Conley on the No. 1 doubles court.

“We were hoping we could get them 4-2 or to win it with our No. 1 doubles,” Rodgers said. “We almost pulled it off.”

The Eagles got a crucial win from the No. 2 doubles team of Patrick Knight and Jason Flowers. Their 3-6, 6-4 (11-9) comeback win helped force the showdown at No. 1 doubles.

SC high school track and field championships

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:48 EDT

Results from the Class AAAA meet of the South Carolina High School League State Track and Field Championships:

BOYS

100 Meter Dash AAAA —1, Devin Albert, Blythewood, 10.67. 2, Davon Anderson, Summerville, 10.73. 3, Josh Lafoe, Fort Mill, 10.83. 4, Malik Crawford, Rock Hill, 10.94. 5, Kenny Fenton-Griffith, Ft. Dorchester, 11.00. 6, Tavien Feaster, Spartanburg, 11.01. 7, Raekwon Rouse, South Florence, 11.16. --, Austin Connor, Dutch Fork, FS.

200 Meter Dash AAAA —1, Curtis Walker, Lexington, 21.56. 2, Devin Albert, Blythewood, 21.59. 3, Tavien Feaster, Spartanburg, 21.91. 4, Kenny Fenton-Griffith, Ft. Dorchester, 21.92. 5, Kelvin Pettis, Hillcrest, 22.11. 6, Terrell Simmons, Spring Valley, 22.14. 7, Deandre Daniels, Goose Creek, 22.40. 8, Malik Crawford, Rock Hill, 22.92.

400 Meter Dash AAAA —1, Curtis Walker, Lexington, 47.75. 2, Deandre Daniels, Goose Creek, 48.04. 3, Terrell Simmons, Spring Valley, 48.53. 4, Bradley Gibson, Spring Valley, 48.73. 5, Antonio Locklin, Sumter, 49.36. 6, Eligha Case, Laurens, 49.45. 7, Nate Gordon, Spartanburg, 49.95. 8, Kelvin Pettis, Hillcrest, 50.19.

Goodson leads powerful B-L effort

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:49 EDT

Led by Megan Goodson’s three-medal performance, Batesburg-Leesville finished as the Class 2A state track and field runners-up on Saturday at Lower Richland.

The Panthers scored 75 points to earn silver, while Bishop England won the title with 88 points.

“It’s a lot to ask of eight girls to come in and beat Bishop England,” coach Gary Adams said. “To come 13 short of Bishop England, with all that they have to offer down there in the Lowcountry and how they usually are such a strong team, we’ll definitely take that.”

The Panthers got four gold medal finishes from seniors Goodson and Kaliyah Andrews.

Goodson earned gold in the pole vault with a vault of 10 feet, 8 inches, and in the long jump with a 16-9.75 leap. She also took silver in the triple jump. Andrews won both the 200- and 400-meter sprints, with times of 25.83 and 57.86 seconds respectively.

Spring Valley reaches the summit

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:50 EDT

After three straight years of runner-up finishes at the Class 4A state track and field championships, the Spring Valley Vikings decided enough was enough.

“We were tired of it. It had to end,” senior Connor McCormack said.

The title drought came to an end Saturday at Lower Richland Stadium as the favored Vikings performed as expected and ran away with its first state championship in 10 years. They topped second-place Lexington, 78-50.

It was the sixth championship in program history and the fifth under veteran coach John Jones since 1987.

“We had a great day at qualifying last week, got a lot of kids in and as a group we were right on what we projected,” Jones said. “This is just a great, great group of athletes, and we won it as a team.”

Scoreboard

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:47 EDT

HIGH SCHOOL

Boys soccer

Lexington 2, South Aiken 1 (PK)

At South Aiken

Goals: (L) Brett Smith, Alex Santoyo (winning PK); (SA) Trevor Lightbody. Goalies: (L) Jacob Parton, (SA) Michael Ulmer. Recs: L 16-9-1, SA 20-3. Note: Lexington plays at Dutch Fork in the Lower State final on Tuesday.

Friday high school scoreboard

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:04 EDT

Baseball

Blythewood 6, Wade Hampton 0

W: Zach Hamilton (9-1). L: Tyler Thorton. Hitters: (B) Chaz Mizzell 2-2, (WH) Luke Russell 2-3. Recs: B 26-5.

Lexington 2, South Aiken 1

at Lexington

Track: Spring Valley favored in 4A

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:23 EDT

For several years, Spring Valley boys’ track and field has been near the top of the podium. This season, the Vikings might have the manpower to take that extra step to the top at Saturday’s Class 4A track and field championship.

Led by coach John Jones, Spring Valley’s teamwork will be the key to success this weekend as the Vikings look to improve on their silver medal finishes of the past three seasons.

“We have the most entries into the state meet, so if you look at it that we probably are favored, but we’ve still got to go out and perform,” Jones said. “We’ve got a really great group of seniors. They’ve been here four years and they’ve worked really hard to get to this point.”

The Vikings could earn their weight in gold in the relay races.

Spring Valley has the fastest seed time in the 1,600 relay, with the team of Bradley Gibson, Tom Hoeffel, Connor McCormack and Neal Paschal.

Soccer: Heathwood Highlanders in first finale

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:17 EDT

Heathwood Hall took a historic step in SCISA girls soccer on Thursday, scoring a 2-1 semifinal win over visiting Hilton Head Christian to advance to the Class 3A championship match for the first time.

“We’ve been sniffing around in the semifinals for a couple of years now, so this is huge to finally get a chance to play for our first title,” said Highlanders coach Curtis Player.

Hilton Head Christian opened the scoring with a goal in the fourth minute by Allison Meeder, but the inspired Highlanders responded with tallies in the 16th and 26th minutes to take the lead and turn it over to the defense and senior keeper Grace Smith.

“They knocked us back on our heels with that early goal because we didn’t match their intensity at the start,” Player said. “I was anxious to see how we would respond, and the girls rallied to the cause. Once we got the lead, it was up to Grace and our strong back four to make it stand up.”

Smith, who is taking her game to William & Mary, has allowed three goals against SCISA foes this season.

Soccer: BC Bearcats attack and advance

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:14 EDT

Brookland-Cayce advanced to the third round of the Class 3A boys soccer tournament on Thursday by defeating St. James 2-1 at The Cage.

The Bearcats led 1-0 at halftime, but the Sharks soon tied the score in the second half. After regaining the advantage with 16 minutes left, B-C held off St. James’ advances with robust defense — including several key saves from keeper Grant Strickland.

“The two teams we’ve played so far in the playoffs have been great opponents for us,” B-C coach Kevin Heise said. “They forced us to play our hearts out. I’m just extremely proud of my boys for getting it done.”

The Bearcats, winners of the Region 5 title, put the pressure on St. James early, posting three shots in the first six minutes.

St. James moved to a heavier defense to counter the Bearcats’ assertive efforts up front, but in the 26th minute, Brookland-Cayce broke through.

Wednesday high school scoreboard

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:29 EDT

Baseball

Blythewood 10

Wade Hampton 0 (5)

W: Andrew Beckwith (7-1). Hitters: (B) Beckwith 2 doubles; Tyler Romanik 2-3 2B; Derek Croxton 2-3. Rec: B 25-5. Source: B.

Hammond 9

Cardinal Newman’s Millard shines in soccer semifinal

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:31 EDT

Cardinal Newman’s Koty Millard put on a show Wednesday in his final game at George Watson Field, scoring two goals with one assist as the Cardinals defeated defending state champion Porter-Gaud 4-1 in the SCISA Class 3A boys soccer semifinals.

In the process, Will Eudy’s team erased any lingering bitterness over last season’s 1-0 semifinal home loss to Pinewood Prep in a match the Cardinals dominated everywhere but on the scoreboard.

“That game is the main reason why I came back to play high school this year,” said the South Carolina-bound Millard, who needed a waiver from his academy team to play this spring for the Cardinals.

“I didn’t want my career to end like that. It’s exciting to get this win and have a shot at a championship, but there’s also a little sadness because this is the last time for me on this field.”

Millard, a swift midfielder who has played on two age-group national teams during his high school years, opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a nifty turnaround shot from just inside the box on the right side that caught the far left corner of the net.

Tuesday high school scoreboard

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:05 EDT

Boys Soccer

Chapin 3, Travelers Rest 0

At Chapin

Goals: Zach Bush, Alex Eaves, Cameron Whitehurst. Goalies: (C) Jaime Garcia. (TR) Ryan Jackson. Rec: C 15-4-2, TR 8-12-1.

Dutch Fork 3, West Florence 0

Spring Valley Vikings cruise into state semifinals

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:33 EDT

Spring Valley defeated Nation Ford, 4-2, at home on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals of the Class 4A tennis tournament.

“We’ve got a pretty good 1-2-3 lineup. We felt pretty confident coming in, with the top of our lineup being very strong,” Vikings coach Weslynn Hutto said. “Our No. 1 and No. 2 guys can pretty much guarantee you three points, so even if four didn’t win, we believe we can come out with our No. 1 doubles and get that last point.”

But that was not necessary on Tuesday.

Brent Lett led the Vikings with a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles, and the Vikings swept the top four singles matches in straight sets.

Nation Ford’s Jonathan Habbick and Chris Tapp battled to a 7-6, 6-4 win against the Vikings’ young No. 2 doubles team of Vikrauth Reddy and Jonathan Habbick.

White Knoll softball falls to Bluffton in 4A playoffs

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:23 EDT

White Knoll averaged 6.5 runs per game on the way to winning the Class 4A District 5 softball championship, but the 10th-ranked Timberwolves did little of note against Bluffton ace Courtney Smith in the first round of the Lower State tournament on Saturday.

Smith fired a two-hitter with 12 strikeouts to lead the visiting Bobcats to a 6-1 win.

Bluffton (20-5) moves on to the semifinals Monday against the Wando-Summerville winner. White Knoll (22-8) faces an elimination game on the road.

“(Smith’s) a good pitcher,” White Knoll coach David Smith said. “We had a scouting report, but she was considerably better than what we heard. We really haven’t faced a pitcher this season with such a good rise ball. She used it effectively early in the count, and then kept pounding it inside. Hopefully, we’ll get another chance to battle her in Bluffton next Friday. Our season isn’t over just yet.”

Megan Anderson and Kelsey Campbell had the only WK hits off Smith. Anderson scored the T-Wolves’ lone run (unearned) in the sixth after the Bobcats had a 5-0 lead.

Lexington wins 4A Lower State playoff opener

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:22 EDT

Elliot Lance tossed his second postseason shutout, and Nick Ciuffo hit a two-run homer to lead top-ranked Lexington to an 8-0 victory against Beaufort in the opening game of the Class 4A Lower State baseball playoffs at Wildcats Field on Saturday afternoon.

Ryan Brown added three hits for Lexington (24-4), which next plays host to South Aiken in a winner’s bracket game at 7 p.m. on Monday. Beaufort (16-10) fell to the loser’s bracket and will take on Sumter in an elimination game Monday.

South Aiken (18-7) won at Sumter, 6-1, on Saturday. Lexington is 2-0 against South Aiken this season.

Lance (4-0) picked up the win, allowing three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. Lance also pitched a five-hit shutout in a 2-0 win against Ashley Ridge on April 26.

Ciuffo started with a two-run homer in the first inning, and the Wildcats added three runs in the second. Brown delivered an RBI single, and a wild pitch and an error plated two more runs to make it 5-0.