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Kevin Carver
Thomas Jefferson’s girls soccer team (18-5) went as far as a club could go, but were unfortunately dealt a 2-0 loss in 1A state championship game last Friday in Raleigh.
Southwest Onslow, a state champion in the same sport two years ago, was every bit as good as advertised.
Scoring in the eight and 32nd minute of the first half was all the ladies from Jacksonville needed as their defense held Thomas Jefferson’s Anna Dedmond in check throughout the contest.
“Southwest Onslow was very well organized on defense and that was the difference,” Thomas Jefferson girls soccer coach Brian Espinoza said. “I am extremely proud of our team and thankful that our seniors, Ryanne Corder, Dominique Capaldo and Courtney Flack got the opportunity to play in the ultimate game as high school players. All of the girls who represented this team mean a lot to me and they gave our school memories we will never forget.”
East Rutherford’s baseball team had an eventful week, but ended the season one game shy of going back to the 2A title series.
The season could have very well been stopped by East Davidson earlier in the week. East Davidson held a lead for most of the round four playoff game in Bostic, but the Cavaliers charged back per usual with RBI’s by Brock Helton, Lucas Owens and Ridge Beheler. Helton’s double in the fifth assisted the Cavs to a 4-3 advantage, but not before an error on the same play and a gutsy call by coach Bobby Reynolds to send the runner home turned into the difference maker.
Reason being, in the bottom of the sixth, a lightning delay halted play with the Cavs leading. In a strange way to move on in the playoffs, the lightning wouldn’t stop and forced the game to be called at 10:30 p.m. as East Rutherford was declared the winner.
A game is complete after five innings have been played. In high school, if it is lightning, that’s an automatic 30-minute delay. The umpires stayed for nearly two hours, but mother nature had another plan that night and East just happen to benefit. Others from around the state are complaining about the situation, but those are the rules and the umpires can’t control mother nature.
The western finals pitted East Rutherford in a rematch of last year’s 2A state championship series with Randleman, who won it all.
Helton and Chandler Jenkins each smashed a solo shot in game one, but East fell short, 4-2 after Randleman (29-4) clobbered four solo homers themselves. East won game two, 13-7 after five Cavalier homers.
East Rutherford (22-7) baseball lost in a decisive game three in western finals, 5-4. Brock Helton and Mark McFarland each had a late two-run homer in game three, but Randleman’s five-run lead after five innings held.
Again, the Indy 500 makes open wheel racing look good for a moment. The last three to five years, we have seen some unbelievable things and great storylines from such an historic event. Indy car has certainly not seen the greatest reviews since losing last year’s 500 winner Dan Wheldon after a fatal crash at Vegas last fall.
On Sunday, Japanese born Takuma Sato narrowly passed Scott Dixon with two laps left in turn one, but the same move wouldn’t work on Dixon’s teammate on the final lap and in the same turn. Sato, got loose and crashed, while going for the lead underneath the car piloted by Dario Franchitti in turn one. Franchitti avoided contact and went onto win his third Indy 500, joining an elite list of nine other three-time winners at the Brickyard.
In NASCAR, Kasey Kahne became a three-time winner of the Coke 600 and it comes to no surprise. He has six top tens in a row and Rick Hendrick continues to look like a genius.
