Big first for Colts; North Murray’s Pacheco state-bound, too

Published 12:19 am Friday, October 28, 2011

North Murray’s Isaac Pacheco and Coahulla Creek’s boys are headed for the Class 2A state cross country meet after strong performances at the Region 7-2A meet at Georgia Highlands College in Cartersville on Thursday.

Pacheco took second among individuals in the boys race, while the first-year Colts were second in the team standings as they became the school’s first program to qualify for state in any sport. The top six individuals and the top four teams from each region in each classification qualify for the Georgia High School Association’s state meets, set for Nov. 5 in Carrollton.

A junior, Pacheco led for much of the race but took second to a runner from Model after losing his spot in the final half mile. Pacheco completed the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes and 19 seconds to earn a trip to state for the second straight year.

Pacheco said he stumbled when the winner caught his heels while crossing a bridge, and he never made up the gap of some 20 seconds.

“I did not get the time I wanted,” Pacheco said, “but either way I’m happy I’m going to state and I can train some more.”

Coahulla Creek took second in the 13-team meet — River Ridge, another young program, won the title — after breaking a tie with Rockmart. Teams are allowed to enter up to seven runners, but only the first five runners register points. However, the sixth runner’s finish is important in the case of a tie, as it was for the Colts on this day.

“We have a young team,” Colts coach Ben Williams said. “We have more than freshman and sophomores, but we’re predominantly ninth- and 10th-graders. We do have some 11th-graders, but we’ve been a young team and a team new to racing. For the majority, this is their first year racing competitively, so I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Coahulla Creek’s initial points were supplied by Saddoth Fraire (eighth, 18:01), Blake Phillips (16th, 18:43), Junior Villereas (20th, 18:57), Caleb Carlson (24th, 19:10) and Missael Fraire (34th, 19:47), but Ronnie Vargas (43rd, 20:20) broke the tie for second. Luis Lee Martinez (58th, 20:47) also competed for the Colts.

“We’ve seen a lot of progress,” Williams said. “They’ve come a very long way. They had a lot of raw talent, but we worked on technique and have made a lot of progress, even in the last couple of weeks, but we have been constantly improving.”

North Murray’s girls were 11th, with Kerstin Amos (33rd), Jessenia Gastar (39th), Vanessa Carlos (52nd), Veronica Miguel (69th) and Gabriela Vicente (71st) scoring, and Diana Garcia (77th) and Jennifer Sanchez (79th) competing. The Lady Mountaineers times were not available.

North Murray took 12th in the boys race, with Jesus Cruz (32nd, 19:36) Anthony Desantiago (50th, 20:35), Alexis Solorzano (79th, 22:18) and Jordan Hibbett (88th, 23:43) scoring points and Eddie Magana (94th, 24:48) and Matt Gainey (98th, 27:51) also competing.

Finishing the race for Coahulla Creek’s girls were Maria Vasquez (23:54), Jennifer Contreras (26:29), Gisele Maldonado (28:09), Deysi Garcia (28:49) and Evelyn Bocello (25:46). Individual places and the team’s finish were not available.

Softball

• Northwest Whitfield’s next loss will be its last one of the season — so the Lady Bruins will try to avoid that fate altogether.

Ola’s Savannah McHellon shut down the Lady Bruins lineup as Northwest lost 10-1 in its opening game at the Class 4A state tournament in Columbus, with McKinley Poteet and Mallory Souther salvaging the only hits against the sophomore.

Souther also drove in a run, bringing home one of the only four baserunners for Northwest (27-8) in the game.

“She was good,” Lady Bruins coach Shane Ramsey said of McHellon. “But we just didn’t hit it.”

Ola (31-9-1), the No. 3 seed from Region 3 — which qualified all four of its teams through the first two playoff rounds and into the eight-team double-elimination bracket in Columbus — also topped Whitewater 5-4 and advanced to a winner’s bracket final at 7 tonight against Northgate.

The Lady Bruins face Loganville (24-12-2) at 11 a.m. today in an elimination game. It will need to be the first in a string of six victories for Northwest, which placed third two years ago, to win state. They will have to win two more games today, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., to make it to Saturday, when the field will narrow to three teams.

But Ramsey doesn’t want his team focused on all of that — just the first part.

“It’s like I told them afterward,” Ramsey said. “It’s the mark of a good team that when you’re down, you’ve got to get back up. We have no other way but got to get back up. But we have played well with our backs against wall.

“We won’t look at it as we’ve got to win six games — we got to win one, and that’s game that’s at 11. Then we’ll take it one game at a time.”

Emily Boyd took the loss, allowing five earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and five walks. The Lady Bruins committed three errors.

JV football

• Coahulla Creek 26, Heritage-Catoosa 6: Eric Dominguez had three interceptions — including one returned 33 yards for a touchdown — and the Colts (7-2) allowed less than 100 yards of offense for the fourth straight game as they won their final home game of the season.

The first-year team, which will begin varsity play next year, closes out the schedule at Marietta’s Walker next Thursday.

Against the Generals, the defense pushed its total of consecutive quarters without a touchdown surrendered to 16. Heritage’s only points came from a kickoff return for a touchdown.

On offense, the Colts tallied 350 yards, with Cordarius Tarver rushing for two scores and also recording a sack on defense. Hunter Williams added another rushing touchdown.