Tucker blows out Rockdale

ATLANTA, Ga. - Tucker’s playmakers were far too much for Rockdale Friday.

Delvin Weems rushed for 111 yards and three touchdowns and Duke Shelley added 134 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone as Tucker rolled to a 57-6 victory at Adams Stadium.

Tucker (5-2, 2-0 Region 2-AAAAAA), a state runner-up a year ago, has continued to roll since starting the year 0-2. In five straight victories, the DeKalb County school has outscored its opponents 304-27.

Meanwhile, Rockdale’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball continued as well. Since starting the year 3-0, the Bulldogs (3-4, 0-2) have dropped four consecutive games to a quartet of state playoff teams from a year ago by an average margin of nearly 35 points.

A pair of fantastic runs late in the opening quarter and at the start of the second helped each team get in the end zone.

Tucker quarterback Garrett Rigby hooked up with Elijah Sullivan for a 40-yard gain. Sullivan broke two tackles along the sideline and got to the Rockdale 19. Akeam Peters’ 11-yard scamper got the Tigers closer, and two plays later, Weems scored from 10 yards to put Tucker up 15-0.

Rockdale answered with a seven-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a nifty run by Devin Williams, which included a pair of cut backs and Williams out-running the Tucker secondary for a 40-yard touchdown that got the Bulldogs to within 15-6.

The visitors seemed to have grabbed momentum when following Williams’ scoring run, Andrew Tanner’s onside kick was recovered by Deonte Clark at the Tucker 43. Instead, the host Tigers took control of the game as Rockdale’s final five offensive possessions of the opening half ended in two turnovers, two punts and a turnover on downs at the Tucker 22.

Weems, who collected 102 of his rushing yards in the first half, had a 49-yard run to get into Rockdale territory and Rigby capped a nine-play, 89-yard drive with a six-yard scoring run that made it a 22-6 game with a little over five minutes to go in the half.

Tucker was far from finished putting points on the scoreboard.

Shelley seemed to be at a level all his own during the closing stages of the first half. During a late-second quarter run, the Kansas State commitment changed directions three times and amazingly went untouched for a 74-yard touchdown. Rockdale quarterback Zuri Minnifield was intercepted by Peters for the second time in the half and though he fumbled after a 50-yard return, teammate Terry Beckham fell on the ball. That didn’t amount to any points, but Minnifield had his third turnover when Brian Strozier scooped up his fumble and returned it 18 yards for a score. Rigby and Shelley connected on a 35-yard score with five seconds left and Tucker went into the halftime locker room up 43-6.

The second half was marred by two serious injuries to Rockdale players as both Ryan Ross and Keijne Thomas were taken from the field in ambulances about 15 minutes apart.

Patriots cruise into 2nd round

The Heritage girls soccer team is one of a handful of legitimate state title contenders in Class AAAAA. Wednesday, the No. 9 Patriots showed why as Faith Shelton and Ray Brown scored two goals each in a 6-1 victory over Tucker in a first round game at Evans Memorial Stadium.

Heritage (14-4), which was coming off the program’s first region championship since 2005, will host Region 5 runner-up and No. 5 North Paulding in next week’s round of 16. Tucker, the No. 4 seed from Region 6 which was appearing in the state playoffs for the first time since a first-round loss to Sequoyah in 2001, finished 9-6-1.

The host Patriots still had a shutout going when Tucker forward Daijah Deramus scored on backup keeper Kylie Kersh what turned out to be the DeKalb County school’s final goal of the season with 19:25 to go in the game.

Brown answered five minutes later when after she was fouled in the box, beat Tucker keeper Taylor Moore on a penalty shot to make it a 6-1 game.

“I’m certainly thankful for the victory and we did enough to have a safe cushion there, but I thought we left a lot of goals out on the field,” said Patriots coach Chad Suddeth, whose taken all seven of his Heritage teams to the state playoffs.

Shelton and Brown each had a chance within the first 15 minutes of the game, but Shelton’s shot at the 38:35 mark was saved by Moore and Brown had a shot from about 20 yards that hit the post with 25 minutes left.

Moore wasn’t as lucky later in the half.

Shelton, who was coming off a dominant performance against Loganville in the region title game that included scoring all four Heritage goals, scored with 23:22 to go for the first tally of the night.

Kaley Wells was fouled and her free kick was high at the 14:15 mark, then found the back of the net less than two minutes later when she beat a diving Moore for a 2-0 lead.

Ally Silvey added a booming goal from about 25 yards, giving the Patriots a commanding 3-0 cushion with 11 1/2 minutes to go until halftime.

Tucker was able to get just two shots on goal against the Heritage defense, both from Tyler Buford, who was stymied twice by keeper Mady Carter.

Moore made a pair of saves early in the second, and Silvey was wide with a header at the 33:15 mark. Shelton scored her second goal with 31:38 to go and Brown got her first with just over 21 minutes left. The Patriots didn’t play their best, but advanced. Now, a 12-4 North Paulding team, which was just a 4-3 loss to Allatoona from winning its region, comes south to Conyers.

“Although I’m pleased to have the victory, I’m not pleased totally with our overall performance,” Suddeth said. “A lot of that has to do with Tucker, they’re real athletic and pressured the ball. We’re fortunate to move forward and every time we move forward a challenge gets bigger and better. We’ll have our hands full (with North Paulding, but) the moment’s not going to be too big for us, we’ve been playing ranked teams all year.”

Tucker bounces Salem from state tournament

TUCKER, Ga. - Only one team was going to make a brand-new kind of history in Thursday’s game between Salem and Tucker. And with the way the hosts were playing defense, it was just a matter of time before Tucker was adding a page to the record books.

Tucker forced 14 turnovers in each half and held Salem to just 12 made field goals in a 55-39 victory in the Class AAAAA quarterfinals.

Tucker (27-4), in the Elite 8 for the third time since 2004, advanced to the program’s first final four since 1978 when the DeKalb County school lost to eventual state champion Lowndes in the Class AAA semifinals. The finest season in Salem history, which included Thursday’s first-ever trip to the quarterfinals, ended at 25-4.

It was still a winnable game for Salem with 3 1/2 minutes to go in the fourth. Paris Scott came off the bench and banked in a 3-pointer, capping a 13-2 run and getting the visiting Seminoles to within 43-35 at the 3:32 mark. But Salem couldn’t pull any closer than that.

Tucker followed with a huge possession. Erykah Davenport was fouled and hit the first of two free throws for the last of her game-high 17 points. When Davenport missed the second shot, Naima Jackson grabbed the rebound and was also fouled, hitting both charity shots to make it a 46-35 game with 3:12 to go.

Salem’s main three offensive threats struggled for much of the game, contributing heavily to one of the Seminoles’ lowest point totals of the season. Taylor King, who played what turned out to be her last game in a Salem uniform, was averaging 11 points in two state tournament games, but was held to just two points. Ayanna Mitchell, one of the finest unsigned juniors in the state, was held to just nine points and didn’t register her first and only field goal until a lay up with 39 seconds left and the game well out of hand.

Shay Tarver, who has played through an ankle injury since the Region 8-AAAAA Tournament, had seven points after averaging 12 through the first two rounds. The Seminoles also struggled from the foul line, hitting just 12 of 26 attempts from the stripe.

Jennifer Tindi, another senior, picked up some of the offensive slack early on and kept Salem in the game, thanks to her prowess on the offensive glass in the opening period.

The Seminoles had four made field goals in the first, three of which came on Tindi put backs, including two straight in the final 38 seconds that got the visitors to within 16-9 heading to the second quarter.

Tucker still held a 20-9 cushion when the region 6 runner-up went cold offensively.

The Tigers went 5:43 without a point, but Salem didn’t take advantage enough. King had her only bucket and was fouled, but missed the free throw, and Tindi, Tarver and Rosie Kyles each followed with a 1 for 2 trip to the line and it was a 20-15 game with just under two minutes until halftime.

Tucker got it together late in the first half. Jackson’s steal and assist on Jemilla Flanagan’s lay up was the first of five straight points that heaped the Tigers build a 25-15 halftime lead.

Thanks to a combined 11 points from Davenport and Tori Robinson in the third, Tucker built a lead as large as 19 points. Tarver made a difficult runner in the lane and followed with a fall-away jumper that helped the Seminoles close the period down 41-24. Salem extended its run at the start of the fourth, thanks to a three from Kyles (game-high nine points) and a combined 3 for 5 trip to the line from Mitchell and Tarver. Tarver picked up her last two fouls 13 seconds apart, which preceded Scott’s entrance into the game and her wild three that made it an eight-point game.

Salem didn’t score until Kyles knocked down a 3-pointer at the 5:47 mark of the opening quarter. Davenport scored 11 first-quarter points and the Tucker defense forced 10 turnovers in the opening quarter and led 16-5 at the two-minute mark.

Story at rockdalecitizen.com