St. Pius Weekly Sports Recap

Last week saw several sports competing for region and state championships as well as a spot in a region title game. Football continues to reside in the No. 2 spot in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution rankings while slipping to No. 3 in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association (GACA) poll. The Golden Lions boys’ cross country team holds steady as both the top-ranked team in the AAA and No. 4 in the ga.milesplit.com All-Classification poll. The girls’ cross country team holds the second spot in the AAA poll. Volleyball completed its season as No. 2 in the GACA poll.

The Golden Lion football squad fought off Washington 7-0 Friday night. Junior fullback Ryan Braswell rushed for 83 yards and the lone touchdown on 18 carries while senior Geno Smith ran for 67 yards on 7 attempts. Joseph Crochet led the Golden Lions (9-0, 6-0 5-AAA) with 16 tackles. Jacob Hambrick and Michael Healy added 10 stops each, respectively. With the win, St. Pius will host Woodward Academy on Friday night at 7:30pm for the region championship. The Golden Lions are assured of at least one home game when the state playoffs begin Nov. 11.

Volleyball (No. 2 GACA) completed its season on Saturday, finishing as the state runners-up to Sandy Creek. The Patriots defeated St. Pius 25-20, 25-20 and 25-21. The Golden Lions reached the state championship game by knocking off defending state champion Woodward 25-23, 20-25, 25-16, and 25-21 in the semifinals earlier in the week. The netters finished 49-6 to set a school record for wins in a season, eclipsing the 48 win total of the 2008 state runner-up team.

The Golden Lion boys’ and girls’ cross country teams both raced to Region 5-AAA championships on the course at in Atlanta on Saturday. The boys’ were led by Austin Sprague who finished 1st with Calvin Tirrell placing 3rd as the team took its second region title in a row. The lady harriers were paced by junior Devon Dabney (2nd) and freshman Tessa Schwarze (3rd) on the way to its third consecutive region title. Both teams travel to Carrollton Elementary School on Saturday to compete in the state championships at 1pm.

The competition cheer squad took first place at the Northeast Georgia Cheerleading Invitational at Winder-Barrow High School. Led by seniors Merrill Hagerman, Samantha Sanders, Katie Sweeney and Jordan Klinger, the Golden Lions recorded the highest score of the season and outscored its closest competition by more than 30 points.  St. Pius will compete in the region meet at 10:30am Saturday at Woodland High School in Stockbridge.