Rivals

The East and West Jessamine girls' soccer teams may have started out wearing pink jerseys to mark their Rivals with a Cause game Monday night. By the end of the night, most of them were brown. In a rain-soaked and muddy game, the Colts shutout their rivals, 3-0 at home. Despite the wet track negating either team's speed and causing havoc for defensive players, the play wasn't entirely sloppy. Courtney Peavler put a shot into the back of the net in the 28th minute, to give the Colts the advantage in a tightly contested first half.

The Clark Middle School Lady Eagles and Conkwright Lady Cougars met Thursday night, with Clark Middle taking two of three games. Conkwright won the sixth-grade game 28-16, while Clark Middle took the seventh-grade game, 34-21. In the eighth-grade game, Clark won, 38-16.

They are rivals today, but that's only temporary. They were friends yesterday, they could well be roommates tomorrow, and they might even coach the same team after that. Eric Smiley and John Anderson were on the same swim team long before they joined separate high school teams at Danville and Boyle County, and along the way they developed a friendship that has been unaffected by their schools' rivalry. The two seniors swim against each other in relay races, Anderson for Boyle and Smiley for Danville, but they enjoy swimming together on the local recreation team more than competing against each other.

(Sun photos by Keith Taylor) Clark Middle and Conkwright met on the gridiron on Thursday night with the Eagles winning both contests. Clark won the seventh-grade game (30-6), while the Eagles completed the sweep with a 24-6 win in the eighth-grade encounter. Above, Clark Middle running back Justin Harris gets dragged down by a pair of Conkwright defenders. At right, Conkwright's Conner Shoebrooks (11) tackles Clark receiver Reid Campbell.

The East vs. West Jessamine girls' soccer game Sept. 21 will be the Rivals with a Cause Breast Cancer Awareness Game. The junior varsity game is slated to start at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity game to follow at 7:30 p.m. There will be silent auction items available, as well as bucket donations at all home soccer and football games. The goal is to raise $2,000 for the American Cancer Society. For more information, or to make cash or silent auction donations, email sharonmhahn@gmail.

Dec. 6, 1986 Sarah Marie Barksdale, who was a year old Tuesday, observed her birthday Sunday with a party given by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ken Barksdale, at their home in Richmond. Out of town guests included Mrs. Bruce Ratliff, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Butler, and daughter, Samantha, Mrs. Christine Stokely and Mr. and Mrs. H. Wayne Smith, all of Winchester. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Indiana and Kentucky, neighboring states and intense rivals in the world of college basketball, put their national prestige on the line Saturday at Assembly Hall.

I feel famous ... sort of notable, really. I've had my 15 seconds anyway. The BBC talked about my blog, Lizany, which is on The Advocate-Messenger's Web site. Admittedly, it was 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday. OK, the broadcaster didn't actually say "Liz Maples. " He just said "a reporter. " So, it is not like an action-packed promo, with "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background, but I'm still proud of my 15 seconds. The fleeting mention was before the Burnley-Blackburn soccer match in England on Feb. 20. The two teams are fierce rivals.

The taste of victory was even sweeter for the Centre College women on Tuesday night. The Colonels chewed up two opponents in their season-opening classic last weekend, but they savored their 71-60 victory over Maryville (Tenn.) much more. The win at Alumni Gymnasium was the first for any of the current players over Maryville, one of their longtime rivals and a team that had dominated them in their last two meetings. "Our freshman year we got killed, sophomore year we got killed ... and this year it feels awesome," guard Alison Denbow said.

After taking down East Jessamine's soccer team in their first matchup of the season with county rivals, 4-0, West Jessamine is preparing for a long-anticipated game at Dunbar tonight. "We had them 2-0 at the half last year, and they beat us right at the end, 3-2," West coach Kevin Wright said. "But you know, it was fun. " West's Colts didn't sink their first goal on the Jaguars until 10:22 in the first half of the game, played on East's home field Tuesday. Freshman Ryan Moberly sunk it after several close- call saves by East's goalie, junior Justin Baxter.

For a while, it must have seemed as though Boyle County was going to bat all night. It might have seemed that way to Boyle hitters who were enjoying every minute of it as one after another reached base, and it certainly might have seemed that way to Danville pitchers and fielders who couldn't find their way off the field in the kind of inning neither side is likely to forget. When it finally ended, the host Rebels had buried the Admirals under a first-inning avalanche of 11 runs, and they went on to a 13-1 victory that gave them a sweep of the regular-season crosstown series.

It was an early start and an early end to the first softball game of the season between East Jessamine and West Jessamine on Tuesday night, with the Lady Jaguars finishing up a 10-0 victory in five innings. With the varsity baseball game between East and West slated for later in the evening, the softball game began at the East Jessamien field just an hour and a half after school let out Tuesday. An RBI double from Haylee Hamm gave the Lady Jags (8-3) a 1-0 lead in the first inning after a single from Heather Welch and a sacrifice bunt from Olivia Day. West (3-12)

A year ago, East Jessamine ended West's season in the district semifinals. On Monday night, the Colts repaid the favor, sending the Jaguars packing with a 3-0 defeat. “I think we played well,” West coach Brock Sutherland said. “The last two weeks of the season we've really improved.” After battling for more than 30 minutes, West finally broke through for a goal as freshman Trey Whitten was able to sneak one past senior Dale DeVore with 6:51 remaining in the half. Sutherland said East was out-working his team for the first 30 minutes but the Colts started winning some of the 50-50 balls and momentum shifted their way. Throughout the first half, the physicality of game began to escalate with both teams bumping and pulling, which resulted in a couple penalties on each side.

Earlier this week, Western Kentucky University football coach Willie Taggart criticized students in Bowling Green who like to wear blue and white University of Kentucky attire. Regardless of the reasoning, Taggart wasn't happy. Maybe he was trying to get students in Bowling Green to show pride in their school. Maybe he was fired up about his team's contest against Kentucky Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. For whatever reason, Taggart voiced his concern over his next opponent's uniform color and students who chose to wear Kentucky attire on campus during game week in Bowling Green.

George Rogers Clark boys soccer coach Ian Collins pinpointed a difference between his Cardinals and Montgomery County following a 2-1 setback to the Indians Tuesday night at the Cardinal Soccer Complex. “It was more of the same - no defending and no ability to win the ball,” he said. “The game was there to be won, but they wanted it more than we did.” The contest between the two teams was close, but the Indians pulled away as Clark (2-6-1) mustered its only goal on a score by Logan Blankenship on an assist from Wilson Martin at the 10:30 mark of a corner kick.

West Jessamine's win streak rolled right into district play while East Jessamine's struggles continued as the Lady Colts (5-1 overall, 1-0 district) defeated the Lady Jags 3-0 last Thursday. The Lady Colts were in control all night, but never more so than in the first game. Timeouts by East (0-6, 0-3) at the 9-1 mark and 21-2 mark did little to disrupt West's groove. A couple of big runs put the Lady Jags away 25-3 in a few minutes. Game two provided a little more adversity for West.

While prescription drug abuse has contributed to a number of deaths, Jessamine County Coroner Michael Hughes said the county's suicide rates is pretty scary as well. Since 2009, the coroner's office has investigated 16 suicides, Hughes said. “Usually, it's the middle-aged - someone going through a messy divorce, or it's a child-custody thing, or they feel like the family has turned against them,” Hughes said. “Middle age is the most prominent (age) for suicides, but again, we had a 19-year-old boy this year.” Hughes said the suicide rate in Jessamine County is slightly higher than the drug-related death rates.

The second meeting of East Jessamine and West Jessamine on the softball field was much different than the first meeting back on April 17. West won the early meeting 5-1, its first win over the Lady Jaguars since 2009. But East (13-16) asserted itself Tuesday night with an 11-1 rout of the Lady Colts (7-19). “Earlier in the year, they were just having errors, but they're starting to come together a little bit,” East Jessamine coach Tom Hamm said. “Since that last West game, we've won eight out of our last 10 games.

It's been three years since West Jessamine's softball team defeated East Jessamine, but the Lady Colts made it look easy as they knocked off the Lady Jaguars 5-1 on Tuesday night at West. Heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, East and West were locked in a 1-1 tie. The Lady Colts were struggling at the plate as East pitcher Halee Hamm had retired nine in a row. Hamm sat down the first two batters in the sixth to run her total to 11 straight. West's Alyson Archer was finally ablteto break up the skid with a single to center field; and Samantha Cross followed with a four-pitch walk to put runners on first and second base.

West Jessamine defeated rival East Jessamine 6-2 Tuesday night with the help of a grand slam by senior Michael Oaks and a rare triple play. The Colts (10-1), riding a seven-game win streak, came out a little cold, and Jags (3-9) pitcher Orion Howard took full advantage, forcing four of the first eight batters he faced to fly out. West Jessamine coach Jody Hamilton expected  a slow start from his team. During spring break, the Colts were playing in perfect 80-degree weather.