Now THAT was Exciting!

7th grade head coach Cori Hustedt
cheers on her team

In case you missed it, there was a lot of excitement around BTMS sports last week. And if you did miss it, well...
YOU MISSED IT!!

7th grader Cecelia Hilton eyes her return

7th grader Julianna Crane
had two service aces

7th grader Calli Wells

First up, on Tuesday the volleyball teams had their home openers against Oakridge MS. In the first match, the 7th graders came out a little flat in the first set and quickly found themselves in a 10-1 hole. From there, though, the team was able to regroup and get things going. They went on a 24-6 run to win the first set 25-17, and then went on to win the second set, 25-18, and take the match. What a great display of focus and determination shown by Coach Cori Hustedt's team. Instead of giving up, they gave their all and fought their way back to victory. Great job, Timberwolves! On Thursday they traveled to Springfield and won that match, 2-1 (27-25, 21-25, 15-11), to move to 3-0 on the season.

8th grader Annika Ford, outside hitter

The 8th graders did not fare so well in their match against Oakridge, as they struggled throughout to find consistency and dropped the match, 2-0 (12-25, 14-25). On Thursday in their match against Springfield, they played much better, but lost again, 2-0 (20-25, 22-25). They played better as a team and

8th grade team co-captain Grace Howell
gets low for the dig

were definitely more competitive, so they appear to be on the right track to their first win of the season. The volleyball teams are at home for matches on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday's match is against Fort Mill MS, so let's all get out to the Banks Trail gym at 5pm to root on the Lady Timberwolves.

8th grader Micahaela Bartkowski 

8th grade libero Alissa Ilacqua.

On Wednesday the football teams played Rawlinson Rd MS, the 8th graders at home and the 7th graders away at Rawlinson Rd. Both games turned out to be come-from-behind affairs, with a win and a loss for the Timberwolves. In Rock Hill, the 7th graders were down 24-6 at the half, but rallied to take a 26-24 lead late in the game. But in the final seconds of the game there was apparently an issue with the clock stopping when it wasn't supposed to. The extra time allowed the Raiders to get off one last play and they scored, giving them a 30-26 win. A heartbreaking loss, for sure, but they showed a lot of heart and determination to come back from the large deficit. So there's a lot of positives to build on as they prepare for Clover this week.

8th gr RB Alex Cooper finds the end
zone on a tough run up the middle.

On the other side of the coin, the 8th graders hosted Rawlinson Rd at home and, came from behind, and won their game, putting them at 2-0 in the early going. The game was a bit of a defensive struggle early on, with the teams exchanging first quarter possessions without a score.  But then the teams exchanged touchdowns, but RR was able to convert the two-point conversion and the Wolves did not, giving the Raiders an 8-6 lead. At that point I thought we might have a repeat of last year's game when this Timberwolves team lost to RR by one point because it was unable to convert any of the extra points after touchdowns. The Raiders tacked on another TD in the second quarter, did not the convert the PAT, and took a 14-6 lead into the half.

Timberwolves pack stops RR.

The second half belonged to the Timberwolves defense as it kept the Raiders scoreless while the T-Wolves' offense got going. Alex Cooper provided a punishing ground attack despite a nagging leg injury. And late in the 3rd quarter he was able to pound it in from the two-yard line for a TD and then again for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14.

Josh Kenyon and teammate get
crucial QB sack for a safety and
16-14 BT lead.

About midway through the fourth quarter, the game was decided on back-to-back plays. A Timberwolves punt was downed inside the 5-yd line, pinning the the Raiders against their own goal line. That's when Josh Kenyon was able to sack the Raiders quarterback for a safety, giving the Timberwolves a 16-14 lead. On the ensuing kick-off to the Wolves, Zeb Graham fielded the ball and returned it for a touchdown.

Zeb Graham celebrates with teammates
after kick-return touchdown seals the win

The PAT failed, but Banks Trail now had a 22-14 lead with just a few minutes to play, and that's the way it would end. They were able to avenge last year's close loss while giving them a 2-0 start with back-to-back wins over Rock Hill schools. This
week the 8th grade team travels to Clover MS for a matchup against the Eagles.

NaFo wide receiver Josh Shade goes high
to haul in a pass Friday night.

Finally, on Friday night I drew the assignment to cover the NaFo-Ridge View football game at Nation Ford Stadium for the Fort Mill Times. NaFo's games this season haven't featured much defense, as the Falcons have given up 227 points thru 5 games. That's an average of 45+ points a game, and last Friday was no different. NaFo played catchup most of the night, but the Falcons defense couldn't keep the Blazers out the end zone each time NaFo was able to close the gap. Final score of this one was 48-40. There's lots of excitement around that offense with QB Cole Martin, receivers Hank Tuipulotu, Jordan Helms and Josh Shade, and they're putting up some big numbers of their own, scoring an average of more than 35 pts/ game. But it's hard to win when your opponents are scoring at a 45-pt/game clip. So the Falcons' defense has a significant growth opportunity to take advantage of and I'm sure their coaches will be helping them do that all this week.

Senior Captain Meg Wiggins leads the FMHS
swim team into this weeks final home meet.

This week I plan to shoot the BTMS home volleyball match Tuesday against Fort Mill, the 7th grade home football against Clover and possibly the Fort Mill HS home swim meet on Thursday. It's Senior Night for the Yellow Jackets swimmers and I hope to get there to shoot the action. One of the swim team's Senior captains is Meg Wiggins, one of my 2015 Senior Models, and also the older sister of BTMS 8th grader, Molly Wiggins, who played on the girls soccer team last Spring. Meg spends countless hours in the pool working to improve her stroke and her times, swims for the high school team and the SwimMAC club team in Charlotte. And this summer she was named a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American. So I'm proud to have her on my team representing me and my Senior portrait services.





That's this week's entry into the chronicles of my travels around BTMS and FMSD athletic scene. Thanks for checking in. Let me know if you see any errors so I can get them corrected. Have a great week and I'll see you at the games.

Links:

8th Grade Football vs RRMS Gallery
http://photobyrob.shootproof.com/BTMS-8tFB-vs-RawlinsonRd

7th-8th Grade VB vs Oakridge Gallery
http://photobyrob.shootproof.com/BTMS7-8VB-vs-Oakridge