Area teams excel

Believe it or not, tournament time is here.
While most high school sports teams still have several weeks remaining in their regular seasons, the girls golf season is winding down. Following their three-team match tonight against Norwell, the Jay County and South Adams squads will compete in sectional action Saturday at Timber Ridge Golf Club north of Bluffton.
So, it seems like a good time to discuss some of the local teams that have gotten off to impressive starts, made great strides or otherwise excelled so far in the 2011 fall season.

No group has ...
... had a better start to the season than the South Adams High School football team.
A year after losing its first five games, the Starfires are 4-0 with victories over Winchester, Bellmont, Bluffton and Heritage. They started the season unranked in Class 1A, but have surged all the way up to No. 5.
SAHS will play likely its toughest opponent of the season Friday when it hosts the Leo Lions, who are also undefeated and ranked 10th in Class 4A.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Starfires so far has been their balance on offense, with four players who have rushed for more than 200 yards. On the defensive side, they have allowed just 10.5 points per game.
South Adams, which won six straight games last season before falling to Churubusco in the sectional championship game, could make some serious noise in the Class 1A tournament this year.

Its no surprise ...
... the Jay County and Fort Recovery girls cross country teams are off to an outstanding start. Both squads have been extremely successful in recent years.
The Patriots are riding a wave of five straight sectional titles and three consecutive regional championships. The Indians have been regional qualifiers five of the last six seasons, and sent Elle Sutter to the state finals a year ago.
Katie Simmons highlighted the season for the JCHS squad, which finished second at the Celina Rotary and Oak Hill invitationals, when she broke the school record Saturday with a time of 19:35.4. That time is nearly 10 seconds faster than the previous mark set by Aly Miller in 2007, and she’s likely to break her own record several more times during the season.
The top finish for the Fort Recovery girls this season was a third-place effort at the Celina Rotary Invitational as they face a schedule loaded with state-ranked squads. West-central Ohio includes six of the top 10 teams in Division III — No. 1 Coldwater, No. 2 Versailles, No. 4 Minster, No. 7 Spencerville, No. 8 Russia and No. 9 Fort Loramie.
South Adams’ boys team is off to the most impressive start of all the area cross country teams, having posted victories at the Bellmont Invitational, Bi-County Conditioner and Spencerville Invitational.
Evan Liechty, a junior, and Brody Shane, a sophomore, finished first and second respectively at both Bellmont and Spencerville.
Oct. 1 will be a big day for all three teams as the Patriots and Indians compete at the Jay County Invitational while the Starfires host the South Adams Invitational.

The JCHS girls soccer ...
... team is authoring the best turn-around story of the fall season.
After winning just three games in 2010, the Patriots are already 6-3 this year with seven games still remaining in the regular season. They have scored 19 times in their first nine games, which is nine more goals than all of last year.
Junior Sammi Compton is leading Jay County with six goals and six assists, and senior LeAnn Horn has six goals and one assist. Goalie Mollie May is allowing an average of just 1.18 goals per game, and has recorded shutouts against Connersville, Huntington North and Norwell.
The six wins are the most for a JCHS squad since going 8-5-1 in 2006, which was also the last time it had a winning campaign.
The Patriots are hoping to garner some sectional success this year as well as they move from the tournament at Marion to the Class 2A group at Yorktown. They will learn a lot about their tournament prospects in the next couple of weeks when they play sectional rivals Yorktown and Muncie Central on Sept. 22 and 29 respectively.[[In-content Ad]]