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Published: Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2013 / Updated: Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2013 05:27 PM

Sports briefs for March 14

Tay Neely, a gifted wide receiver, has become the eighth York Comprehensive High School football player to take his game to the next level. The senior pass-catcher will join the Newberry College football team in the fall.

Cougars’ Neely bound for Newberry

YORK Tay Neely, a gifted wide receiver, has become the eighth York Comprehensive High School football player to take his game to the next level.

The senior pass-catcher will join the Newberry College football team in the fall, to the delight of head football coach Bobby Carroll.

“Tay matured so much from his junior year to his senior year,” noted Carroll. “It really made a difference.”

Carroll said Neely had an outstanding year as one of the Cougars’ top receivers. “He showed leadership his senior year,” said Carroll. “Tay’s performance on the field and maturity level had a lot to do with a college offer.”

The YCHS head football coach said the assistant coaches deserve a lot of credit for Neely and others receiving scholarship offers.

“Our assistant coaches preparing video highlights for so any colleges makes a difference,” said Carroll. “Times have changed. You have to market kids. We are proud to have so many Cougar players signing to play college ball.”

Carroll and the assistant coaches are still in the process of preparing paperwork.

“We could end up with 11 or 12 York football team members playing college football,” he said.

Carroll said the football staff prepared as many as 150 to 200 video highlights to send to colleges around the country.

“It’s the most videos we’ve emailed in my coaching career,” he said.

Baseball Cougars strive for improvement after loss to Fort Mill

YORK Having lost a large number from last year’s team to graduation, the York Comprehensive High School baseball team is still in the process of meshing together and finding the right combinations.

Such was the case Friday as the home-standing Cougars fell to perennial power Fort Mill 10-0 in Region 3-AAAA play.

The Yellow Jackets featured solid hitting and dominant pitching in the win.

Despite the loss, YCHS head coach Scot Kiggans sees potential in this year’s team.

“Our guys are working hard,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do as people saw in our game against a good Fort mill team. We expect more from our guys and they know that and I’m sure they are not happy about our performance.”

Said Kiggans, “Our job as coaches is to get them ready to play every day. Apparently, we were not ready to play a team that is 21-0 in region play the last three years , and that falls on me.”

Kiggans said the YCHS coaches believe in the players.

“They will bounce back,” he said.

The Cougars will have an opportunity to bounce back when they host South Pointe Friday at the York Comprehensive High School baseball complex. The action begins at 7 p.m.

The YCHS team hits the road next week, traveling to Indian Land Monday and Nation Ford Tuesday. Both games have 7 p.m. starting times.

YCHS girls soccer coach looking for team to regain preseason form

YORK York Comprehensive High School girls varsity soccer coach Dave Prescott is looking for the team to regain the performance level achieved during a productive preseason.

“The York girls soccer team has gotten off to a slow star this year,” said Prescott.

The Lady Cougars opened the regular season with a 5-0 loss to Rock Hill.

“The one bright spot for York was goal keeper Alexis Petty, who started her first game ever in goal,” said Prescott.

Petty tallied 10 saves. The game went on in the torrential downpour that affected the outcome.

In other action last week, the Cougars traveled to Chester where they took a 3-1 lead into half time.

But the Lady Cyclones came out with a vengeance to open the second half and tied the score.

With about six minutes remaining, the Cyclones went ahead 4-3.

With five seconds left to play, York was awarded a penalty kick due to a Chester defender taking Kameron Puckett out in the penalty box.

Kara Powers scored her second PK goal of the game to tie it up at the end of regulation.

The game went to two five-minute overtimes and ended still tied at four. The game then went to penalty kicks, with York losing 5-4 by one penalty kick.

On Friday, York traveled to Fort Mill with a couple of key players out due to injury and the lineup needed to be doctored.

Fort Mill dominated the game in an 8-0 win. Petty again had an exceptional game, saving 15 shots on goal.

The YCHS girls travel to South Pointe Friday for a 7 p.m. start.

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