F-F H.S. Highlights: Mikell McGee scores 100th goal
When Fannett-Metal's Mikell McGee was hunting down his 1,000th career point in a boys basketball game last winter, the nerves clearly got to him.
It took McGee several minutes before settling into the game and earning the milestone bucket.
But those nerves didn't plague him Wednesday afternoon when McGee was tracking down his 100th career boys soccer goal.
He needed two tallies entering the non-league game against Carson Long, and it took only 17 minutes into the game to score the pair of goals. McGee finished with six goals in Fannett-Metal's 12-5 victory.
"Having (the milestones) in both means a lot; that's a good combination," McGee said. "It's not just one sport. I try to concentrate on both of them equally. When soccer season in it, that's my focus, and when basketball season is in, it's all basketball."
F-M coach Greg Best had the pleasure of coaching McGee to both landmarks.
"You're not going to get to coach a kid in both sports with that kind of ability very often," said Best, who is also the Tigers' athletic director. "It's great to watch a kid shine at two different sports like that."
After scoring an early goal, McGee got his 100th midway through the first half. From the right side of the field, Frankie Ryder crossed a ball to McGee, who got a head on it and knocked into the back of the net.
"I actually don't have a lot of headballs," McGee said. "I try to do it, and I'm fairly consistent with it, but I didn't score on a whole lot of headballs this year."
Best said, "It's definitely a huge milestone for him to score 100 goals in four years. It says a lot for his work ethic. He has had great teammates to pass him the ball, but he's also worked at finding ways to get open, beating defenders and finishing at the net."
Now on a six-game win streak, the Tigers (11-6) are still at fifth in the District 5 Class 1A power rankings and are hunting down a top seed and a home playoff game.
"I feel really good about the team," McGee said. "We've realized in the last five or six games what we're capable of doing. The first half of the season, we went into overtime games and lost a couple close ones. The heart and the desire wasn't really there, but now, I really see a difference in the kids wanting to win badly. It's great for our confidence."
Cross country
It was a victorious day for Southern Fulton, as both the boys and the girls teams earned titles at the Inter-County Conference cross country championships.
The girls team needed every possible place it got, as the Indians finished with 52 points, edging out Mount Union for the team title by just two points. Next in line was Juniata Valley with 69 points. Southern Fulton's boys, on the other hand, were barely challenged at all in the team standings. The Indians finished with 33 points; next-best Bellwood-Antis scored 86.
Although no Southern Fulton runner actually won the race, the Indians were highlighted by Chase Varner, who was named the conference MVP. Also earning conference All-Star status were Benjy Voight and Maddie Baker.
Varner placed second only to Southern Huntingdon's Andrew Stanley. Varner edged out a pair of runners, clocking in at 18:01 - just two seconds ahead of the third-place runner and six seconds before fourth. Voight also cracked the top 10, finishing in seventh place in 18:54.
Other top runners for SF were Nate Voight, 19:13, 11th place), Dylan Ensor (19:38, 12th) and Casey Spade (19:53, 14th).
On the girls side, Baker was the best Southern Fulton runner, earning ninth place in 24:04. But the Indians claimed four out of the next five spots. Elizabeth Flaherty squeezed into the top 10 with a time of 24:16, and Emily Bradshaw was right behind in 24:18 for 11th place.
Rounding out the top five for SF were Lindsey Hollenshead (24:43, 13th) and Mary Dudich (24:44, 14th).