PREP BRIEFS: Pike Road's Favor signs with Tuskegee; LAMP, MA tennis earn victories
With his family present, Pike Road’s Rod Favor announed that he would play football for Tuskegee University next fall. (Tim Gayle)
PIKE ROAD -- Pike Road senior Rod Favor, surrounded by his extended family, held a signing ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the school, announcing his decision to continue his career at Tuskegee University.
“I never thought I would get a chance to stand here in front of the people that I care the most about,” Favor said. “I learned a long time ago you get to pick who you want to be in your family and everybody here right now is who I want in my family.”
Favor developed into one of the area’s top defensive ends while at Trinity Presbyterian School in 2020-2022 before transferring this past season to play for the Patriots in Class 6A.
Favor had been at Floyd Middle Magnet School before searching for a high school to attend. That’s when he met the new coach at Trinity, Granger Shook. Favor then decided to follow his coach to Pike Road when the former became the Patriots’ head coach last spring.
“They were looking for a high school and Trinity met their vision at the time,” Shook said. “He’s always been outstanding academically and athletically and he’s going to be a great fit at Tuskegee. I think him being here has helped the transition (from high school to college) and I think the coaches felt really good about him playing at this level.”
Favor was happy the journey from middle school to 3A private school to 6A public school paid off with a college offer to continue playing football.
“I never really thought I would have the chance to play at the next level,” Favor said. “Coming from a private school, it kind of hurt because I had to take extra classes that public school is required to have. Education wise, they were a college prep school and I’ve got a bigger workload here and learned how to take care of it at Trinity.”
He considered offers from Huntingdon, Birmingham-Southern and Faulkner before choosing Tuskegee because of “the education that I knew I would receive by going there,” he said. Favor added that his work ethic should help him earn playing time with the Division II Golden Tigers this fall.
“From what I’ve seen and from the coaches I’ve spoken to, I just have to stay consistent,” he said. “Come in, day one, ready to work. Get up at four in the summer for the workout? OK, I’ll be there at three. Effort. That’s the only thing you can do consistently. You get to choose that. I’m going to choose to be consistent.”
GIRLS SOCCER
Montgomery Academy 3, Northridge 1
Mary Elizabeth Cole scored a pair of first-half goals to help the Eagles win their 2024 home opener at McLemore Field on Thursday with a 3-1 win over Northridge.
Sophia Cho scored on a penalty kick in the second half -- giving her four goals in four games this season -- as the Eagles extended their lead to 3-0 before Northridge scored late on a penalty kick.
Montgomery Academy will have a week off before returning to action on Feb. 23 at home against Chelsea.
Sylacauga 7, Prattville Christian 0
SYLACAUGA -- Prattville Christian’s team was shut out in the Panthers’ season opener, losing to Sylacauga 7-0 on Thursday night.
PCA (0-1) will take a week off before traveling to Catholic on Feb. 27.
BOYS SOCCER
Sylacauga 6, Prattville Christian 2
SYLACAUGA -- Prattville Christian dropped its 2024 season opener on the road on Thursday at Sylacauga.
Cade Segars and Brooks Reid each scored a goal for the Panthers, while Brady Roberson had an assist.
The Panthers’ junior varsity team also opened the season at Sylacauga, falling 6-0, and will travel to Trinity on Tuesday.
PCA (0-1) will take a week off before traveling to Catholic on Feb. 27.
Catholic 4, Alabama Christian Academy 3
Tymari Isner scored a pair of goals and Juan Escalante and Ben Chitlik each added a goal as the Knights edged the Eagles 4-3 at ACA on Thursday night.
Isner, Chitlik, Max Freeman and Garrett Sanford all had assists for Catholic.
The Knights return home to play BTW Magnet on Tuesday and Andalusia on Thursday.
BOYS TENNIS
Montgomery Academy 9, Prattville 0
The Eagles defeated Class 7A Section 2 opponent Prattville High 9-0 in a match played at Lagoon Park Tennis Center on Wednesday.
Winning singles matches for the Eagles were Jackson Brown, Edwin Wu, Ford Morano, Duncan McInnes, Ron Sharma and Liam Baker. Doubles winners were Sharma-Morano, Brown-Wu and McInnes-Baker.
Montgomery Academy (2-0) will take a week off before traveling to Phenix City on Thursday to play Section 2 opponents Central-Phenix City and Smiths Station.
LAMP 9, Eufaula 0
The Golden Tigers shut out 4A-5A Section 3 opponent Eufaula in convincing fashion on Thursday, sweeping the singles and doubles competition.
In singles, LAMP’s Ian Shin defeated Alexander Kubalok at No. 1, Ian Kim shut out Pol Lopez Miranzo at No. 2, Sun Ho Kim beat Jacob Forehand at No. 3, Minsoo Park defeated Derrick Williams at No. 4, Richard Chen beat Jacob Cox at No. 5 and Wonjun Lee shut out Zachary Hawkins at No. 6.
In doubles, LAMP’s No. 1 team of Shin and Sun Ho Kim defeated Kubalok-Miranzo, the No. 2 team of Ian Kim and Lee beat Forehand-Cox and the No. 3 team of Park-Chen beat Williams-Hawkins.
GIRLS TENNIS
Montgomery Academy 9, Prattville 0
The Eagles swept through their 7A Section 2 opponent on Wednesday, defeating the Lions to improve to 2-0 in section play.
The Eagles won all six singles matches by a 6-0, 6-0 score, with Gabby Barrera beating Colbie Horne at No. 1, Mae Mae Voltz defeating Kate Bibb at No. 2, Lola Campbell beating Lily Gregory at No. 3, Marianna Lassner defeating Hannah Glidden at No. 4, Mary Surhea White beating Taylor Ann Shavers at No. 5 and Alyssa Kaplan defeating Anna Messick at No. 6.
In doubles, Barrera-Voltz defeated Horne-Bibb at No. 1, Campbell-White beat Gregory and Alexandra Manginn at No. 2 and Kaplan-Lassner defeated Glidden-Shavers at No. 3.
Montgomery Academy 9, Dothan 0
DOTHAN -- The Eagles defeated the Wolves in their Class 7A Section 2 opener on Tuesday at the Westgate Tennis Center.
Winning singles for Montgomery Academy were Gabby Barrera at No. 1, Mae Mae Voltz at No. 2, Lola Campbell at No. 3, Marianna Lassner at No. 4, Mary Surhea White at No. 5 and Alyssa Kaplan at No. 6.
The doubles teams of Barrera-Voltz, Campbell-White and Kaplan-Lassner also won.
LAMP 9, Eufaula 0
The Golden Tigers shut out Eufaula in section play on Thursday, sweeping the singles and doubles action.
In singles, LAMP’s Reena Chen defeated Maddilyn Register at No. 1, Hannah Lee beat Kiara Thornton at No. 2, Grace Liu shut out Trinity Gant at No. 3, Dabeen Choi defeated Kamaiyah Thornton at No. 4, McKenzie Kim beat Dorian Morris at No. 5 and Jamie Lo beat Elysia Starling at No. 6.
In doubles, LAMP’s No. 1 team of Lee-Liu defeated Register-Gant, the No. 2 team of Chen-Kim defeated Kiara Thornton and Morris and the No. 3 team of Hannah Baik and Choi shut out Kamaiyah Thornton and Karmen Smith.
BASEBALL
Lee-Scott Academy 6, St. Anne-Pacelli 4
AUBURN -- Ty Jones went 2 for 4 with three RBIs to lead the Warriors to a 6-4 win over Pacelli on Thursday.
Garrett West also went 2 for 4 as the Warriors made the most of their six hits. J.D. Burns went 1 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI and Jake Cummings went 1 for 3 with two RBIs.
On the mound, West, Harrison Short and Ethan Hardee combined to pick up the win. West went 2.1 innings, allowing three hits and three runs while striking out four; Short went 2.2 innings, allowing two hits and a run while striking out four; and Hardee earned the win with two innings of shutout ball, giving up three hits while striking out one.
SOFTBALL
Pike Road 16, Charles Henderson 4 (6)
TROY -- The Patriots opened the season on the road, defeating the Trojans in six innings behind senior Haley Melton’s first win in the circle. Melton pitched five innings, striking out three and walking four while allowing three earned runs and six hits.
Abigail Olesen pitched the sixth inning allowing one earned run on one hit.
Ameria Anderson celebrated her birthday with a 3-for-5 performance, including a solo home run. Kennedy Cuthbert added to the offensive fireworks with a grand slam, going 2 for 5. Ava Milton was 3 for 4, Anna Williams was 2 for 5 and Paisley Forshey was 2 for 4, while Addison Belyeu, Melton, Lily Kate Vilnson and Kennedy Thompson each had a base hit.
Pike Road returns home to play Holtville on Tuesday at 6 p.m.