The Mail-Journal, Volume 21, Number 40, Milford, Kosciusko County, 17 October 1984 — Page 8

THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., October 17,1984

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Sports

Strong ground game

Culver trips Warriors, 14-7

By TOM CHARLES , Sports Editor It isn’t often that you find a group of eagles that are more at home on the ground than in the air. But when you do, you had better watch out. The Wawasee Warriors ran into such a group on Friday’night in the form of the Culver Military Eagles? And, as the Warriors discovered, an Eagle on the ground/can be just as hard to catch as one in the air. Culver, behind the leadership of senior quarterback John Augustein, used its option attack to grind- out 257 yards on the ground en route to a 14-7 win. The loss dropped Wawasee to 3-5 overall, 1-3 in Cluster AAA-20, and put a damper on the Warriors’ homecoming festivities. “We played good football," said coach Myron Dickerson following Friday’s loss. “I am not disappointed with the way we played, but we gave them too many first downs — just like at East Noble " Despite the Eagles' ability to move the football, it took a pair of big plays to swing the balance in their favor The first, a Wawasee penalty, led to the tying touchdown. The second, a fatal slip by a Wawasee deep back, contributed to the winning score. r Culver's first break came in the second period with Wawasee on top 7-0. The Eagles drove from their own 23 to midfield, but were forced to punt However, Wawasee was penalized for an improper fair catch signal on the punt and the five-yard penalty gave Culver a first down and kept the drive alive It took the Eagles six plays following the penalty to put the ball in the end zone. Aaron

Juniors triumph in annual homecoming competition

Juniors at Wawasee High School had several reasons to cheer last week as their class . won the annual homecoming competition. | The juniors started things off on theright foot by winning the Powder Puff football championship on Friday. In addition, they won the slogan contest with reading "Time after Time, We are the Champions.” Juniors had another reason to smile when one of their own, quarterback Brad Traviolia, gave the Warriors a 6-0 lead in their homecoming contest with Culver Military. However, those smiles didn’t last long as Culver rallied to .post a 14-7 win. The freshman class finished second in the Powder Puff football and attendance competitions The freshman class slogan, “Warriors will Celebrate Homecoming ’B4 All Night Long,” was named the bset promotion of school spirit. The sophomore class posted a 96.9 percent attendance rate to win that area of competition. The sophomores were third overall. Pictured at right, junior Steph Swihart shows her intensity as assistant football coach Jim Jones keeps an eye on the action. (Photo byTom Charles,)

UNDER PRESSURE — Wawasee sophomore Heidi Brower prepares to passunder pressure from an opponent in the annual Wawasee Powder Puff football competitiqnlApptying the pressure b freshman Tammy McGuiness, who has beaten sophomore Stacy Ostendorf. (Photo hy Tam Charles) _______

Clevenger scooted the final eight yards to cap what turned out to be a 77-yard march. The extra point was good and the game was knotted at 7-7 with 1:30 left in the half. “Regardless of that penalty, we shouldn’t have let them take it in for the touchdown,” said Dickerson. “They put together a good drive, but we still should have held them.”

Warsaw Tigers You have to return to 1976 to find the last Wawasee win over Warsaw and the Warriors have a mighty challenge ahead of them if they hope to stop that seven-game losing streak. As the cliche goes, you can forget the records when these two teams meet. The Tigers may be 2-6, but that doesn’t mean they hren’t a talented football team. "This is going to be the best team we have played all year," said Wawasee coach Myron Dickerson. “It will take our best game — our best offensive and defensive efforts — if we are going to beat Warsaw.” Spearheading the Warsaw attack is Chad Hopkins. The powerful senior back is the team's leading rusher and scorer as well as a potent field goal kicker. “Hopkins is the best back I’ve seen play in this area." Dickerson said. .“He’s an outstanding player.”Hopkins is joined in the backfield by 5-10 junior Rich Seitz, a fullback, and 6-3 junior quarterback Steve Yeager. Yeager has a good arm and his return to the team following a mid-season injury has helped attack. Dickerson also noted that he has respect for the Warsaw secondary "They are an aggressive bunch of kids and they go to the ball." he said. “We will have to make good choices on where to throw ." "Our kids will hang tough.” Dickerson concluded. "‘Nothing is going to scare them off, they're not going to back down.” TI.ME/LOCATION: 7:30 p.m.. Wawasee SERIES RECORD: 10-4-1, Warsaw LAST YEAR: 20-3, Warsaw WAWASEE LAST WEEK: Lost to Culver Military, 14-7 WARSAW LAST WEEK: Beat Bremen, 34-6 SEASON RECORDS: Wawasee (3-5), Warsaw (2-6)

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Game Winner It didn’t take long for the Eagles to put the winning points on the board. They took the opening kickoff and marched 14 yards from their own 33 to the 47 before Louie Holmes popped the play that sealed Wawasee’s fate. Holmes, a 5-10 senior, took a pitch from and rambled 53 yards around end to put the Eagles up 13-7. Clevenger tacked

on the PAT for the final points of the night. “Augustein made two or three fantastic pitches and that was one of them,” said Dickerson. “We covered our duties pretty well on the play, but our safety slipped when he came up and that allowed him to break free.” ■ Neither team threatened the rest of the way. Wawasee had one drive stall at the Culver 35 and (Continued on page 9)

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PLENTY OF HELP — Wawasee’s Steve Yoder heads up field behind the blocking of teammates Jeff Roberts, Joe Melendez and Jeff Moore during Friday’s contest with Culver Military. (Photo by Tom Charles)

Spikers carry 13-3 record into sectional play

ByTOM CHARLES Sports Editor Like other athletes, the members of this year’s Wawasee volleyball squad have found that dealing with your own emotions is often as tough as competing against an opponent. Arguably one of the best teams ever assembled at Wawasee. the 1984 squad has found that its mental attitude can be its own worst enemy. “We don’t have that killer instinct,” noted senior Sandy Payne. “We get down and then it’s hard for us to come back.” Two tough NLC losses, one to Concord and one to Northwood, are indicative of the team’s biggest stumbling block. They play well when they have a lead, but it isn’t easy for them to reverse the momentum. “It was so obvious at Concord,” noted coach Barb Brouwer. “We were playing so well and all of a sudden it was like we said “Hey, we’re gonna beat these guys,” and as soon as we said that it was a letdown. And once we were down it was difficult to get back on track.” But the Lady Warriors showed signs of curing that problem in an NLC match against Bremen on Monday. After winning the first game 15-3, Wawasee let up and trailed 12-5 in the second contest. Unlike previous matches, however, the team rallied and posted a 16-14 win. With the sectional tournament set to begin on Thursday night at Northridge, that ability to come back is a welcome sight. In fact, it may be a sign that the team is finally starting to come together as a unit. “We’ve played well at points, but we haven’t put together a complete match yet,” Brouwer noted. “But that’s alright. We don’t want to reach our peak before the sectional. I think we are going to peak at exactly the right time.” For this team, peaking means putting together all the components of a balanced attack that centers around the abilities of five senior leaders. Those five — Greta Hilker, Sandy Payne, Anita Swope, Shelly Harris and Christy Speicher — plus junior Michelle Harter have been Wawasee’s consistent starters. Swope is the mainstay of the offense. Her setting ability enables Wawasee to run a versatile offense. “It hasn’t been hard setting this year,” Swope said. “We run mostly the same plays that we did last year.*’ One of those plays is a nifty short set from Swope to Payne which often catches other teams off balance. After having played together in junior high and all through their high school careers, the two almost have a sixth sense about what the other is doing. The two outside hitters.

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HOMECOMING SPIRIT — Wawasee High School students and fans showed their homecoming spirit by forming a tunnel for players as they ran onto the field before the game. Leading the Wawasee

Speicher and Harris, provide the front line power. Harris has the ability to hit a ball straight down and Speicher has developed into a fine all-around hitter with excellent power. Both are good blockers when playing defense. Hilker contributes to the team with her fine back row play and serving. She starts the rotation in the serving position ’and has led the team in that statistic all season. Confident Despite some of their ups and downs, the seniors are confient heading into Thursday’s sectional match against Northridge. “I think that each one of us knows our capabilities and strengths,” commented Payne. “We know what we can do and what we can’t and we try to do the best we can with that.” “We have confidence in each other.” added Swope. “We’ve been playing well, but we haven’t played our best.” “When we get going, there’s no stopping us,” concluded Hilker. Here’s a brief look at who will provide the competition this weekend: North Wood The Panthers are a deceiving 10-13 after forfeiting eight games due to an ineligible player. But coach Jan Schrock thinks that the incident has been ptit in the past and her team is ready to play. “I was really anxibus to see how the-kidsrespondeci to that,” Schrock said. “I think they have steadily picked up their intensity and level of play since we told them about it.” The Panthers got a big lift heading into the sectional with a three-game win over Wawasee on Thursday. Two of the key players in that match, Ronda Klotz and Kami Gessinger, are the hub of the North Wood attack. “Ronda and Kami are our big hitters and they also set out of our 6-2 offense,” Schrock noted. “But we have gotten a lot of leadership out of our seniors and that’s been important.” Bethany Second-year coach Betty Stauffer knows that her Braves will have to correct some of their inconsistency if they are to advance past the first round. “We haven’t peaked yet,” Stauffer noted. “We have been pretty up and down through the ’ year and we will have to overcome that.” The Braves run a 6-2 offense with Barb Yoder and Marla Lantz handling the setting. Marta Brunner and Vonda Litwiler are the team’s leading spikers and passers. Goshen The defending sectional champions are 9-8 this year, but coach Rose Kettlebar thinks they are headed in the right direction. “I’d like to think we are peaking at this point,” she noted. “We have improved in our last three matches and, although we didn’t

win, I appreciated the kids’ effort.” The Redskins best weapon is their height with spikers Marcy Bixler, Sherry Harris and Sue Sorg leading the way. Bixler and Harris each had a fine match in last year’s sectional championship. “Hitting hasbeen the best part of our game,” said Kettlebar. “We also have three fine setters in Janet Fager, Ingrid Hess and Becky Ray.” Fairfield Coach Dave Hamilton brings his team to Northridge with a 9-10 record and the knowledge that his team will have to play well to

Oethany 6 p.m., Oct. 20 * Goshen Wawasee 8 p.m., Oct. 20 —■ 6 p.m., Oct. 18 ____________ Champion Northridge Northwood 7 p.m., Oct. 20 7 p.m., Oct. 18 ——— Fairfield

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POINTING THE WAY— These four Wawasee seniors will play important roles in this week’s sectional at Northridge. Pictured from left are Christy Speicher. Sandy Payne, Anita Swope and Greta Hilker. Shelly Harris b the fifth senior on the squad. (Photo by Mark Weinstein)

charge are Kevin Tracey (85), Todd Yeager (74) and Jeff Moore (31). The Warriors dropped a 14-7 verdict to Culver Military. (Photo by Tom Charles)

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SHORT GAME — Friday’s homecoming contest lasted less than a £ quarter for Wawasee running back Ron Gerber. The junior sprained his ankle early in the contest and spent most of the game in this position. (Photo by Tom Charles)

beat North Wood. “One thing that is going to have to come around for us is our blocking,” he said. “We are going to have to block real well — the best we’ve done all year — to stay in it.” The Falcons run a 5-1 offense with senior Beth Borkholder handling the setting chores. She has 529 successful sets out of 532 attempts this season. Although the team doesn't have one standout hitter, Hamilton noted that junior Carrie Doane has come on strong in the last few weeks. “If we need a kill, she’s the one we go to,” said Hamilton.

Northridge The host Raiders are 5-11 under first-year coach Bill Schmidt and are showing signs of peaking as the sectional approaches. “We have been improving throughout the season in what has been a rebuilding year for us,” Schmidt said. “We are going to have to block well and cover behind the block to beat Wawasee.” Tammy Boyer and Janice Lang provide the power on the front line. Jeanne Hostetler and Holly Bowldy are the Raiders’ setters in their 6-2 offense. J “We’ve been strong on hitting all season,” Schmidt said, “and we cover the court pretty well.”