The Mail-Journal, Volume 27, Number 32, Milford, Kosciusko County, 21 September 1988 — Page 8
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THE MAIL-JOURNAL—Wed., September 21,1988
Sports
North Wood returns favor, 13-7
I By MARK HUFFMAN Staff Writer , Wawasee beat the North Wood Panthers on a fumble recovery in 1986, translating the miscue into a 6-0 win. Last Friday night the Panthers returned the favor. Tied at seven with 3:47 to play, the Warriors were on the verge of what appeared to be a winning drive, as they took the ball to the North Wood 23 yard line. However, senior defensive end Dan Newcomer had a different idea, as he entered the backfield from the left side and blindsided Wawasee’s Chris Conkling, knocking the ball loose as the junior quarterback set to pass. Brent Cripe than gathered the ball and sprinted 68 yards to paydirt. After a missed two point conversion attempt, the Warriors still had an opportunity to recapture the game, but an interception by North Wood’s Jay Crain on the third play from scrimmage
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ZEROING IN — Senior Garrett Ponciroli tries to beat North Wood defender Jim Powell to the ball during Friday night action at Wawasee. Ponciroli wasn’t able to catch up with this ball, but did manage to garner 53 yards on the ground to add to a four game total of 198 yards. (Photo by Mark Huffman)
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FIRST AND LAST — Junior Chad Cotton (85) begins the celebration in the North Wood endzone after helping knot the game at seven last Friday night on a five yard aerial from quarterback Chris Conkling. Senior Fred Crouch (30) and another Warrior prepare to give Cotton a high five'. Cotton finished the night with 21 yards on three passes, while accounting for the Warrior’s only touchdown. (Photo by Mark Huffman)
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ended their Mopes with 1:36 left in the contest. “It’s a tough way to lose, but we have to feel good about some of the positive things that transpired,” said Coach Myron Dickerson, referring to gang tackles and bruising hits that helped his team take control in the second half, when they allowed just one first down and nine total yards. “We came out and did a good job Os executing offensively and defensively — unfortunately we had the one big fumble.” Some timely plays in the first half also kept Wawasee in a game it may have otherwise sacrificed early, with four Panther scoring drives halted by two fumbles and two interceptions, including a pass that was grabbed by a Warrior defender at the Wawasee eight yard line at the 4:55 mark of the second quarter. NqrthWood put the first seven points on the board, driving 50 yards before senior halfback Shaun Kern took the ball up the
gut from two yards out on a first down play. Four different Panther backs carried the ball during the drive, which culminated with 7:49 left in the half. Wawasee’s only score came six minutes into the third quarter, as Conkling connected with junior Chad Cotton for the final five yards of a 29 yard drive. The drive was set up after a fired-up Wawasee defense forced the North Wood punter to kick the ball on the run, accounting for a 14-yard boot. Another scoring opportunity was thwarted when junior kicker Randy Cesco’s 35 yard field goal attempt fell short by two yards with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter. The kick was attempted after a third and 11 screen pass was dropped by Wawasee. “That was a big play that hurt us, but that same young man made several good catches that kept us going,” Dickerson said. Nevertheless, the passing game has the coach concerned. “We’re only completing 38 per-
cent (35 percent against North Wood) of our passes, which is lower than where we should be at,” he stated. Defensively, Wawasee was led by senior Jay Koontz and sophomore Dan Smith, who had 12 and seven hits, respectively, while senior Garrett Ponciroli led the backfield corps with 53 yards on 12 carries. Seniors Brad Gerstner and Fred Crouch gathered 55 and 51 yards, respectively, as they accounted for seven of Conkling’s 10 passes caught. Scoring Summary Second quarter: North Wood *- Shaun Kern three-yard run (Phil Jenkins kick). Third quarter: Chad Cotton five-yard pass from Chris Conkling (Randy Cesco kick). „ Fourth quarter: Brent Cripe 68-yard fumble recovery (run failed).
Battle for second in NLC
I By MARK HUFFMAN , Staff Writer While it may be too early to hand a first place trophy to Goshen, the Northern Lakes Conference race seems to be turning into a battle for second place, with the Redskins well on their way towards a conference championship with only three NLC games remaining. Goshen has outscored its opponents an average of 42-7 each game, with perennial all-state quarterback Rick Mirer directing the Redskins to a perfect 4-0 slate. North Wood took over second place after defeating Wawasee, 15-7, last Friday, although it has played one less game than the other top five NLC teams. Wawasee, Bremen, and Northridge are all knotted at 2-2, with Bremen having downed Plymouth in a defensive battle
Wawasee golfers 'in the swing' with sectionals on tap
I By MITCHELL STINSON Staff Writer With sectionals just around the corner, the Wawasee Warrior girls’ golf team is on a roll. The team rolled enough shots in the hole yesterday to win a 210-213 squeaker over the Tippecanoe Valley \ Vikings at the Wawasee Golf Chib. Michelle Katsanis led all golfers with a low score of 46. Teresa West broke the 50 mark as well, coming in with a 49. The Vikings were led by Carman Haney, who recorded a 50. Wawasee improved its season record to 7-5 with the victory while the Vikings dropped to 8-4. The lady linksters also put in a strong performance' at the Laporte Invitational Saturday, Sept. 17, and finished sixth out of a field of 14 teams. Barb Butler led the Warriors effort with a 97 over 18 holes to place 12th in the tournament field. Lisa Kraynik, of Munster, won the tournament with a low of 80. Katsanis turned in the next best effort for Wawasee, as she carded a 102. Teresa West had a 107 and Darcey Smith finished with a 125. Warriors’ Coach Mark Timpe said the girls turned in a “super” effort at the invitational. He said
WHS athletic director challenges 'experts 7
I By SCOTT DAVIDSON Staff Writer Following three consecutive weeks of “average” (3-3) picks, The papers Inc. employee Derk Kuhn jumped into the thick of the overall prediction standings with a 5-1 mark on his calls of last week’s contests. The lone blemish on Kuhn’s slate was Wawasee’s tough loss at the hands of NbrthWood. Last week’s prediction guest, staff writer Glen Long, posted a 4-2 mark, as did Homer Miller and your’s truly. The Mail-Journal staff writers Mark Huffman and Mitcfi Stinson both had “off” weeks with 3-3 marks. i Miller still stands at the top of the overall standings heap with an 184 mark. Huffman and myself are next at 15-9
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FOUR YARD GAIN — Senior running back Mike Foy (22) completes the reverse to junior Scott Carlin during first half action of Friday night’s game. Foy ran 42 yards for the Warriors, while Carlin
(6-2) last week and Northridge taking care of Warsaw, 14-6. The Tigers will have to pick up ground quick if they want to stay out of the basement. Coach Ted Huber’s team is still looking for its first win of the season, while Concord and Plymouth are still one step ahead of the Tigers at 1-2 in conference play. Defensive Battle On Tap While Wawasee has averaged 12 points in its first four games this season, Friday’s opponent has only yielded 19 points in its four games. “Plymouth is a young team. They haven’t scored a lot of points (nine in NLC and 37 overall), but they have a good defense,” Coach Myron Dickerson says, noting that the Rockies have good size and like to run the ball to their big backs. Wawasee’s tackles can expect to put in a good day’s work. The Warriors appear healthy, with the exception of senior linebacker Mike Page, who is still.
Butler and Katsanis could have done even better if it weren’t for a couple of big setbacks. “Really, Barb and Michelle had lot better rounds going,” he said. “They were shooting real well, they just had a couple bad holes.” Timpe hopes that the good showing was indicative of things to come this weekend. “Hopefully, the girls will be peaking on Saturday at sectionals.” The Warriors will host the sectional at the Wawasee Golf Club at 11 a.m. The competition will consist of teams from Wawasee, Culver, East Noble, Goshen, Northridge, Warsaw, Laville, West Noble, Tippecanoe Valley, and a one-person entry from Northwood. LaPorte Invitational Ist-Valparaiso, 369; 2ndMunster, 381; 3rd-Rensselaer, 383 ; 4th-Michigan City Rogers, 394; sth-Michigan City Elston, 401; 6th-WAWASEE, 431; 7thLaPorte, 439; Bth-Crown Point, 443; 9th-Lake Central, 451; 10thPortage, 457; llth-Andrean, 486; 12th-Kankakee Valley, 521; 13thMerrillville, 527; 14th-Lowell, 557. Top Four Finishers Lisa Kraynik (Munster), 80; Lora Stefanivich (Rensselaer),
overall, with Kuhn right behind us at 14-10. Stinson, with one less week of games under his belt, has posted an impressive 13-5 record. Long, our initial guest picker, got future guests off to a good start with his 4-2 mark. This week, our “crystal ball” column welcomes Wawasee High School Athletic Director Hal Traviolia as our guest “guru”. Traviolia is in his seventh year as athletic director at Wawasee and his 15th year overall (he previously served as the school’s head football coach). Traviolia, who likes to golf in his spare time, stated that most of his life has consisted of his family and athletics. Well enough of my idle chatter, let’s get to this week’s “challenging" six games. Really, this is an easy, week and our entire panel
recuperating from a tumor that will sideline him for two more weeks, and junior Tim Lilly. Lilly suffered a broken ankle in last Friday’s game and will probably be lost for the season, according to Dickerson. Looking at the midway mark of the season, the coach hopes that the Warriors can build on the second half of last Friday’s game against North Wood and move forward. “If we can build on the positive things that occurred during that game we should be alright from here on out,” he says, adding, “While we’re disappointed with the loss against North Wood and our performance at Concord, we have a lot of young people so we can’t be too unhappy with how we’ve done — it’s very possible that we could’ve been 3-1 or 4-0 instead of 2-2. ”. The Warriors will invade Plymouth at 7:30 p.m. Friday in hopes of breaking the .500 mark.
82; Beth Kozloski (Valparaiso), 85; Erica Sodak (Lake Central), 86. . Wawasee Scores Barb Butler-97, Michelle Katsanis-102, Teresa West-107, Darcey Smith-125. ( Wawasee-Tippecanoe Wawasee: Michelle Katsanis-46, Teresa West-49, Barb Butler-54, Darcey Smith-61, Jennifer Corn-62. (Highest score is dropped from the team total) / Tippecanoe: Carman Haney-50, Janna Murphy-52, Tara» Nelson-55, Lorrie Erp-56, Heidi Engate-57. (Highest score is dropped from team total) Some tour operators losing hope for Olympic gold LOS ANGELES (AP) - Fears of political unrest, a shortage of Western-style hotel rooms in Seoul and slow ticket sales are causing worries among tour operators hoping to get rich off travel to the Olympic Games, officials said last week.
* 7 */ should be able to “upgrade” their season marks. Four high school games are on this week’s agenda, with Wawasee (hoping to break a modest two game losing streak) traveling to Plymouth as the featured attraction. Elsewhere, Goshen is at Warsaw, Concord travels to Bremen and Elkhart Memorial is on the road at Penn. The other two games on this week’s docket are Purdue at Notre Dame and the Miami Dolphins traveling to In'S, dianapolis to take on the Colts
■ 0 picked up four of his 26 yards on this carry. Despite 110 yards rushing and 127 through the air, Wawasee fell to North Wood 13-7. (Photo by Mark Huffman)
NIC Standing* Conference Overall School W-L PF PA W-L PF PA Goshen 4-0 167 27 4-0 167 27 North Wood 2-1 60 17 3-1 41 57 Wawasee 2-2 50 50 2-2 50 50 Bremen 2-2 50 59 2-2 50 59 Northridge 2-2 50 79 2-2 50 79 - Concord 1-2 17 51 2-2 32 58 Plymouth 1-2 9 13 2-2 37 19 Warsaw 0-3 12 52 0-4 12 94 Friday's Game* Wawasee at Plymouth Goshen at Warsaw Concord at Bremen Northridge at North Wood
JV beaten handily
The Wawasee junior varsity football team suffered a fate similar to its varsity counterpart, although they were beaten in more decisive fashion by the Panthers of North Wood. The JV’ers lost a 22-0 decision in Nappanee last Saturday, Sept. 17. ’ The freshman team was also beaten, 30-6, by Concord last Thursday, Sept. 15., with
Brady's bunch
defeats North Wood
I By SCOTT DAVIDSON Staff Writer “We played well and this was a match that we needed to win in order to improve on our standing in the conference,” stated .Roger Brady, Wawasee Boys’ Tennis Coach, after the Warriors’ 4-1 win over North Wood last night. In singles action for the Warriors, Jason Hollar (at number one) defeated Nate Lelle 6-1, 6-0. At the number two singles spot, Kermit Kropf was beaten by Jamie Pernkert 6-7 (3-7), 3-6. Senior Mike Leedy, playing at the number three position, defeated Jason Evers 6-3,6-0. Both doubles combinations were victorious for Wawasee yesterday, with the number one duo of Jerry Smith and Mason Robbins defeating John Jesse and Sean Mahon 6-1, 6-3, and the number two team of Chris Shidler and Adam Wilson winning by scores of 3-6,6-0,6-4 over LaMarr Lakins and John Fisher.
Wawasee, now 6-6 on the season (2-4 in the NLC), finished second in the LaVille Invitational last Saturday with a team The top performers in the invita-
(who, as reported here last week, are still searching for their first victory). Well, here are this week’s panel of experts with their predictions. HAL TRAVIOLIA — Wawasee, Goshen, Concord, Penn, Notre Dame, Miami. SCOTT DAVIDSON — Wawasee, Goshen, Concord, Penn, Notre Dame, Indianapolis. MARK HUFFMAN — Wawasee, Goshen, Concord, Penn, Notre Dame, Indianapolis. DERK KUHN — Plymouth, Goshen, Bremen, Penn, Purdue, Indianapolis. HOMER MILLER — Wawasee, Goshen, Bremen, Penn, Notre Dame, Miami. MITCH STINSON — Wawasee, Goshen, Concord, Penn, Notre Dame, Indianapolis.
Minuteman Dana Hill pounding the Warriors for two touchdowns and 58 yards on the ground. The junior varsity will host Plymouth Saturday, with the kickoff slated for 10 a.m., while the freshman team will attempt to get back on the winning track at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, when it hosts North Wood.
tional, which was won by Fairfield, for the Warriors were Leedy (first place), the doubles duo of Shidler and Wilson (first place), Hollar (second place), Kropf (third place) and the doubles team of Smith and Robbins (third place). ! “We really did a good job even though Fairfield has a lot stronger team than they had last year,” commented Brady about the invitational. He added that the team’s performance against Northridge, who finished third in the invitational, should give them confidence for today’s important conference meet against the Raiders. The Warriors ateo captured a victory last Thursday (Sept. 15) with a 4-1 victory over Bremen. Helping Wawasee to its first conference win of the season were Kropf and Leedy with singles victories and the combinations of Smith and Robbins and Shidler and Wilson, with doubles wins. “Beating Bremen was a big boost because it was our first NLC win,” Brady remarked. The Warriors are scheduled to arrive in Middlebury for a 4:30 p.m. match against Northridge today. “If we can defeat Northridge, we have an excellent chance at our first winning season ever,” the coach stated. He added that a victory today would also mean that the Warriors would probably finish at least fifth in the NLC, which would also be their best conference finish ever. After today’s match against the Raiders, Wawasee will participate in the NLC Tourney on 1 Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23-24. Brady, who said that he is expecting his team to finish in the top six of the tournament, commented that the team will have one seeded player (Leedy) if he wins his match tonight. The seedings for the NLC tournament clash will be drawn tomorrow and Brady stated that Wawasee will probably be paired against tough opponents in their first round matches. He added that Goshen, Warsaw, Concord and Plymouth are favored to be the top four finishers in the tournament.
The Warriors entertain Manchester next Tuesday, Sept. 27, in their final match before the IHSAA Sectional begins on Friday, Sept. 30. “Manchester is a team that we defeated last season and we should beat them this year also,” Brady concluded.