The Mail-Journal, Volume 27, Number 35, Milford, Kosciusko County, 12 October 1988 — Page 8

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THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., October 12,1988

Sports

Wawasee rides roller coaster to victory at Fort Wayne Harding

■ By MITCHELL STINSON Wanton took a 17M> Into the locker room. “We executed well,” coach Myron Dickerson said. “We did The Wawasee Warriors rode an '“"f ± d ° emotional roller coaster in their y l got on £ev the scoreboard at S:SO of the first on quarter a «er “tching a K 3BB were on trie warpatn tor 2» /2 4.1 nnoi't’OT* quarters but folded up their tents the> nnddtefrom n^ uart ® r g for awhile in the third and fourth ba s k f quarters. In the end, the Warriors untouched into the end zonefor a emerged with a hard-fought 24-16 15 ? ard . s^ e ma C^ t °* dded the nctoty at a chilly Harding toot- notehed „ t oaii neia. three touc hdown passes in the seWawasee’s gridders dominated cond quarter when he hooked up nearly every phase of the game in with receiver Fred Crouch for a the first half. Randy Cesco’s 58-yard scoring strike. Cesco’s 37-yard field goal as time expired extra point made it 14-0 with 9:02 was the icing on the cake, as the left in the first half.

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UNTOUCHEDFOR THE TOUCHDOWN — Wawasee Warrior Mike Foy begins to raise the ball in celebration as he scores last Friday’s first touchdown on a 15-yard pass play. Harding’s star defender Bryant Branigan (60) could only watch as Foy caught the pass over the middle and sprinted . into the end zone. (Photo By Mitchell Stinson)

Harriers net two honors

The Wawasee Warriors’ boys’ cross country team got. two honors for the price of one last Saturday. They upset Plymouth’s powerful team en route to winning the Northern Lakes Conference meet at Dunlap and became division co-champions with Plymouth in the process. Division champs are determined by a formula that makes conference records count for half the total, while NLC meet results count for the other half. Plymouth finished the season with a conference record of 7-0 and the Warriors ended up at 6-1. The Rockies had beaten the Warriors handily in a dual meet earlier in the season. But Wawasee’s runners must have been inspired by the story of the tortoise and the “harrier” because they kept plugging away and eventually won the big one when they had to. “One of our goals this season was to beat Plymouth,” Minton said. The Warriors finished the meet with a low score of 44 points. Plymouth followed in second with 51 and Bremen was third with 86. The performance of some of their lower runners was the key to the Warriors’ victory. It was a

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JUNIOR HIGH CROSS COUNTRY SQUAD-Members of the INB junior high cross country team, comprised of sixth, seventh and eighth graders from Milford, Syracuse and North Webster Schools, pose before a recent meet against Fairfield at Wawasee High School. Team members in the front row, from left, include: Kara Singrey, Laura Eastman, Amberly Hobbs, Amy Pratt, Kelly Daugherty, Angie

solid effort from top to bottom on the tough Ox Bow course. “That wasn’t one of our best times but it was one of our best team efforts,” Minton explained. The Rockies’ team was weakened by the absence of star runner Glenn Weidner, who was sidelined with an injury. Minton doesn’t want Wawasee’s victory to be tainted, though. “Since we had a guy out I figured that was fair enough,” he said. Jason Douglas recorded the best effort for the Warriors, taking fourth place with a time of 16 minutes and 40 seconds over the 3.1 miles. Jeff Carey finished sixth in 17:07, while Eric Mock overcame recent injuries to place 10th with a time of 17:23. All three runners earned All-Conference honors at the meet. Warsaw’s freshman sensation Jay Hicks placed first in the meet with a time of 16:11. Plymouth runners captured second and third place as Mike Cole and Troy Amor recorded times of 16:13 and 16:25, respectively. In girls’ action the Plymouth Rockies capped a perfect 7-0 season with a win at the meet. Leah Holland paced the Rockies’ effort with a NLC course record time of 15:43 over 2.5 miles.

Harding mounted ? drive late in the half, but it stalled when a fourth-and-nine sweep play came up a half-yard short at the Warrior 7-yard line. When Cesco knocked the field goal through it looked as though the Warriors were headed towards a romp. Their offensive line had pushed Harding’sA defense all over the field and the 1 defense had been able to keep Harding’s offense in check. Things were still looking good w in the early stages of the second half when Mike Page blocked a Harding punt and Foy recovered near the Harding 11-yard line. Three plays later Conkling hit Brad Gerstner for a 10-yard

Overall, the Rockies recorded a score of 40. Warsaw followed in second with 78 and Northridge was third with 91. Wawasee’s girls turned in a strong performance to finish fifth with 104 points. Minton said the girls’ showing at the meet showed how far they have progressed during the season. “A couple breaks there and we could have finished third, which is a tremendous feat from where they started,” he said. Saturday’s (Oct. 15) sectional at East Noble is the next big meet for Wawasee’s runners. Five out of the 11 teams in attendance will advance to the regional. “This is the most important part of the season,” Minton said. “This is what you key for.” NLC Meet Boys lst-Wawasee, 44; 2ndPlymouth, 51; 3rd-Bremen, 86; 4th-Warsaw, 99; sth-Northwood, 100; 6th-Concord, 132; 7thGoshen, 162; Bth-Northridge, 242. Top 10 Boys Ist-Jay Hicks (Warsaw), 16:11; 2nd-Mike Cole (Plymouth), 16:13; 3rd-Troy Amor (Plymouth), 16:25; 4th-Jason Douglas (WAWASEE), 16:40;

Garner, Tiffany Hainge and Erin Titas. Baek row runners are: Jon Ummel, Phillip Ball, Richard Stouder, Courtney Singrey, Brian Grothaus, Tad Denton, Aaron Storey, Ryan Shoemaker, Brad Dunnuck, Andrew Bartlett and Coach Jim Garner. Chris bung, not pictured, is also a member of the team. (Photo by Scott Davidson)

touchdown. Cesco made it three-for-three on the extra point and Wawasee owned a 24-0 lead at 9:41 of the third quarter. “In our first quarters we caught the ball,” Dickerson said. “We did things to keep the momentum going.” The tide began to turn after that score, though. The Warriors offense wasn’t pushing its opponent around anymore and the presence of Harding’s star defensive terror Bryant Branigan was becoming even more disruptive. “After we got that (touchdown) we didn’t do a lot offensively,” Dickerson confirmed. Harding’s offense seemed rejuvenated as well. Setting up from the shotgun position, quarterback Tom Walker was finally able to move his team’s offense. After an interception gave Harding good field position inside Wawasee’s 25-yard line, Walker hit Dave Goodwell for a 20-yard touchdown strike at 5:35 of the third quarter. A two-point conversion made it 24-8. Harding marched 80 yards for a score in 48 seconds to start off the fourth quarter. Goodwell culminated the three-play drive by hooking up with Walker for a 40-yard scoring pass play. Another two-point conversion put the score at 24-16 with 11:12 left in the game. The Warriors rediscovered their offensive line in the fourth quarter and a late, timeconsuming drive, put Wawasee in the driver’s seat. After a Harding punt, the Warriors took possession on their own 24-yard line with 7:11 left in the game. They marched up the field to the Harding 18-yard line before the drive stalled, but the damage had already been done as the drive took nearly six minutes off the clock. “That last drive we had deep in our territory...,” Dickerson said. “That really chewed up a lot of time.” The key play in the drive, and perhaps one of the key plays in the game, occurred on a third-and-seven from the Wawasee 27

sth-Larry Boener (Plymouth), 16:45; 6th-Jeff Carey (WAWASEE), 17:07; 7th-Matt Miller (Northwood), 17:14; BthTerry Burkins (Bremen), 17:16; 9th-Joe Bowman (Bremen), 17:18; lOth-Eric Mock (WAWASEE), 17:23. Other Wawasee Finishers llth-Eric Streby, 17:26; 13thSteve Eastman, 17:33; 16thBryan Jones, 17:39; 36th-Coung Reed, 18:21. Girls Ist-Plymouth, 40; 2nd-Warsaw, 78; 3rd-Northridge, : 91; 4thNorthwood, 95; sth-WAWASEE, 104; 6th-Goshen, 111; 7thBremen, 184; Bth-Concord, 203. Top 10 Girls Ist-Leah Holland (Plymouth), 15:43 (NLC record); 2nd-Jennifer Shumaker (Bremen), 15:53; 3rdBeth Irvine (Warsaw), 15:54; 4thRenita Graber (Northwood), 16:06; sth-Michelle Randolph (Northwood), 16:15; 6th-Michelle Ash (Plymouth), 16:24; 7th-Jeri Slabaugh (Goshen), 16:28; BthMichelle Hamann (Plymouth), 16:33; 9th-Lori Miller (Northridge), 16:35; lOth-Nancy Alderfer (Warsaw), 16:47. Top Wawasee Finishers 15th-Mel Hobbs, 17:03; 16thStacyFreel, 17:04.

with 5:57 remaining. The Warriors ran an end play and ball carrier Mike Foy broke two tackles on his way to the first down. “At that particular point in time I guess you get a little paranoid,” Dickerson said of the conservative play selection. “We felt that was as good a play as we had in our arsenal,” he added. • Scoring Summary First quarter: Wawasee — Mike Foy 15-yard pass from Chris Conkling (Randy Cesco kick). Second quarter: Wawasee — Fred Crouch 58-yard pass from Conkling (Cesco kick). Cesco 37-yard field goal. Third quarter: Wawasee — Brad Gerstner 10-yard pass from Conkling (Cesco kick). Harding — Dave Goodwell 20-yard pass from Tom Walker (Goodwell run). Fourth quarter: Harding — Goodwell 40-yard pass from Walker (Goodwell pass from Walker).

Warriors prepare to ambush Redskins

(By MITCHELL STINSON Staff Writer With last Friday’s victory over Harding under their belts, the Wawasee Warriors will have to raise their game a notch this Friday because the mighty Goshen Redskins are coming to town. The Redskins are the class of the Northern Lakes Conference and are one of the stronger teams in the state. They have a perfect 7-0 season record going into Friday’s season finale. Are the Warriors intimidated by the Redskins? Wawasee >Coach Myron Dickerson says “no.” “These are the kind of things you look forward to,” he said. “You look forward to them to prove your worth as an athlete. ” Dickerson knows his team is going to have its hands full, though. Harding quarterback Tom Walker was able to pass for a lot of yards against the Wawasee defense and Redskins star quarterback Rick Mirer is heads and shoulders above any other signal caller in the league. “We have to put some pressure on the quarterback,” Dickerson said. “Certain^ 1 more than we put on Harding Friday night.” Dickerson won’t mind if Mirer has a good game against his defense. He just doesn’t want the senior quarterback to have a great game. “We are not going to stop Rick Mirer,” Dickerson said. “That’s not even in my mind.” One of the big keys to slowing down the Redskins’ high-powered offense is keeping them off the field. The Warriors offense will have to control the ball and kill as

x Dickerson another "Jimmy the Greek"?

I By SCOTT DAVIDSON Staff Writer Last week’s prediction panel guest, Wawasee Head Football Coach Myron Dickerson, maybe should, have been the man to replace Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder at CBS after blazing through our six “easy” games last week without so much as a hint of a wrong prediction. Dickerson’s only faux pas was when he predicted to our “brilliant” writer Mark Huffman that Penn would only defeat Elkhart Central by two touchdowns (Penn beat Central 31-7). But that was such a * minor point considering Dickerson’s 6-0 call of last week’s contests. Take note Mr. Huffman, it looks like you’re the one who was hit on the head by a Chris Conklipg bullet after firmly placing your foot in your mouth with your comments in last week’s prediction column. Other members of the prediction panel couldn’t quite match our “expert’s” fine week, but our overall leader, The Papers Inc. employee Homer Miller turned in a 5-1 mark, as did Mail-Journal staff writer Mitch Stinson. Your’s truly registered a 4-2 record last week, as did Huffman and Derk Kuhn. The overall season marks of

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NOT QUITE ENOUGH — Wawasee Warrior defenders stopped this Harding runner just shy of a first down on a crucial fourth-and-nine late in the first half. (Photo By Mitchell Stinson)

much time as possible if the defense is going to have a chance. Dickerson hopes his running game can accomplish that and keep the game in the three touchdown range. “If we don’t sustain some drives and take some time off the clock, they’re going to wind up with 50 points,” Dickerson said. Warrior fans can take heart in the fact that the offensive line was impressive in the Warriors 24-16 victory over Harding. That allowed Mike Foy to run wild for

Freshman gridders finish 2-4

I By SCOTT DAVIDSON Staff Writer [ “We were in all of our games this season with the exception maybe of the Concord and Plymouth games,” remarked Jerry Hawkins, Wawasee assistant freshman football coach, looking back over the Warrior’s 2-41988 campaign. Wawasee began the season on September 1 with a 14-6 victory over Bremen. Following the win over the Lions, the Warriors suffered the first of four consecutive losses, dropping a “disappointing” contest to Northridge, 8-0, on September 8. On September 15, Concord handed Wawasee a 30-6 setback as the Warriors, according to Hawkins, played a good first half but then played a poor second half. The Warriors dropped to 1-3 on the year with a 12-6 loss to the North Wood Panthers on

our panel now show Miller with a record of 33-9, while I stand at 28-14, with Huffman, Stinson (with one less Week of picks) and Kuhn all close behind with respective records of 27-15,27-9 and 26-16. The overall record for the four guests that we’ve welcomed to our panel took a healthy climb to 18-6 with Dickerson’s perfect effort. This week we are pleased to welcome Syracuse Police Chief Robert Ziller as our guest expert in residence. Ziller, who is in his third year as Chief of Police, stated that he isn’t really a big sports fan, although he does like to golf and fish in his spare time. Ziller and his wife Betty, who have been married for more than 30 years, have three married children, as well as five grandchildren. Now let’s turn our attention to this week’s slate of games that the panel and our guest must try to predict. Wawasee concludes their 1988 home and regular season this Friday when they entertain NLC foe Goshen, who feature not only an undefeated team but also the do-it-all capabilities of offensive/defensive/special teams star Rick Mirer. Coach Dickerson might be smart to not let Mirer off the team bus when the Redskins arrive at Warrior Field on Friday night! The rest of our high

143 yards on the night. Wawasee’s last home game was one they’d like to forget. At homecoming night, Sept. 30, the Warriors came out flat and dropped a 40-13 decision to the Warsaw Tigers. They were much sharper in the Harding game, however, and the victory gave them a little bit of momentum heading into this Friday’s matchup. “We feel we’re just a tremendously better team than we showed homecoming night,” Dickerson said.

September 22. Hawkins said that turnovers were the problem in the North Wood loss, including an interception late in the game when the Warriors were driving for the apparent tying touchdown. On September 29, Wawasee was defeated 19-0 by Plymouth in a game that Hawkins said was “closer than it looked.” Hawkins added that turnovers were also the downfall of the Warriors against the Pilgrims. Wawasee concluded the 1988 season last Thursday, Oct. 6, with a 12-7 victory over Warsaw to finish at 2-4. Hawkins commented that the Warriors played a pretty good game, adding that a 40 yard touchdown pass with about two minutes remaining provided the difference. Hawkins, who served as assistant coach for Freshman Head Coach Kerry Murphy, stated that the team was hurt this past

S' school action this week finds Concord on the road at rejuvenated Warsaw, Bremen traveling to Northridge and North Wood treking to Plymouth to tackle the Pilgrims. The really “big” game on this week’s prediction card features a match-Up of two of the top collegiate teams in the country this season. Undefeated and number one ranked Miami (I don’t even like the sound of their name) and their band of “merry football misfits” (most of them are better known by their police i.d. numbers) invade Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday to suffer their first loss of the season. The Fighting Irish, 5-0 and ranked fourth in the nation, will be more than glad to introduce Miami and Coach Jimmy Johnson to the “agony of defeat” before a national television audience. Let me just add that a loss to Lou Holtz couldn’t happen to a

NLC Standings School NLC All Goshen 6-0 7-0 Bremen 4-2 5-2 Northridge 4-2 5-2 Wawasee 3-3 4-3 Concord 2-4 3-4 North Wood 2-4 3-4 Warsaw 2-4 2-5 Plymouth 1-5 2-5 Friday's Gaines Goshen at Wawasee Bremen at Northridge Concord at Warsaw North Wood at Plymouth

season by the fact that the team didn’t have a lot of depth. He added that the team had about 10 players who were playing on both offense and defense, and that fact hurt the team in the second half of some of their games. Hawkins stated that some of the bright spots of the past season included quarterback Mark Nicolai, who was playing quarterback for the first time in his career, as well as the team’s running backs. He added that the team’s defense, led by Arie Dewees, performed well throughout the entire season. Looking towards next season, Hawkins said that Wawasee is looking to improve the number of players involved in their program. “It looks like the numbers next season may be down even from this year, but we are hoping to recruit some more players before next season,” concluded Hawkins.

“nicer” guy than Johnson! (P.S. If anyone out there would happen to have a ticket to the Notre Dame-Miami dream match-up that they would like to get rid of, I would gladly take it off of your hands!) By the way, our sixth contest this week has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming to Indianapolis to take on the Colts (talk about a match-up of powerhouses!) Well enough jabbering, here are this week’s guest and prediction panel picks: 808 ZILLER — Wawasee, Warsaw, Bremen, Plymouth, NOTRE DAME, Tampa Bay. SCOTT DAVIDSON — Goshen, Warsaw, Bremen, North Wood, NOTRE DAME, Indianapolis. MARK HUFFMAN - Wawasee, Concord, Bremen, Plymouth, NOTRE DAME, Indianapolis. DERK KUHN — Goshen, Concord, Northridge, Northwood, miami (bod), Tampa Bay. HOMER MILLER — Goshen, Warsaw, Northridge, North Wood, NOTRE DAME, Indianapolis. MITCH STINSON — Goshen, Warsaw, Ndrthridge, North Wood, miami (boo), Indianapolis. » v .„” 1 ,