Section 2 0 Wednesday, February 28, 1996 . , Friends on ice and off close * * out prep careers By LEN KRYESKI Sports Writer ® DALLAS - [t was a bittersweet + ending to the high school hockey season when Wyoming Seminary, the host school, captured the Pennsylvania Prep School Tour- nament with a rousing 7-1 victory over Malvern Prep at the Wilkes- Barre Ice-A-Rama Saturday night. With the upperclassmen lead- ing the way, the Seminary icers played some of their best and 4 most intense hockey of the sea- son, closing out a 12-16-1 cam- paign. ; For the family and friends of two of the upperclassman, though, it was a somewhat sad affair. Senior co-captains Matt Lloyd and Phil Gager had played the last of many games together. The amount of games numbers in the hundreds. The Back Moun- 4 #a tain duo have been playing ice- ¥ 9 hockey for well over a decade, nearly as long as they've been friends. “My dad got me involved when I was five or six,” said Matt. “I've A. The Bulls, Celtics, Warriors and Heat won first-round playoff games, and will advance to the Dallas Youth Basketball 7th and 8th grade Final Four Saturday at 3 p.m. The Bulls pulled off the upset of the season in the first game Sun- day, when they beat the Sixers 69-68. John Lukasavage sank the second of two foul shots with 2 seconds on the clock and the score knotted at 68. The Sixers came into the game with a perfect 10-0 ~~. record, while the Bulls were in he @ last place at the end of the regular | ® ~! season. The Sixers led 22-18 at the end of the first quarter, but the Bulls - began to make things happen in the second period and led at half- time 33-28. The Sixers’ Matt Wycallis cut the Bulls lead in the third quarter to 49-48. MattJack- son, the Sixers’ big man, picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth : quarter, but the team didn’t quit. © “ Wycallis canned 13 of his game- high 34 points in the fourth before also fouling out. The Bulls offense was led by Mike Regan with 32 points, fol- | lowed by Lloyd Droppers and Lukasavage with 9 each, and Robbie Amann with six points. Wycallis led the Sixers’ offense with 34, followed by Jackson with a 20. be The Dallas Post SportsWeek POST PHOTO/RON BARTIZEK Phil Gager, left, and Matt Lloyd closed out their prep hockey careers Saturday night in Wyoming Seminary's win over Malvern Prep, for the title in the PA Prep School Tournament. been playing ever since.” Shortly thereafter, Phil was itching to lace up a pair of ice skates. “I was friends with Matt and he got me started,” Gager said. “His father played in high school and college. 1 started learning [rom him.” Thus, the love affair with hockey was born. Next came the Wilkes- Barre Wings. The youth hockey provided the duo an opportunity to get involved with organized hockey. It also kept them busy in the travel department. Participa- tion in this sport is limited in northeastern Pennsylvania be- cause the Ice-A-Rama is the area's ast-second foul shot gives Bulls upset win In the afternoon's second game, the Celtics edged the Blazers 51- 47. The Blazers came out smok- ing in the first quarter, and held a 13-5 lead at the end of the period. The Celts battled back in the sec- ond quarter behind the hot shoot- ing of Jay Carroll, scoring 13 of his game-high 25 points to give the Celtics a 23-20 lead at the half. The Celts increased their lead in the third quarter behind five 3-point goals, three by Buddy Shah and two by Carroll, and ended the period ahead 43-34. The Blazers narrowed the score in the final quarter, but missed a few crucial shots to give the win to the Celtics® Carroll led the Celtic offense with his 25 points, followed by Shah with 15. The Blazers were led by Chad Woolbert with 16 points, followed by Tom Byron with nine and Chris Wilt with eight points. The Warriors narrowly defeated the Hornets 37-34 in the third game of the afternoon. After let- ting the Warriors take an 11-6 first quarter lead, the Hornets came back tocut theleadto 15-13 at the hall. A stingy Hornet de- fense held the Warriors to just two points in the third quarter, and the Hornets led 20-17 at the end of the period. Both teams caught fire in the last stanza, but the only local facility. : Unlike football or baseball, backyard hockey games are also rare, but now and then they found the time to play the game with other friends on a pond near Gager’s house. Among their many common interests, Lloyd and Gager enjoy doing well in the classroom. Be- ing productive in that environ- ment has enabled them to play their favorite sport at the only high school in the area offering the program - Wyoming Semi- nary. Being members of the Blue Knights meant even more travel, including a few trips to Canada. A career highlight for both was Warriors’ inside game took over to seal the win. The Warrior offense was led by Paul Dougal with 11 points, followed by Kevin Piekara and Justin Bicking with eight points each. John Nackley led the Hornet offense with a game-high 15 points, followed by David Jumper with eight. The Heat defeated’ the Magic 37-26 in the final game of the day. The Heat got off to a fast start, and led 8-4 after one period and 18-12 at the half. The Magic showed some life in the third quarter, outscoring the Heat 12 to 8, but couldn't keep it up in the fourth going nose to nose with the Rus- sian Red Army team, a group of 14-year-olds being groomed to be- come professional players, this past December. The Lloyd and Gager families also benefited from the experience, acting as host families for some of the Russian youths. Matt and Phil are four-year let- ter winners at the varsity level and play on the same front line - Lloyd the center, Gager the right wing. Despite having players from all over the United States, as well as some exchange students [rom the Czech Republic on his roster, See FRIENDS, pg 10 POST PHOTO/RON BARTIZEK John Lukasavage celebrated after sinking the winning foul shot in the Bulls upset ofthe Sixers. David Finn of the Sixers didn't seem to enjoy the moment. quarter, turning the ball over sev- eral times. The Heal offense was led by Danny Fetko with nine points, followed by Joe Stupino and Jason Race with eight each. Ryan Sorber led the Magic with 14, followed by Mike Domzalski with six. Schedule for Final Four, Sat., Mar. 2: 3 p.m.: Bulls vs. Heat 4 p.m.: Warriors vs. Celtics The championship game will be held Sun., Mar. 3 at 3 p.m., followed by the year-end awards and pizza party. Georgetown, Seton Hall, St. John's and Miami will be the Final Four in Dallas Youth basketball 5th and 6th grade playoffs, which will be held Sat., Mar. 2 at the Dallas Middle School gym. Georgetown and Boston Col- lege battled in a close game until the final quarter when the Hoyas went on a 14 to 2 run and posted a 40-22 victory. Paul McCue had 15 points and John Simonitis and ‘Donny Murray scored eight each for Georgetown. Jonathan Vv ~ #@ Barbose and Mike English scored gl | six each for BC. i Georgetown had reached the playoffs with a 31-22 upset of St. : £ 2, John's in their final regular-sea- son game. Simonitis led the Hoyas with 14 points in that contest. Mike Fehlinger and Herb Bressler scored eight each for the Johnnies. BC fell to Pittsburgh 37-20 in their last regular-season meet- ing. Mike Dombroski canned 15 points to lead the Panthers, and Mike English hit seven for BC. Seton Hall moved to the Final Four with a 35-21 victory over Pittsburgh. Tim Faneck led all scorers with 17 points and John Pambianco added 10. Tony VanHorn had a big game on de- fense. Ryan Love scored 10, and Andrew Dale four for the Pan- thers. The Hall had beaten Syracuse 34-28 in the previous week's final regular-season game. Tim Faneck and John Pambianco did most of the damage, scoring 19 and 12 points respectively. Bobby Gebhart led the Orange with 12 points. St. John's moved up with a 57- 22 thrashing of Syracuse, behind a trio in double figures. Herb Bressler had 21 points, Brian Downing 12, and Andrew Check 10 for St. John's. Mike Fehlinger led the ~-sist category. Bobby Zaruta and Gebhart led the ‘Cuse, Final matchups set for 5th, 6th grade basketball playoffs with eight and six points respec- tively. Miami beat Villanova for the second week in a row, 43-14 to advance to the Final Four. Chris Hiester led all scorers with 16 points, followed by Blake Saba with 10. Jeff Dickson scored six for the ‘Cats, and Greg Mascioli chipped in with four. Miami topped Villanova 39-26 a week earlier, to take first place in the regular-season standings. Blake Saba tossed in a game-high 14 points for the ‘Canes, and Dickson led ‘Nova with 10. Jonelle Elgaway picks Ohio State By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff When she visited the Ohio State University campus in January, Jonelle Elgaway as already lean- ing heavily toward attending the Big 10 school. Then she saw the downtown Columbus campus, the stadium and the people, and “I was in awe,” of it all, she said. “Other schools were okay,” Jonelle said Tuesday, “but Ohio State has everything I could ever want.” That includes a first-rate athletic program and excellent academics, including a highly- rated business curriculum, which is what Jonelle intends to study. Those other schools — about 20 of them — couldn't lure the Lake-Lehman field hockey star. They included Boston College, Duke, Syracuse, and a few Ivy League schools. While they each had appeal, they couldn't match the qualities and scholarship package offered by Ohio State. Her scholarship package is “re- ally nice,” Jonelle said. Her new coach’s philosophy is to raise the amount each year, for players who produce. Until a year ago, it was ques- tionable that Jonelle would play field hockey anywhere. She was just beginning to recover from a neck injury suffered in an auto accident, which nearly ended her career. “I was depressed for a while because I didn't think I'd be able to come back,” she said. But Emily Schweitzer made history last weekend by becoming the first swimmer at Dallas to qualify for a trip to states. Schweitzer placed second among females in the District 2 class AA diving competition held atthe Kistler pool in Wilkes-Barre. The Dallas junior tallied 337.80 points after 10 rounds of diving finishing second to Bishop Hoban's Erin Hourigan. Hourigan won the gold medal with 341.85 points. Divers at the AA level needed a top two finish to qualify for the PIAA state meet to be held March 7 at Penn State University's main campus. Dallas began its swim program BM School news HM Classified Bl Calendar JONELLE ELGAWAY she worked hard at physical therapy, began lifting weights and pushed herself into a futures pro- gram and the Keystone State Games, which gave her the confi- dence to come back and be a stalwart of the Black Knight team that reached the semi-finals of the state playoffs last fall. As the number one goalie, Jonelle allowed only four goals during the entire 17-3 campaign, which featured the Knights’ dis- trict championship and first-ever See JONELLE, pg 10 last year and added diving events this winter through the help of Wyoming Valley West. Although they've competed strictly an exhi- bition schedule each of the past two seasons, the Dallas mermen were eligible for post-season com- petition. They'll finally become an official member of the Wyoming Valley Conference, both boys and girls teams, next season. The Lady Mounts’ Stephanie Potisek will receive a ribbon for finishing fourth with 308.55 points. The District 2 swimming events will be held this Thursday evening at Kings College in Wilkes- Barre. 8 Lehman grapplers, one trom Dallas in regionals Eight wrestlers from Lake- Lehman and one from Dallas ex- tended their wrestling season by at least a week by placing in the top four during the Class AA pre- regional tournament at Western Wayne High School Saturday. Lehman advanced eight of its 11 “wrestlers to the Northeast Re- gional Tournament this weekend. Of the four Dallas wrestlers, only Mike Metz earned a trip to Williamsport. No team trophy is awarded at the pre-regionals, which matches the best from Districts 2 and 12, but with five champions, Lehman came home with the most gold medals. Matt Raczkowski (112), Bill Breha (119), Brian Butler (135), and Mike Pitcavage (152) all duplicated their first place fin- ish at districts. Tony Tereska (189), lost adistrict crown in over- time, but redeemed himself after claiming Lehman's fifth champi- onship. Joe Halowich (140) and Ned Walsh (145) took the runner-up positions for the second consecu- tive weekend as did Metz. Breha registered an escape and a takedown in the third period to defeat Metz 5-2 in the 119 cham- pionship. Sophomore Eric Maciejczak fin- ished third at 130 and will make his first appearance at the North- east Regional Tournament. Nick Raczkowski (103) of Lehman, along with John Crispell (135) and Matt Gingo (160) of Dallas just missed by finishing fifth. Gingo avenged his 3-2 con- solation loss of a week ago to Lehman's Pat Rogowski with a 6- 3 decision. Dallas senior Chris Kuderka saw his wrestling career end with a couple of heart-breaking losses. The 140 pounder lost both of his matches by a single point. Lehman freshman Sam Saylor (125) finished his first varsity sea- son with a 1-3 performance. With eight wrestlers still alive, the Black Knights hope to suc- cessfully defend their Northeast Regional team title this weekend. Ten Lehman grapplers competed at the AA level last year. Thirty-three wrestlers from Dis- trict 2 and another 19 from Dis- trict 12 will meet up with the top four finishers from District 4 this Friday and Saturday. A top three finish will be required this week- end to make the trip to states. 5 Sw A AIRE A ER Gh i SE Fh RA SORE Emily Schweitzer becomes first | Dallas diver to make states |
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