The fourth wall : a Penn State Mont Alto student periodical. (Mont Alto, PA) 2004-????, September 01, 2005, Image 6

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The Fourth Wall
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Kyle Rondeau
On September 30, 2005 at
11:47 am Officer Dirk Hough
received a report that there was
damage to some vehicles
parked in the lower lot near
Mont Alto Hall. On
investigation he found that
there were two cars damaged
apparently from some form of
pellet gun, most likely a BB
gun. The total damage to both
cars was three windows ending
up being shot out. One vehicle
had the back window and
passenger window shot out.
The other vehicle also had the
passenger side window broken.
As I looked further into it, I
found that both cars that had
their windows shot out were
similar in shape and model.
The crime is still under
investigation as it happened
early in the morning and there
were no witnesses and the
crime wasn’t discovered until
the next morning. The charges
that will be filed, if the
investigation is ever put to rest,
will be criminal mischief,
which is a petty offense. Petty
offenses are minor traffic tickets,
parking violations, and minor
infractions on local
ordinances. Typical
punishment for a petty offense
would be a fine exceeding no
more then $1,000.
If you plead guilty you will
just have to pay your fine, but
pleading not guilty will end
you up in court for a trial
usually in front of the district
magistrate.
Travis Johnson
The Nittany Lions are on top
of the Big Ten conference but
don’t seem to be getting the
respect they deserve for their re-
discovered success. A week
after beating a potential
national championship team in
the Ohio State Buckeyes, many
“experts” picked Penn State to
lose to unranked Michigan in
Ann Arbor. I understand that
the anchors of ESPN’s College
Gameday figured Penn State’s
starting freshman (there are
many of them) wouldn’t be
able to deal with the pressure
of playing in “The Big House,”
the largest stadium and crowd
in all of college football. Come
on now, these kids can play,
and they play at home in the
second largest stadium in the
Big Ten, Beaver Stadium.
My argument may sound
stupid now, because Michigan
did win the game. However,
one must look past this and see
the big picture. How did
Michigan win? A wolverine fan
will tell you they won the game
on a brilliant Chad Henne pass
with one second to go, a hard
fought, honest win. That’s not
what I saw. As a football fan
in general, I saw a robbery.
Michigan needed to score a
touchdown to win the game.
As far as I'm concerned, the
game was over when Henne
completed a pass underneath to
a Michigan receiver who was
tackled short of the end zone,
but that wasn’t the case. There
was still one second left on the
clock, time for one more try.
This second should not have
been there. Earlier, while the
wolverines were driving, head
coach Lloyd Carr called a
timeout. The referees stopped
the clock when they heard him
call the timeout, but Carr
wasn’t happy with how much
time had ticked away before the
referees stopped the clock. The
Michigan coach argued with
the officials and was able to get
two more seconds added to the
game time; the extra second
that gave Michigan the win.
This 1s the most ridiculous
thing I have personally ever
seen. How could the officials
give him two seconds back? He
could have told them he called
timeout five seconds previous
to the clock stopping and
gotten five seconds added to the
game time, maybe time for an
additional play if his offense
had failed to score the second
time.
The time added to the clock
wasn’t the only controversy to
help Michigan in the game
either. In the third quarter,
Michigan running back Mike
Hart fumbled the football and
it was not reviewed. In the
fourth quarter, Michigan
receiver Jason Avant made a
catch but only managed to get
one heel in bounds; however,
the referees ruled it a catch that
gave Michigan a drive, saving
first down. Did anyone else
notice how Michigan seemed
to be getting very generous
spots on their runs as well?
Some officiating. Are you
kidding me?
Penn State played a better
game than Michigan and in
my opinion won everywhere
except on the scoreboard,
unfortunately where it
“statistically” counts. It’s a
crying shame to see kids play
their hearts out only to have a
game torn away from them
based on bonehead calls from
officials who you want to ask,
“How much are you
influenced by the pro-Michigan
media surrounding the game
and the crowd in the ‘Big
House?”
The bottom line here is Penn
State is better than Michigan.
It’s sad to say how much a
highly controversial loss to the
Wolverines can skew how
good a team the Lions are in
the national eye. While they’re
still on top in the conference
standings and ranked in the top
ten in the Bowl Championship
Series, the “loss” to Michigan
is very important in the long
run, because without the
“ghost seconds,” Penn State is
still undefeated and maybe
closer to a national title. Maybe
the only upside to this story is
we get Michigan at Beaver
Stadium next year, where we
won't need any extra time to
win the game.
Phone: 814-234-0333
0Q Fax: 814-234-0474
ent southgateapartments
NTR @hotmail.com