ptm EAA a Melanie Raspen and Informer’s Fancy WS Tech drops remaining varsity football games By JOHN HOINSKI Staff Writer The West Side Tech football program hit rock bottom last week when the school board’s executive committee decided to drop the remainder of its varsity schedule for this year and finish out at the junior varsity level. But already, coaches and administrators are picking up the pieces and the school may return to varsity competition next year. “Maybe we could play in Division III (Wyoming Valley Conference) or we could go independent, hopefully on the varsity level,” athletic director Bill Morgan stated. “A lot is going to depend on the student body and how interested they are. We are going to start over with ninth and 10th graders. But we will be monitoring the situation very closely to see what develops.” For the time being, however, the Titans will be finishing out the remainder of the schedule on a JV level with approximately 20 athletes participating, excluding seniors. “I feel bad for the seniors,” Coach Gary Morgantini said. ‘They worked very hard. It’s just too bad they won’t be playing the rest of the year.” After four games this year, Tech was winless and had been shut out in its last three outings. But it was in their last game, a 47-0 shutout at the hands of Panther Valley, that the Titans suffered their darkest moment. Starting quarterback Vince Reese collapsed during the second quarter while standing on the sidelines. He was taken to the Nesbitt Memorial Hospital and later underwent an operation to repair a broken blood vessel under his skull. The operation w2s caccessful and Reese, a junior, is now recuperating. But officials did not see the scare as the reason why the program was dropped to a lower level. “Overall, I wouldn’t say that was the reason,” Morgan said. “Basically, we couldn’t compete. We lost our quarterback, some of our linebackers and two defensive backs. We had to drop the rest of the schedule.” Morgantini agrees: “Yeah, I thought it was a good idea at this time. We had a rough schedule coming up with teams like Dallas, Crestwood and Lake-Lehman and we lost too many key players.” But, we really were not getting beat up on the field,” he continued. “We had the normal bumps and bruises, buts we were going to be getting six players back shortly. Now we have to go back to square one and see what develops.” are no plans to drop the program. “It is important to continue the sports program to round out the students’ education,” said Ernest Ashbridge, Dallas representative of the executive committee. Added George Pyle, administrative director of the school, “Gary Morgantini has done a good job of turning the situation around. And we are going to stay with it. But if that means dropping to the JV level for now, then so be it. “It would be nice if we could get a lot of people out for the team, but the basic goal, for the kids is to get their diploma,” he continued. “We don’t have a feeder system to bring kids along and a lot of the students at the school work in the afternoon, so it is difficult to get a big turnout. But I think we need to maintain a full athletic program.” Three Back Mountain resi- dents will be representing the Riding Ho 4-H Club this weekend at the 4-H State Horse Show at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg. They are Brian Wesley of Dallas, showing Cobblestone Corky; Melanie Raspen, Sweet Valley, showin Informer’s ancy; an Christy Campbell, Sweet Meyers blanks Lehman By CHARLOT M. DENMON Staff Correspondent With less than three ‘minutes remaining in the ball game Satur- day night, Lake-Lehman Coach Rich Gorgone had hopes of defeat- ing Meyers. His Knights had posses- sion and were driving downfield and were close to field goal range. Gorgone’s hopes faded when Charlie Smith intercepted Knight quarterback Lenny Annetta’s pass and ran the ball to the Lake- Lehman 24-yard line. Six plays later the Mohawks took it in for a score. Added to an earlier two-point safety, the Mohawks walked away with an 8-0 win. Both teams played a strong defen- sive game and the Black Knights held the Mohawks ‘Rocket’ Ismael from breaking loose for big runs. Their defense stopped Ismael nine times for about 20 yards in losses. Playing to a scoreless tie in the first half, both teams had opportuni- ties to score but penalties and turn- overs proved to be the Knights’ downfall. - In the first quarter, Lake-Lehman stopped a Mohawk 45-yard drive to the 9-yard line. At the 9-yard line with first and goal to go, the Knights defense held and they stopped Mike Garbush and Ismael for losses, taking over in their own territory. The Knights had an opportunity to get on the board in the first half when Scott Wascalus took Annetta’s first down handoff and went to the 9-yard line. When he was hit he fumbled the ball into Mohawk. Char- lie Smith’s hands. Several times during the half, the Knights were down near the end- Denmon edges Jones Charlot Denmon picked up five victories last week while last week’s leading prognosticator, Jack Jones, picked up only four as the two move into a tie for first place this week with identical 28-6 records. With the forfeiture of the remain- der of the season by West Side Techn, all the prognosticators were awarded with a victory in that game last week. Denmon, in moving into a first-place tie, lost only the Pittsburgh-Temple game while Jones lost that game as well as the Notre Dame-Alabama contest. Temple surprised Pitt with a 19-13 victory while Alabama trounced the Fighting irish, 28-10. , Hanging on to second place is GoalPOST Petie at 26-18. Petie lost { Valley Creek In addition to these three Back Mountain residents, other Luzerne County resi- dents who will be competing at the state show this year are Laurie Barna, Katie Burnside, Lori Daro, Beth Finn, Finn, also of Dallas; iy McLaughlin, Kim McLaughlin, Kristine Nar- showing Honey noopy. : - done ney Peterson, Carol Sudol, Michelle Wolfe and Catherine Yanchunas. Christy Campbell has moved to states in the fol- lowing classes: Keyhole Cloverleaf, Sr. Stock Sea Equitation, Open Trail, Plea- sure Pairs and Western Riding. Brian Wesley has made it to States in Pony Pleasure Driving while Melanie Raspen has made it to States in Stock Seat Equi- tation Jr., Western Pleasure Horses and Pleasure Pairs. Leaders of the Riding Ho 4- H Club are Wendy and Tom Martin, Dallas; Butch Grey, Dallas; Mr. and Mrs. Tom Raspen, Sweet alley; Mr. and rs. Mike rown, Dallas; Dana Campbell, Sweet Valley and Debbie Atherhold, Lehman. Thrown for a loss Dallas Post/Charlot M. Denmon when he sees Ismael is alright. zone, but each time penalties for holding or clipping sent them back and they had to punt the ball away. With only seconds on the clock, Gorgone went for a 50-yard field goal but kicker Scott Shafer’s kick was short and the half ended in a scoreless tie. Both defenses were aggressive in the second half and the Knights held Meyers to less than 85 yards while they were held by Meyers to 30. Lake-Lehman had four turnovers in the second half with Smith recover- ing two of the fumbles and inter- cepting one of Annetta’s passes. Lehman’s Chris Frederick and Stanley Simms were all over the field and Frederick made some good gains for the Knights. Meyers put the first two points on the board in the third period when Jim Royal hit Scott Wascalus in the Knights endzone for a safety only four minutes into the quarter. With only 2:19 on the clock in the final quarter, Ismael took the ball in from the four yard line for the score. Meyers try for the extra point went wide and the game ended 8-0. “Our kids played well,” said Gor- gone. “We held Ismael, but it was penalties and the turnovers that killed us. Meyers played a good game but we kept up with them. Now we have to plan and work for Nanticoke. They have a good team and they are big, it won’t be easy.” After the Nanticoke game, the Knights have a two-week layoff. October 17 is an open date and October 24 they were scheduled to play West Side Tech, who has dropped this season’s varsity sched- ule. Dotty John Charlot John Jack GoalPOST MARTIN HOINSKI DENMON OLIVER JONES PETIE (25:9) (25-9) (28-6) (23-11) (28-6) (26-8) Dallas/ WA Dallas WA Dallas Dallas WA Wyoming Area 14-6 21-14 28-10 14-12 18-7 14-0 Lehman/ Nanticoke Nanticoke Nanticoke Lehman Nanticoke Lehman Nanticoke 14-12 13-7 16-13 14-7 13-7 14-6 O'Reilly Freeland Freeland Freeland O'Reilly Freeland Freeland Freeland 21-6 20-6 28-7 12-0 21-7 21-14 Wyo. Seminary Sem Sem Sem Sem Sem Sem Blair 28-6 28-12 21-6 17-14 14-7 14-0 PSU PSU PSU PSU PSU. PSU PSU Cincinnati 28-13 30-0 24-17 35-7 28-14 28-0 Pitt ND ND ND ND ND ND Notre Dame 21-14 24-13 21-13 27-14 21-7 21-12 only one game this week in the Pitt- Temple contest, having chosen the Panthers to gain victory in that game. Dotty Martin and John Hoinski are tied for fourth place at 25-9 while John Oliver, with a 23-11 slate, brings up the rear. This week, the prognosticators are split on the Back Mountain contests as Lake-Lehman faces Martin, Hoinski, Denmon and Jones give the Nanticoke Area Tigers the nod. Hoinski, Oliver and Jones give the Mountaineers an edge over the Wyoming Area Warriors while Denmon, GoalPOST Petie and Martin, a Wyoming Area graduate, 4 favor Paul Marranca’s charges. .. Oliver likes Bishop O’Reilly while the rest of the prognosticators favor Freelance and Seminary is a hands- down favorite over Blair. In the two college games on tap for this weekend, Penn State is unanimously tapped to defeat Cin- cinnati while the Fighting Irish of ‘defeat Pittsburgh. i
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