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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