¢ o Section?2 i Wednesday, August 9, 1995 st The Dallas Post SportsWeek ‘Hl School news HM Classified Hl Calendar vo Playoffs begin this week 0) : Athletic Image used Ryan Swank’s 14 point effort to nip The | Lion Inc. 38-35 in the Dallas Rec Summer Basketball League. The win kept the victor's playoff hopes alive. John Thomas had 13 to pace the Lion. Woychick Accounting kept roll- ing towards the playoffs with a 58-57 win over the Knights. DP Chuck Wilson led the way with 21 ~~ points while Rich Davis had 26 for the Knights who despite the loss are still playoff bound. The best game of the evening saw Cook's nip the Untouchables 63-62 to keep their playoff hope alive and eliminate the losers. Jay Straigis fired in 26 for Cook's and Jason Pieczynski had 26 for the Untouchables who closed out their ¥) §@ season. Playoffaction opens on Wednes- day, Aug. 9 with two semi-final games beginning at 5:30 at the Kenneth Young Memorial Park on Burndale Road in Dallas. Playoff Schedule: Wed. Aug. 9 - Semi-finals 5:30 ‘and 6:30, p.m., teams to be announced. Mon. Aug. 14 - Championship game at 6 p.m. << | Previous week's action Woychick Accounting used a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Untouchables 65-50 in the Dallas Rec Center Summer Bas- ketball League. Mark Millington, Tim Sutliff, Lou Woychick and Bernie Simonovich all scored 11 D & or more points for the victors. Steve Smith had a big night with 24 for the losers. Cook's got back on the winning track by besting The Lion 74-59. George Marut's 29 led the win- ning squad while John Thomas had 18 in a losing effort. | Hosey's kept their undefeated record intact by dumping the Knights 48-33. Steve Gardner's | ' © 12 points led the balanced attack yi ®y while Rich Davis had 11 for the Knights. Earlier that week the Knights nipped Cook's 58-57 despite George Marut's 29 points for Cook’s. Rob Wilson's 19 led the victors. Hosey's beat The Lion Inc. 76-68 behind Nafty Hage’s 21 hol @ See PLAYOFFS, pg 10 Dallas High School graduate and soccer standout Alisa Merolli has announced that she will con- tinue her academic and athletic careers at Wilkes University this b fall. | y ® Merolli was a three-year starter | and letter winner for coach Ron Moran. Merolli was a first team all-star selection and captain her senior year and competed in the Nascup senior all-star game. In addition to soccer, Merolli | was a two-year starter and three- year letter winner for the Dallas ® Geisinger W.V. golf tourney August 21 Nu The Geisinger Wyoming Valley Golf Tournament will be held August 21, beginning at 12:30 try Club in Hanover Township. b ¢@ year's captain and crew tourna- ment include a 1995 Chevrolet Lumina hole-in-one awards com- pliments of Valley Chevrolet. Additional hole-in-one awards and prizes for flight winners, closest to the pin on all four of the par threes, two longest drives and a closest to the line will also be presented. ~~ calling Geisinger public affairs at 826-7717. p.m. at the Wyoming Valley Coun- Prizes and surprises for this POST PHOTOS/RON BARTIZEK The action was hot and heavy Monday night in the last night of regular season play in the Dallas Adult Rec Basketball League. Above, Lou Woychick took a hit from Mike McCue late in the game, as Athletic Image tried to catch up. Below, left, Bill Cuff, in Pitt shirt, grabs a rebound from Stan Panushka during the game between The Lion and the Knights. Below right, Paul Darling puts up a shot. Alisa Merolli chiosss Wilkes volleyball team and received first team all-star honors. Off the field, Merolli was a member of the Student Council, Steering Committee, and the National Honor Society. Academi- cally, Merolli was named to Who's Who Among American High School Students and Youth Salute. Alisa is the daughter of Adrian and Nancy Merolli and will be a biology major at Wilkes under the Hahnemann Guthrie Scholar program. ALISA MEROLLI Taroli wins three silvers at Keystones Gary Taroli of Dallas captured three medals this past weekend at the Keystone State Games in Harrisburg. Taroli received silver medals in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle swimming competitions. Girls softball team finishes third in state The Back Mountain girls returned home from the Pennsylvania State Little League Softball tournament with the bronze medal last week. The District 16 and Section 4 champions opened the tournament with an 8-5 win over Warrington, the champions of Section 5, on Sunday. West Point, the defending state champion, sent Back Mountain into the losers bracket by virtue of a 12-5 win on Tuesday. The score was tied at 5 going into the last inning before West Point exploded for seven runs. Back Mountain still could have claimed the state title by then defeating Warren, in a losers bracket contest, and beating West Point twice. A 5-run fourth inning broke a 3-3 tie on Wednesday and carried Entry forms are available by Warren to a 10-8 victory, giving the locals third place in the state. All of last week's action took place at the Windber Little League Field near Johnstown By LEN KRYESKI Sports Writer DALLAS - The scorer’'s table could be used for picnics. There's no electric scoreboard. The time keeper holds a stop watch and yells out the remaining time every couple of minutes before counting down the final 15 seconds of each half. The person in charge of the score must constantly turn over red or blue strips of vinyl with large white numbers on them. The possession arrow is a ping pong ~ paddle. Spectators number any- where from five to 40 people — not including those gliding by on bi- cycles or walking their dogs. Such is life in the Dallas Bor- ough Recreation Adult Summer Basketball League, now in its fourth season of play, and in case you're still wondering — yes the games are played outdoors, on a blacktop surface. But the players don't want for enthusiasm. For many of them, participating goes beyond the need to stay in shape — they still have a burning desire to play the game of basketball at a competitive level. Many are current and former high school and college players from the area. Participants range from age 15 to 40. Figs : : “You've got young guys play- ing, you've got old guys playing, it’s justawell run league,” said Chuck Wilson a member of the Woychick Accounting team and a resident of Dallas. “Close to 90 percent of the play- ers are from the Back Mountain,” said Jack Wolensky, Dallas Bor- ough Recreation Director. “Most of the players in the league keep coming back every year.” The league is comprised of seven teams this summer, each playing a 12-game schedule. All contests are played at Kenneth Young Memorial Park every Mon- day and Wednesday beginning in mid-June. Games postponed by rain are generally made up on Tuesday. Three games are played each night with the first at 5:15. “All of the games are completed before sunset, so lighting is not a problem. . the same time. f Competitive fires burn on the blacktop “These young guys run us in the ground... but they don’t always win because they don’t play as smart as the older guys.” Brian Cutter Dallas rec basketball player (One of the older ones) Game time is 40 minutes, di- vided by two, 20 minute halves. Players don't receive much of a breather at intermission either — halftime is roughly five minutes. There is one rule unique to the league: all three pointers con- verted in the final two minutes of play count for four points. “It's happened,” Wolensky said. “They've tied at the buzzer with the four and we've had to go into over- time. (The rule) makes the game , more interesting.” Brian Cutter, one of the cap- tains of the Athletic Image team enjoys the level of play the league has to offer. It's serious and fun at The Nanticoke resident is also a former Dallas High School hoopster and likes playing the game with old friends. “These young guys run us in the ground,” said Cutter. “They hold up better and they're more talented, but they don’t always win because they don't play as smart as the older guys.” Fouryears ago, it was the inter- est of the older players that helped the league get its start. Many of them questioned the recreation board about the possibility of an adult league in Dallas. “There was always guys play- ing pick-up here,” Wolensky said, “and they asked why don’t we do something like that. We're just lucky with have so many guys interested enough to play every year.” One of the players instrumen- tal in helping the league get off its See FIRES BURN, pg 10 Coaches may face tough choice on girls' soccer schedule By LEN KRYESKI Sports Writer The state of Pennsylvania now crowns a girls high school soccer champion in both the fall and the spring. Last week the Pennsylva- nia Interscholastic Athletic Asso- ciation (PIAA) took the first step to do away with awarding a girls trophy in May. Girls in the eastern part of the commonwealth, including the Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2, play their soccer in the spring. Local coaches and offi- cials will have some tough deci- sions to make if PIAA votes to do away with the spring champion- ship tournament. Should they go along with the western part of the state and crown a true champion in the fall, or keep the sport in the spring and not be eligible for a state title? “We're not looking to disrupt any of the other fall sports, but Jan and I would like to go with the rest of the state,” said Dave El- ston, one half of the husband/ wife coaching team at Lake- Lehman. “Every other sport has the opportunity to play for a state championship; girls soccer should “It’s too early to speculate and I really love coaching both sports.” Ron Moran Dallas High School soccer and field hockey coach also have a true champion.” Moving girls soccer would cause an overload of girls sports in the fall. Girls would have their choice of not only soccer, but field hockey, volleyball, golf and cross country. Their spring choices would be narrowed to softball and track and field. Girls may com- pete in tennis in the spring, but must do so on the boys team. “I really don't think the state is looking at this the way it should be,” said Dallas girls’ soccer coach Ron Moran, “and that's participa- tion. They're supposed to be worried about participation. (Last week's) vote was not a clear ma- jority; why is it even an issue?” The measure passed by one vote, 9-8, with one abstention. District 2 voted no to having a single championship in the au- tumn. For the measure to be- come binding it must be approved at two more voting sessions - the final of which will be this spring. If passed, the Wyoming Valley Conference can play within it's - current structure until the end of the 1997/98 school year. Playing soccer in the fall, the same time as the boys season, could also create a problem with a lack of fields, officials and refe- rees. If needed, Dallas could come up with a second soccer field. When the Elstons where hired by Lehman twoyears ago they warned Lehman officials a second field could be needed in the near fu- ture. One could easily be built right on the Lehman high school grounds. As interest in the sport grows, PIAA officials feel there will be more and more referees to go around. Coaches could be a prob- lem since many on the local scene guide both the boys’ and girls’ teams at their respective schools. That is not a problem with Paul Callahan at Dallas and Mark Stroney at Lehman for the boys, See SOCCER, pg 10 a A TE ET SN EN at od BE sede lie SIN SE) Tabi ELEN HT OA
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers