Red Arrow Raiders suffer loss against Bridgman Bees

BY STAN MADDUX

The Red Arrow Raiders are hoping for a better outcome Friday after starting the high school football the season against two high quality teams with dynamic quarterbacks, who easily turn miscues into huge gains of yardage. The Raiders after receiving the season with losses against tough competition.

The Raiders lost at Bridgman 60-12 Thursday, Sept. 1.

Cadden Krieger scored both touchdowns for the Raiders on pass completions.

The game went strikingly similar to the previous week’s match against Fennville, which won 68-28.

A lot of touchdowns on big yardage plays were given up by the Raiders in each of the contests.

Head Coach Matt Johnson said many of the big plays from Bridgman resulted from mistakes by some of his players on defense.

Johnson said he likes the level of talent on his squad but five of his starters haven’t competed in football in recent years or they’re new to the program and still in the process of learning his system.

He hopes fewer mistakes are made as players become more experienced.

“I attribute it to growing pains. That’s one thing we’re working through. How do we get these kids who haven’t played football in a while to get up to speed a little bit quicker,” he said.

Johnson said the lack of experience also hurt from starting opening game kick off marched in for a touchdown on a 12 play drive. Krieger on a slant play caught a short pass from Ethan Lijewski and broke some tackles to take the ball the rest of the way into the end zone. Krieger, who had over a half dozen receptions, also caught a long pass in the second half for a 67 yard touchdown. Other spectacular moments for the Raiders included quarterback Eli Thomas completing a pass to Ryder Wolnik for an over 50 yard gain.

The Raiders consisting of players from New Buffalo and River Valley high schools play Friday, Sept. 9, at Wyoming-Lee.

Johnson likes his team’s chances against Wyoming Lee, which has lost by similar margins in their first two games of the season.

“I think it’s less at this point what the other team has and more about our ability to gel and execute,” he said.

The Bees responded with a touchdown.

“We have to clean up a lot of those mental mistakes we’re making,” he said.

SPORTS

From the Bleachers

COLUMN BY KURT MARGGRAF IN CHICAGO

Summer, along with the

baseball season, is rapidly coming to an end. The baseball season went as anticipated for the Chicago Cubs. Currently, they are 23 games behind the first place Cardinals with 28 games remaining in their season. I’m forced to utter the phrase that has become a regular September occurrence for me, “wait until next year.”

Being an eternal optimist, I believe the Cubs will be greatly improved next season. Hopefully, they can put together a season of excellence for their fans, particularly the older ones.

The White Sox, on the other hand, have had an extremely disappointing season. After finishing with a record of 93-69 and a playoff berth last season, the Sox record has fallen to 67-67 this season. With only 28 games remaining they are in real danger of falling short of the playoffs, and woefully short of meeting their fans expectations. The team that was a World Series contender last season looks very average right now. Hopefully they’ll get hot and overtake Cleveland and Minnesota in their last 28 games and salvage the season.

The Bears open their season this Sunday at home against the San Francisco 49ers. While the experts are predicting a dismal season for the Bears, I believe they will be very competitive and finish with a record close to .500. The coaching staff looks like they are instilling discipline and hustle into the team, and the players are being put into positions to succeed, a complete turnaround from last season.

They may be a little short in the skill department, but if they are smarter, hustle more, and are more disciplined than their opponents, the Bears should win their share. In any event, individual player improvement, particularly with quarterback Justin Fields, will the key to the season. If Fields can turn into a great quarterback, most of the teams shortcomings will be solved.

Chicago has a world class athlete that doesn’t get near the attention that she deserves. Candace Parker has led her team, the Chicago Sky, back to the semifinals of the WNBA for the second straight year. The 36 year old Parker led the Sky to the championship last year and has her team hot on the championship trail again this year. They lead the Connecticut Sun 2 games to 1 and only need one more win over the Sun to reach the finals again. Parker leads the team with her hustle and her ability and if you ever get an opportunity to see her play, you should take advantage of it.

Notre Dame took the field to battle Ohio State as a 17-point underdog, but battled the Buckeyes evenly before finally succumbing 21-10 in a hard fought game in Ohio. Either Ohio State isn’t as good as usual or, more likely, Notre Dame is better than people thought. This season may turn out to be a special one.

The Dalai Lama said, “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”

Be careful out there. Talk to you next week. Peace, love, and happiness.

Bison loses hard-fought match against Lake Michigan Catholic in volleyball match

The New Buffalo High School volleyball team lost a hard-fought match at Lake Michigan Catholic Wednesday, Aug. 31.

The Lady Bison (7-5-2) won the first two games 25-16 and 25-19.

However, LMC claimed victory by winning the next three games of the match 25-21, 25-23 and 15-9.

The loss could be viewed as a letdown after the Lady Bison in spectacular fashion at times defeated White Pigeon in three sets.

Head coach Bruce Malineaux said LMC was a tougher opponent but it was a match his team should have won.

“We’re not as quick as I’d like use to be and we made some mistakes there at the end,” he said.

Jane Funk and Ava Johnson led the team on offense.

Funk had 23 kills while Johnson racked up 27 assists.

Amanda Jones led all defenders with 19 digs while Funk added 12 digs and Liz Schmock contributed nine digs.

Hard striking Benita Puskinigus led all Lady Bison servers with nine aces.

Malineaux said the team needs to improve mostly with getting to the ball quicker on defense to return difficult to reach balls.

“Our offense is pretty good. We’re working on our defense mostly. That seems to be our Achilles,” he said.

BY STAN MADDUX