Tigers too much for banged up Raiders

BY STAN MADDUX

The game was close for a while but, eventually, the Red Arrow Raiders gave in to the size and speed of their opponents in high running back Christian Smith. The Raiders pulled to within 10 points on a quarterback sneak into the end zone from Thomas following a 56-yard gain along the sidelines by school football.

The Raiders (2-4) lost to Lawrence 64-12 in a home game at River Valley High School Friday, Oct. 8.

The Raiders, which is made up of players from River Valley and New Buffalo High School, went into the game not only lacking the athletic ability of the Tigers.

They were without dynamic starting quarterback Michael Bombin, who’s out for the season from a knee injury and Peyton Lijewski, who’s lost for at least a couple of games from an ankle injury.

Both players, who were watching from the sidelines on crutches, were hurt during a game the previous week.

Tough on defense, the Raiders held the Tigers scoreless until late in the first quarter, when quarterback Bol Bok gained 79 yards on a keeper up the middle.

Bok was tackled just short of the goal line by Eli Thomas but on the next play ran the ball into the end zone.

The Raiders quickly came back when freshman quarterback Ethan Lijewski and receiver Michael Flick hooked up for a 74-yard touchdown.

The Tigers started the second quarter with a quick touchdown after intercepting a pass from Lijewski.

Lawrence scored again on an 82yard gain from a screen pass to speedy running back Ben Coffeen. Lawrence, though, responded with a 10-yard screen pass for a touchdown after Bok ran for a 39-yard gain. The Tigers then turned a fumble recovery after the kick off into a touchdown when Smith, after catching a short pass, streaked 55 yards into the end zone. Lawrence led at halftime 34-12 and never looked back. Raiders Head Coach Matt Johnson credited execution of the game plan for his team’s early success. He said Lawrence then discovered how to attack their defense hurt not only by the loss of Bombin, captain of the defense and fierce tackler at middle linebacker, but other injuries forcing junior varsity players to fill the gaps. “Give credit to them. They figured out where we were missing some of our starters and they exploited that,” he said. Johnson said his players losing focus mentally during the second half didn’t help matters. The Raiders play again Friday, Oct. 15, at Bloomingdale. Ethan Lijewski might not be able to play after suffering a possible concussion from a tremendous hit on a two-point conversion attempt.

SPORTS

From the Bleachers

COLUMN BY KURT MARGGRAF IN CHICAGO

I’m speechless, and that’s not a good

thing for a guy who is about to write a column.

Sunday was not just another day in Chicago’s sports world. The day began with more than 33,000 people attempting to run 26.2 miles in the Chicago Marathon.

I actually know a couple of them, nice job Kevin and Terry.

Then, in the early afternoon, the Bears took on the Las Vegas Raiders, and beat them, 20-9. The Bears’ season that appeared to be going down the drain two weeks ago has suddenly turned around, and offered hope to the Bears and their fans.

Later in the afternoon, the Chicago Sky beat the Phoenix Mercury, 91-77, to take a 1-0 lead in the WNBA finals, and to top off the basketball portion of the day, the Bulls won their third straight exhibition game, with a one point victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

All of the above mentioned events were wonderful in themselves, but I’ve saved the best for last.

Growing up a Cub fan, on the south side of Chicago, gave me a unique view of Major League Baseball. It also made sure that I would grow up with the vast majority of my friends being Sox fans. For the first half of my life, I hated the White Sox.

As I grew older, I turned my disdain from the White Sox to the St. Louis Cardinals, and because so many of my friends are Sox fans, I started to pull for them.

I’m still a Cub fan at heart, but it sure was thrilling watching the Sox come back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Houston Astros 12-6.

A stadium full of raucous Sox fans, almost all of whom were wearing black, helped the team come back from the edge of defeat.

That momentum wasn’t enough, as the Sox lost on Tuesday night.

Much like the Cubs when they were on their way to winning the World Series, the Sox have a great bunch of young men that are easy to root for, and have a team to rival for years.

Ex-Cubs are everywhere in the post season.

Dusty Baker is managing the Astros. Kimbrel, Tepera, Cease, and Jimenez played well, and had fun for the Sox.

Bryant is doing really well, and enjoying playing for the Giants, and Schwarber is hitting homers for the Red Sox.

Muhammad Ali said, “If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.”

Refuse hate. Talk to you next week. Peace, love, and happiness.

You never get over losses. I’ve never gotten over one loss I’ve had in my career. They always stick with me. — Tom Brady

Lady Bison stung by Bees

The New Buffalo High School girls’ volleyball team won the first set but lost their match against Bridgman at home Monday, Oct. 11.

The Bees dominated the final three sets when junior Takiya Cornelius seemed almost unstoppable from her slew of hard strikes of the ball over the net.

The Lady Bison successfully returned some of her spikes but looked overwhelmed at times by the speed of her over the top deliveries of the ball at the net. One of her final points was from a ball ricocheting off a Lady Bison defender into the rafters of the gymnasium ceiling.

The Lady Bison (5-1) in their division of the Berrien Cass St. Joseph conference and (9-11-2) overall were

BY STAN MADDUX defeated 25-23, 8-25, 13-25 and 13-25.

New Buffalo trailed 21-17 in the first set but won by scoring eight of the last nine points.

Junior Shannon DeWit ignited the rally with consecutive points off serves.

Senior Ashley Hauseman then scored twice from returning a spike at the net and delivering a spike of her own to the floor.

The Lady Bison won the set from a serve by junior Amanda Jones being returned out of bounds.

The high jumping Cornelius then heated up and later her much taller freshman teammate, Tatyanna Hill, began scoring from spikes.

The Lady Bison also started making more mistakes with returns not clearing the net and landing out of bounds at a higher rate.

Hauseman and freshman Jane Funk led the Lady Bison offensively with a combined 11 kills while sophomore Ava Johnson contributed eight assists.

Hauseman also recorded two aces.

Jones on defense notched a whopping 25 digs.

The Lady Bison won their previous match against Eau Claire 25-14, 25-23 and 25-13.

Jones led the way on offense with seven kills and 10 aces while Johnson had 15 assists.

Jones was also a major factor on defense with 10 digs.