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Red & Black 14 Sports sports Student Athlete Spotlight: Nick Drake ‘21

The Presidants celebrate after a Super Regional Series Victory over Misericordia.

Nicholas Krugh Red & Black Editor

Nicholas “Tahfi” Drake ‘21 has been a member of the Washington & Jefferson baseball team for three years. Drake is from Canonsburg, Pa. and he attended Canon McMillan High School.

He started playing baseball 15 years ago and had always wanted to play baseball in college. Because he grew up in a local area, he had often heard about W&J’s prestige. He knew W&J had a great academic reputation and an even better baseball team. It just so happened that he was good enough to be able to play for the tough program.

In high school, he played first base and third base. However, he has transitioned to a starting pitcher at W&J.

Drake believes that the most challenging part of his position is throwing pitches to make the batter strike and limiting barrels, which are hard hits.

Even still, Drake rises up to the challenge. “Every play starts with you. There’s a certain level of confidence you need to have with each pitch and trust in your mechanics to execute,” Drake described the importance of his position. W&J baseball is coached by head coach Jeff Mountain, Nic Rush and Josh Crummer. Coach Mountain has led the team to great accomplishments during his time at W&J and it is a privilege to play under him.

Drake accredited the coaching staff’s success to their experience, “Coach Mountain and Rush have years of experience under their belts. Josh Crummer played under Mountain, so he understands the coaching technique and the players’ point of views.” Drake’s favorite memory from W&J baseball is participating in the DIII World Series.

He enjoys being on the teams and the friendships he has formed with his

Courtesy Jill Kalinski

teammates on and off of the field. Although this year’s spring season may be in question due to COVID-19, the team has put in countless hours of work in the fall season preparing.

Drake has high expectations for his teammates and their season, “The team is going to give it all and do the best we can to succeed. Since we’ve had great success in the recent past, we expect to carry that momentum into another season.”

Drake and his fellow President teammates will continue to prepare as if this was a normal year. They expect that to be a huge benefit if the season does come to be.

13 November 2020 Sports 15 Red & Black Steelers Move To 8-0 for First Time In History

Eric Ebron hurdles a Cowboys’ defender to score a touchdown.

Courtesy USA Today

Grant Allison Red & Black Staff

The Pittsburgh Steelers have improved their record to an impressive 8-0 for the first time in franchise history. Meaning Chuck Noll and the Steel Curtain or Bill Cowher and the likes of Troy Polamalu never made it to 8-0. With that being said it is definitely important to appreciate our current Steelers team and understand that seasons like this don’t come around very often. However, after this last showing against the Dallas Cowboys I do not feel like the Steelers deserve the praise that their record asks for. Coming into Sunday, Dallas has been one of the worst teams in the league with huge quarterback issues and a defense that hasn’t been able to stop much. The final tally of the score saw the Steelers victorious 24-19, with the Steelers trailing 13-9 at halftime. So, the second week in a row that Ben Roethlisberger has had to mount a comeback in the second half, which is amazing in all rights just slightly underwhelming in terms of an 8-0 team.

Big Ben ended up eclipsing 300 yards passing and three touchdown passes. He continues to show doubters that he can still sling the rock after nearly 15 years and numerous injuries throughout his career. The Steelers wide receivers had a good weekend, seemingly overshadowing the underperformance by the running backs.

After the game, some of the Pittsburgh offensive linemen gave credit to the Dallas defense, stating that they had the best pass rush that they had faced all year.

Although it wasn’t pretty on offense, getting a win in the NFL is no small feat, and the Steelers have shown in past that they will play down to the level of their competition, which is a bad habit this team needs to break.

Sunday afternoon saw the Steelers defense look not up to par at points, but at the end of the day they still get the job done.

Pittsburgh’s defense currently is tied for first in the NFL in interceptions with 11, and is in sole possession of first place for sacks with 32 total. The defense continues to be the most constant piece of the Steelers team.

Head Coach Mike Tomlin made it into the history books this past weekend, passing the legendary Tony Dungy for most wins by a Black head coach in the history of the NFL. He also makes history by becoming the only coach to have no losing seasons in 14 full seasons with a team.

This just shows how much talent the Steelers organization really possess, from the front office to the field this team is making a case for the best season in its franchise’s history.

They will look to improve their record this coming weekend with a divisional matchup against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.

16 Sports Red & Black 13 November 2020 Fantasy Football: Start Them or Sit Them

Start Them

James Connor

Pittsburgh Steelers hB Outside of these last two weeks, this Steelers team has run the ball very well. Connor has been a very pleasant suprise all year and hopefully this week against the Bengals he can get it going again. The Bengals are a very below average defense this year, so it is the perfect game to force the run. If Pittsburgh wants to win a Super Bowl, Connor is going to be a major reason why.

Matt Stafford

Detriot Lions QB The Lions have dropped two straight, and Stafford is a bit banged up. However, I can’t see them losing to the Washington Football Team this week. Even with Matt Stafford only at 75%, I think the Lions’ offense will have easy success against a struggling football team’s secondary.

Sit Them

Justin Herbert

Los Angeles Chargers QB I am on the Justin Herbert bandwagon and sipping the KoolAid. I think the Chargers have their signal caller of the future. However, I am not sipping the Kool-Aid of the whole Chargers team. Week in and week out, Herbert handles his business but the rest of the team fails him. I don’t like the way it looks for the Chargers heading into Miami against a red-hot Dolphins team lead by an explosive big play defense. This might be a forgettable game for Herbert in the end.

D.K. Metcalf

Seatltle Seahawks WR Metcalf has worked his way into the “best reciever in the league” conversation this year. His big time speed has shown he can take the top off any defense but the real growth this year has come in his route running in general. He has torched just about every defense and corner he has faced this year. Not to mention the connection between him and his MVP canidiate QB, Russell Wilson, is at an all time high. But the Seahawks face the Rams this weekend and if there is one corner to shut down Metcalf it is Jalen Ramsey. As a fan, I am excited to watch this match up all game but, as a fantasy player, I wouldn’t be high on Metcalf this week at all.

Courtesy Detriot Lions