Suburban Second Section 10/07/13

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ePRESSSportsSports

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October 7, 2013

By Mark Griffi nPress Contributing [email protected]

For the past six years the winner of the Genoa-Eastwood game determined the Suburban Lakes League/Northern Buckeye Conference champion.

This year, however, Lake might have something to say about that. The Flyers and Comets could both enter next Friday’s contest at Lake with undefeated records. No one would argue that the Flyers, under fi rst-year coach Mark Emans, are the sur-prise team of the NBC.

Lake, ranked 18th in this week’s As-sociated Press Division IV state poll, beat Fremont St. Joe, Northwood, Ottawa Hills, Otsego and Woodmore heading into Game 6 at Eastwood.

“Our players have done a nice job pre-paring themselves for this season,” Emans said. “It started back in May with the weight room attendance and has continued with the way they practice. Being unbeaten right now is due to their hard work. The players are playing with a high level of confi dence.”

Emans said the Flyers’ 56-20 win over Northwood, a team they had not beaten since 2005, on Sept. 6 provided a huge con-fi dence boost.

“That was probably the starting point in their confi dence level,” he said. “We have a lot of leaders on this team - some se-niors, some juniors. They have kept them-selves grounded and focused.”

Lake (5-0, 2-0) fi gures to get a big test Friday night against Eastwood, which lost to Genoa 41-7 last Friday. The Comets (5-0, 2-0), the state’s third-ranked D-IV team, pose an even bigger hurdle. Genoa blasted the Flyers 79-0 a year ago and is averaging nearly 59 points a game this season.

“Eastwood and Genoa have been the top dogs in this league for over 10 years, while we have been pretty much a middle-of-the-road team,” Emans said. “Playing them will give our program a chance to gauge where we are in the process. Genoa is big, fast and strong. They have been in league championship/playoff caliber-type games for many years and they know what it takes to prepare and win those types of games. We look forward to the challenge of playing them.”

The Flyers have shown good balance offensively this season. Running backs Nick Walsh, Marcel Bryan and Brandon Short, and junior quarterback Jared Rettig, have all rushed for at least 195 yards and average no less than 5.3 yards per carry.

Rettig has passed for 979 yards and 14 touchdowns and is averaging 17.8 yards per completion. Junior Todd Walters and sophomore Adam Duncan have 318 and 317 receiving yards, respectively.

Genoa doesn’t have that kind of run-pass balance, but it hasn’t had to. The Com-ets, who host winless Fostoria this week, are mashing teams on the ground but can beat teams through the air. Senior quarter-back Logan Scott has completed just 10 of 19 passes, but he is averaging 32.4 yards per completion and has thrown three touchdown passes.

“Logan has done a remarkable job in being our fi eld general,” Genoa coach Tim Spiess said.

The Comets’ rushing attack is led by 227-pound senior David Nutter, who has

Look out Comets — Flyers hoping to get their way

Genoa back David Nutter heads downfi eld in the Comets' 41-7 dismantling of visit-ing Eastwood. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/HEHphotos.smugmug.com)

Lake sophomore Adam Duncan stuffs an Ottawa Hills back in the Flyer's 55-6 win. (Press photo by Heather St. John)

GAME OF THE WEEK

The Press/WRSCSports.com

@

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Genoa Comets

Lake Flyers

October 11

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October 11

Genoa Comets

@ Lake Flyers

Lake Community

Stadium

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96 carries for 751 yards and eight touch-downs. Casey Gose has 400 yards and six touchdowns on 23 attempts, and Jake Wojciechowski has 369 yards and fi ve touchdowns on 29 carries.

Senior tackle Michael Dieter, a Wis-consin recruit, anchors the offensive line, but Spiess said several others have looked good up front.

“Tyler Baird, Jay Nino and Blake Traver have exceeded my expectations in the mid-dle of our offensive line,” Spiess said. “Nick Herrick is a great offensive tackle. Quentin Spiess has proven to be a valuable asset with blocking and receiving, and I am very pleased with our stable of running backs.”

Genoa’s defense has 16 interceptions, led by Alex Hayes with fi ve. Even Nick Wolfe, a defensive end, has two picks. Coach Spiess, however, said there is still work to be done.

“At this point in time, I think we are playing as well offensively as our 2009 team,” he said of that 11-1 squad. “Defen-sively, we still have some work to do. We are still missing three starters on the de-fensive side, but they should all be back soon. After fi ve games, we still have a lot of work to do to realize our goal of being NBC champion. I am very pleased with the play of our offensive line and the blocking of our running backs.”

Next week might not be the last meet-ing between the Flyers and Comets. Both teams are in Region 12 in the state com-

puter region, and after fi ve weeks Lake was rated No. 4 and Genoa was fi fth in the rat-ings. The top eight teams in each region qualify for the state playoffs at the end of the regular season.

Lake has been in the playoffs twice, in 2000 and ‘01, while Genoa has reached the postseason the last six years. Emans, how-ever, was the coach at Wauseon when the

Indians won the D-III state title in 1993.“Lake has a state champion head coach

in Mark Emans,” Spiess said. “I had to pre-pare for coach Emans on 15 different oc-casions while I was at Liberty Center. The NWOAL had four different programs win state championships and all four schools had great coaching staffs. I am a better coach today because of those battles.”

By Jeffrey D. NorwalkPress Contributing [email protected]

When it comes to their 5-0 Lake football team, returning all-league play-ers Nick Walsh and Jared Rettig agree that the Flyers can make a bid to become legitimate contenders in the Northern Buckeye Conference under new coach Mark Emans.

They say Emans is giving them the schemes, knowledge, work ethic, and sense of solidarity they need to succeed.

“Coach has fi t in very well in the Lake community. We’ve fully accepted him,” says Rettig. “Thanks to him, we have become a stronger team, both men-tally and phsically, and I think our disci-pline is much improved from last year.”

“This team is different than any other team I’ve been a part of,” contin-ues Lake’s QB. “We are like brothers, and we’ve been gelling so well together ever since Coach Emans came in. Our defense is fast, and full of tough hitters. Our of-fense is more balanced, which makes us tough to stop. Our line has made great improvements. We have two stud run-ning backs in junior Marcel Bryan, and sophomore Brandon Short. Marcel is our quick back, who can hit the holes fast, and bust off big runs, while Brandon is our power back who likes to run people over and push the pile forward.”

Walsh adds, “I really enjoy playing for Coach Emans. He has fi t in so well,

and I love what he’s done with our team this year. When he came in, he told us we needed to get back to playing physi-cal football, and that’s what we’ve done. He’s set high standards for us, and he demands a lot, but we love playing for him.”

“I think what our offensive and de-fensive lines have been able to do in the trenches so far this year. . .that’s the big-gest reason we’ve been successful,” adds the Flyer captain. “Our lines have greatly stepped up, and they don’t get as much credit as they deserve! And, sophomore wide receiver and defensive back Adam Duncan, and junior wide receiver and defensive back Todd Walters are also two standouts who bring a lot of speed to the table for us.”

“I want people to remember this team,” interjects Rettig. “I want these guys to know what it takes to be champi-ons. I want them to be the best they can be. I want to come back 20 years from now, and see Lake making the playoffs every year.”

“I’d like to leave this team with high numbers in the weight room all the time, and seeing kids in there always want-ing to make themselves better,” counters Walsh. “I’d like to leave this team with the belief that they have to continue to play with passion. Playing with passion gets the team, the student body, and the community to all rise up together. Pas-sion is a big part of this game. Passion is something you need to be good.”

Players credit Emans for turnaround

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By Jeffrey D. NorwalkPress Contributing [email protected]

If you’ve heard folks buzzing about the renaissance of the Lake Flyers football team in recent years, you’ve heard all about their high-octane spread offense, which starts with second team All-Northern Buckeye quarterback Jared Rettig. The junior signal caller had already passed his way to a school-record 2,838 yards on 176 of 279 pass attempts, and 32 touchdowns alone in 2012. It’s also a fact that without capable pairs of hands at the other end of those passes, they’d fall to the turf incomplete. Lake wide receivers Todd Walters and Adam Duncan, who already this surprising 5-0 season for the Flyers have hauled in 18 receptions, for an average of 17.6 yards, 318 total yards, and four touchdowns, and 15 catches, for 317 yards, and four scores re-spectively.

The speedster Duncan is routinely run-ning a swift 4.6 40 these days, while Walters is clocking in somewhere around a 4.8.

Walters prefers the slant route, where he’s made his bread-and-butter, while Dun-can’s favorite is the out-and-up, which is a perfect fi t for his game-breaking speed.

“Todd runs great routes, he does a nice job of fi nding open spaces, and he has very soft hands, and does not grab at the ball,” said fi rst-year head coach Mark Emans, “He is deceivingly-fast for a big kid. And Adam, he’s quick and fast, which sounds the same, but is actually very different. He runs the deep route well, and is also good on the short routes. They complement each other well.”

All of which are reasons why these Flyers were undefeated and tied with Ge-noa atop the NBC, outscoring their oppo-sition 253-60 heading into the Eastwood game Friday night. Of course, the Eagles may have had something to say about that at Freedom Field.

“The thing I love most about being a wide receiver is just getting to be a play-maker for this team,” offers the 17-year-old Walters, a 6-foot-2, 180 pound split end.

Walters makes his living going over the middle on quick-hitting routes, which most often translates to two things. He is the guy keeping the chains moving and is he guy absorbing bone-rattling hits.

“Our offense has defi nitely undergone a huge change from last year,” continues the junior, “because we really didn’t run the ball too much in 2012, and I think that hurt us at times when the weather condi-tions were not in favor of a spread offense. This year I believe we have an exciting offense. This year on offense we have the balance to run a power running attack at times, and we’ve also got the skills players to air it out.”

Walters, Duncan have different roles for Lake Air Force

Lake wide receiver Tim Duncan takes off during the Flyer's win over Northwood. (Press photo by Heather St. John)

““He has that workhorse mentality

as an undersized receiver.

Duncan, a 5-10, 185 sophomore slot back, added, “This offense has changed a lot. From last year to this year, I think it’s really opened up a lot under Coach Emans, and we seem to have more threats on of-fense now. I think we run and throw the ball equally well, and that can keep a de-fense guessing. The best part about being a receiver to me is I get to be a big part of this offense.”

Duncan, 16, has emerged as more of the Flyers’ deep-ball threat and has already gotten behind defenses with his top-end speed for a pair of touchdown catches of 40-plus yards.

“I think there are several tools you need to be a great wide receiver,” chimes in Walters, “and No. 1, I think the biggest tool you need is just great route running. I think a receiver needs to run every route as hard as he can, and I think the attitude that any receiver, and really any athlete should have, is to play every play like it’s their last out there. That’s why I look up to Wes Welker (of the Denver Broncos) so much. He has that workhorse mentality as an un-dersized receiver. He doesn’t let that stop him from going out there every Sunday and doing what he does best.”

Duncan adds, “I think the things that make a good wide receiver are his footwork, his hands, and his mindset to just run good,

crisp routes every time the ball is snapped and I think he should run his routes hard every time, even if he knows he’s not going to be getting the football. A wide receiver I look up to would be Bernard Reedy of the Toledo Rockets. He’s just such an exciting, explosive player for them, and he’s so much fun to watch.”

Walters said, “My favorite catch of the year so far was a six-yard slant that went for a score against Northwood.”

There are plenty of other wide receiv-ers in the Flyer corps.

“Collin Lloyd and Zak Greenlese are two great receivers we have who are key parts of our receiving corps,” praises Wal-ters, of the two junior pass catchers. “They

can come in for a series or two each game, and perform at a high varsity level. I think we have great depth, and are a dangerous group with whatever combination of the four of us we have on the fi eld.”

Duncan agrees saying, “Greenlese and Lloyd — both have good hands, good speed, and experience at the position.”

When speaking of goals, Walters said, it’s “1,500 receiving yards, and an NBC league championship,” while for Duncan it’s “to get better each week, and to help our team to be successful each week, and to make the playoffs.”

Without Rettig, they say they wouldn’t be enjoying the success they have so far.

“Having Jared as our quarterback is a big plus for our offense,” says Walters. “His precision and his accuracy make my job easier. He puts the ball on the money, and all I have to do is catch it!”

Duncan echoes, “That’s what makes this offense even better,” having an amaz-ing quarterback like Jared Rettig. He gets the ball to you when you’re open, and that just helps you make a play for your team.”

Rettig returns, “Todd is more of our pos-session guy, and with his size I just have to put it around him, and he can make a play. And Duncan is our long ball guy. Once he catches it, he can take it to the house.”

THE PRESS OCTOBER 7, 2013 B-3

Offer expires Dec. 31, 2013

Happy 50th Anniversary

Larry & Sue Henderson

October 5, 1963

We love you!

Gary & Miki

Deb & Joel

Grandkids Julie, Chad, Anne,

Sarah and Adam

Wedding Announcement

MacRitchie ~ Szozda

Linda MacRitchie and Jerry McKibben

of Oak Harbor, Ohio and Kevin MacRitchie

of Northwood, Ohio are pleased to announce

the marriage of their daughter, Kaitlin Marie

MacRitchie to Jordan Michael Szozda, son of

John and Becky Szozda of Rossford, Ohio.

The wedding took place on June 15,

2013 at Put-in-Bay, Ohio. A reception

followed at the Doller Estate, also on the

island.

Matron of Honor was Julie Rieseck.

Maid of Honor was Cheryl Pinaya.

Bridesmaids were Stephanie Szozda,

Samantha Pfitzer, Emily Reardon, and

Shayna Sullivan. Best Man was A. J. Szozda.

Groomsmen were Andrew MacRitchie,

Bryan Huff, Eric Grubbs, Tim Marko, and

Nik Davenport.

The bride is a 2002 graduate of

Northwood High School and a 2006 graduate

of Ohio University. She is employed as an

English teacher at Genoa High School. The

groom is a 2001 graduate of Rossford High

School and is currently employed as the

circulat ion manager at The Press

Newspapers.

The couple honeymooned in Cabo San

Lucas, Mexico.

They plan to reside in Perrysburg, Ohio.

60th Wedding Anniversary

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Samsen

Robert (Bob) and Joan (Suydam)

Samsen celebrated their 60th wedding

anniversary on October 3rd. They were

married at Trinity United Methodist Church,

Genoa, Ohio, on October 3, 1953.

Bob and Joan celebrated their

anniversary this past May in Chicago, Illinois

with their four children and their spouses.

Trip highlights included an architectural

cruise on the Chicago River, wonderful

dinners, and lots of laughter.

They have four children: Jerry (Karen)

Samsen, Pat (Chet) Skwarcan, Doug

(Sondra) Samsen, and Martha Thornberry.

They also have twelve grandchildren: Katie,

Carrie, Megan, Andrew, Amy, Aaron, Brian,

Brett, Brad, Ellen, Clara, and Liv. They also

have three great-grandchildren: Riley,

Landen, andAva.

Bob started Samsen Furniture in 1954

with his father, Walter Samsen. Joan remains

a homemaker at their home in Genoa.

All your family wishes you

Happy Anniversary and many more

years to come!

Happy 65th Anniversary

October 9, 1948

Jean & Bob Widmer

Love,

Jackie, Jennie, Don, Dan

and families

Happy 90th Birthday

Lola Tipton

October 3rd

Love,

From your Sons

Tom, Jerry & Richard

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

JAMES “JIM” SHEAHAN

10/14/36 ~ 1/10/12

“What moves through us is a

silence, a quiet sadness, a

longing for just one more day,

one more word, one more

loving touch, we may not

understand why you left this

earth so soon or why you left

before we were ready to say

goodbye. Letting go of your

hand was the hardest thing we

have ever done, but little by

little, we begin to remember not

just that you died, but that you

lived. And that your life gave us

memories too beautiful and

meaningful to forget.”

For this, we will always

love you.

Jan and family

To place an ad in our

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call The Press at

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to the Classified

Department.

Deadline is Wednesday

at 4:00 p.m.

Transitions Page

By J. Patrick EakenPress Sports [email protected]

Former Clay wrestling coach Mark Beach has taken over the duties of Clay High School athletic director, a full time position. “I am extremely excited about it,” Beach said. “For me, it’s about kids and it’s about being able to communicate in such a way that you can impact the kids and kind of help the parents understand both perspectives — the perspective of the indi-vidual and the perspective of the team.” Beach, a 1979 Waite High School grad-uate who qualifi ed for state in wrestling, placing sixth, has been involved with the Clay wrestling program since 1996. He re-mains on board as a volunteer assistant un-der current head coach Ralph Cubberly. “I have been immersed for quite some time now at Clay, I would say,” Beach said. Beach and Troy McLaughlin operated the Lake Erie Wrestling Club for 13 years before Beach stepped down three years ago. Beach has also coached youth wres-tling and soccer, including a stint at Sacred Heart Catholic School. Beach takes over for Mike Donnelly, who moved on as athletic director at St. Ur-sula Academy. Beach had been branch manager at KeyBank for seven years and remains own-er of a SNAP Fitness franchise. “I’ve been in the corporate world, so I bring some different business perspective into it and hopefully that will be a match made in heaven,” Beach said Avery second at Ironman Competing in his fi rst full Ironman, University of Michigan senior Greg Avery fi nished second out of nine participants in his 20-24 year-old male division and 55th out of 245 overall at Cedar Point on Sept. 28.

An Ironman events consist of, in or-der, a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2-mile marathon. He fi nished the swim-ming portion in 1:06.29, the biking portion in 6:27.27, and the marathon in 20:15.

Avery has been competing in triathlons ever since he graduated from Northwood High School in 2010. The 22-year-old is a chemical engineering major at UM.

Avery, his senior class valedictorian at Northwood, will graduate from Michigan in April with a degree in chemical engi-neering. He said he’ll be looking to get a job in the energy industry or with a chemical company. He carries a 3.34 GPA and is on the Dean’s List.

A distance runner (800, mile, two-mile) at Northwood, Avery competed in cross country for three years before giving up that sport and track as a senior. Avery is a lifeguard at the Oregon YMCA and swims two or three miles — for about 90 minutes — before his shift at the pool. He puts in his road work at Pearson Park, averaging 16 miles on most of his runs.

Sports announcements Cardinal Stritch Catholic High School will be honoring veterans and current

Beach takes over as Clay’s athletic director

The Press

Box

Mark Beach

members of the military at its football game on Oct. 11. All military members being recognized during a pregame ceremony before CSCHS’s game against Ottawa Hills will be out on the field to receive a special recognition. Veterans and current military members alike will be honored after all the seniors have their names read over the loud speaker. Any veteran and member of the military who would like to be recog-nized are asked to email Maria Baara at [email protected] or call 419-464-6153.

*********

Cardinal Stritch Catholic is looking for a head junior varsity baseball coach as well as a junior varsity assistant. High school coaching experience is preferred and candidate must be able to pass all OHSAA, Toledo Diocesan, and school cer-tifications. Send resume and three refer-ences to Athletic Director, Craig Meinzer at: [email protected]. Deadline is October 18.

********* The department of athletics at Cardinal Stritch Catholic High School will host its

reverse raffle on October 19, in the school’s gym. Dinner will be at 6 p.m. and the drawing will start at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event are $25 each and include dinner and a chance to win the grand prize of $1,500. Other prize totals for the drawing include: 2nd Prize $500, 3rd Prize $300, 4th Prize $200 and 5th Prize $100. Additional prizes will be awarded throughout the evening. For more information or to purchase tick-ets, please contact Athletic Director Craig Meinzer at [email protected] or call 419-693-0465, ext. 211.

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By Mark GriffinPress Contributing [email protected]

Every player on the Northwood roster was in an unfa-miliar situation when the fi nal whistle blew Sept. 6 follow-ing the Rangers’ 56-20 loss to Lake.

Not only was it Northwood’s fi rst loss to the Flyers in seven years, it marked the program’s fi rst 0-2 start since the 2005 season, when coach Ken James’ squad lost to Ever-green and Lake. Northwood suffered a 42-34 season-open-ing loss at Ayersville on Aug. 30.

James said the mood of the players and coaches was “not really good,” after the loss to Lake.

“We were all pretty grumpy, which was a good thing,” James said. “Ayersville’s a good football team. They’re 4-1 right now and Lake is 5-0. We knew Lake was going to be good because they’ve been playing guys for a few years and they have a lot of experience. We’ve been either really good in certain areas or really bad. There hasn’t been a whole lot of in-between.”

James’ 2013 squad returns just three starters on offense and four on defense, and it starts a 155-pound sophomore (Mike Vallejo) at quarterback.

“One of the big differences between us this year and last year, we’re a little thinner and we have some guys who aren’t quite ready yet,” James said. “Last year, es-pecially with linemen, we had so many of them we were running in 7-8 defensive linemen throughout the course of the game. This year we’re playing a lot of those guys two ways.”

James added that his coaching staff knew turning things around was not going to be an easy fi x. It wasn’t just one person making an error or missing an assignment, the Rangers were making multiple errors on offense and defense.

“We were trying to fi nd our way from a coaching standpoint, trying to fi nd who fi t where at certain posi-tions,” the coach said. “We were still jockeying the line-up around, up until last week, in terms of who’s playing where.”

Northwood’s staff, for instance, moved last year’s lead-ing receiver, senior Jacob Davenport, from wideout into the backfi eld. Davenport, the team’s fastest player, has rushed for 404 yards and fi ve touchdowns on just 39 carries (10.4 average).

“That has worked out well,” James said. “We do rotate Jake out to wideout to keep him in the game. We want to get him the ball more. Instead of 5-7 times a game like last year, maybe 12-15.”

Junior halfback Dominik Bermejo has been another bright spot, rushing 82 times for 792 yards (9.6 average) and 10 touchdowns.

Northwood sets run at another championship in motion

“He plays a lot bigger than he appears,” James said. “He is slippery and he cuts well. He’s really core strong. He’s physical and he knows when to make the right cut and go vertical or run it to the sideline. He was a really good running back last year, but we had a ton of them. He got a decent amount of carries, then he had a good offseason and got a lot faster over the winter. He’s able to turn a lot of 10-yard runs into 50-yard runs, and he’ll get you four yards when you need it.”

Vallejo, who is replacing two-year starter Nick Russell, has completed 14 of 33 passes for 221 yards and two touch-downs, with fi ve interceptions. He’s also rushed 39 times for 179 yards and two scores, and James said the staff is getting more comfortable with him under center.

“The thing I like most about Mike is that he’s tough,” James said. “He did a good job on jayvee last year and we’re trying to feed him more as we go. Last year with Nick Rus-sell there wasn’t anything we couldn’t call. He could man-age all that. We’ve been a little more simplistic with Mike because he isn’t that experienced yet. He does a good job distributing the ball and pitching the ball on the option, and he’s getting better at reading coverage.”

After the slow start, Northwood reeled off wins over Woodward (49-26) and Edon (40-27) and got a big Toledo Area Athletic Conference win last Friday against Gibson-burg (28-0). The Rangers, who have never lost to this week’s opponent, Hilltop, control their own destiny in the TAAC, which they’ve won fi ve out of the last six years.

“I think winning energizes you a little bit,” James said. “You come back to practice on Monday and work hard af-ter a win, and maybe you’re in a better mood. The biggest thing we’ve been fi ghting for is consistency in everything. Preparation, from lifting before practice to watching fi lm and preparing for the fundamental part of the game, as a team that’s where we’re starting to mature.

“We’re not going to win the league with two wins,” James added, “and we’ve cautioned them about getting too happy with what’s going on. We’re only 2-0 in the league, but right now we’re in good position.”

““The thing I like most about Mike is that he’s tough. He did a good job...last year and we're trying to

feed him more as we go.

Northwood sophomore quarterback Mike Vallejo. (Press photo by Don Thompson/picasaweb.google.com)

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The Ohio State Buckeyes played their fi rst real football game of the season in front of the third largest crowd ever at Ohio Sta-dium in their narrow 31-24 win over Wis-consin.

Saturday, outside “The Shoe” before the game every now and then I would hear “its Miller time.” Not too unusual, I thought, after all it was a college campus on game day and occasionally students have been known to imbibe a bit.

After I watched the fi rst quarter I re-alized what they really meant was quar-terback Braxton Miller has healed and it’s time for him to do his stuff, and boy did he. He showed no signs of tightness or sore-ness. His knee has healed.

Braxton took command of the offense and threw four TD passes to three different receivers. He completed 17 of 25 passes for 198 yards. In addition he was the second leading rusher, in The Shoe that day, gain-ing 83 yards and beating Wisconsin leader Melvin Gordon who had 74 yards rushing and nearly out pacing his own teammate Carlos Hyde (85 yards).

Miller also set a record, becoming Ohio State’s leading quarterback career rusher, and he has only played three games so far this, his junior year.

Wisconsin is one of the tougher teams in the Big Ten and ranked 23rd nationally. They represented the fi rst real challenge for the Bucks so far this year. The No. 4 nation-ally-ranked Buckeyes faced the challenge head on and won their 17th straight game and third in a row over Wisconsin.

The OSU defensive line has been the weakest part of the team the last few weeks and all the sports writers and experts from the Columbus newspaper, ESPN and even Coach Urban Meyer warned about the pow-erful Wisconsin running game.

With the concern about the rushing attack, OSU pulled some of the defensive backfi eld forward to help the line. This cre-ated a situation that the Wisconsin coach Gary Anderson quickly recognized and near the end of the second quarter, the Bad-gers switched more toward a passing at-tack. This change in strategy worked well for the Badgers as they ultimately gained 295 yards passing verses only 104 yards for rushing. This change made Wisconsin more competitive; however, it was not enough as a few dropped passes and key penalties may have cost them the game.

Wisconsin was led by Jar Abbrederis (receiving 207 yards) and the linebacker Chris Borland (16 tackles). Genoa fans may remember the name Borland as he played for Kettering Alter when the Comets met them in the state playoffs a few years ago.

The defense, led by Junior Ryan Shazi-er (9 tackles), held Wisconsin, the 3rd ranked rushing offense, to 104 yards. The pass defense, however, was weak and may get worse as Co-captain Christian Bryant, a potential All-American Safety, broke his ankle and may be out for the season.

Despite Ohio State’s playing well, there were several things that surprised me. One was the non-use of second team quarter-back Kenny Gouiton. Has everyone forgot-ten how well he fi lled in for Miller the last few weeks?

If nothing else put him in and let him run a couple of plays to confuse Wiscon-sin. Maybe even throw to him as a wide receiver. We know he can catch and run. Maybe a trick play where after receiving a pass behind the line he then throws down

Buckeye football fans, it’s ‘Miller Time’ at Ohio Stadium

fi eld as the defense pulls in thinking he is going to run.

The second surprise was the absence of running back Jordan Hall, who had been averaging over 100 yards per game. Hall had one carry for fi ve yards. While fi rst team All-Big Ten running back Carlos Hyde did quite well it only seems fair that Hall get more time.

Since the game, when Meyer was asked about this, he basically we, the coaches, fell back into old habits and just used Carlos Hyde.

“We had no intent to not use Hall it just happened,” Coach Meyer said “We failed him a little bit. He’s such a good kid, does everything right and we need to make sure he gets more playing time.”

In fairness to the coaching staff, as out-siders, we do not get to see what happens every day in practice. We may not agree with some of the coaches’ decisions but we certainly shouldn’t argue about their suc-cess. Was Coach Meyer happy with their team play?

He said, “I don’t know if I remember as many explosive plays this early in the season, ever.”

The third surprise down at The Shoe Saturday was the return to what some call “Tressel Ball”. It seemed as though Meyer got conservative in the last quarter. I won’t argue with his strategy but I was shocked at this uncharacteristic approach, for him.

The Northwestern game last Satur-day, Oct 5 against OSU was being billed as the Wildcat’s biggest home game since 1995. Northwestern is nationally ranked at 16th. Northwestern’s play calling and the OSU pass defense will tell us if either team learned anything from the Buckeye’s game with Wisconsin.

The Bucks will play three tough games this year and Saturday they won their fi rst one. Penn State may give them a game and so will Michigan, but who knows?

Ole’ Blue won their last two games, but they need to straighten out their quar-terback problems to be a serious competitor this year.

In my opinion, the Bucks should be 12-0 in late November and win the Big Ten Championship. As for the BCS champion-ship, there’s a good chance they will play for the national title, but they must solve some of their remaining problems and fi nd a way to compete with the SEC. If they play Alabama it could be a long, but exciting, day. Never, however, underestimate Urban Meyer’s coaching abilities.

(Harold Hamilton is a freelance pho-tographer from Northwood and was at the Ohio State-Wisconsin game on credentials from The Press Newspapers.)

My HumbleOpinion

by Harold Hamilton““I don’t know if I

remember this many explosive plays this early in the season,

ever.

Two Ohio State players with local prep roots go through blocking drills before the Wisconsin game — Woodmore’s Ben St John (67) warming up against Jack Mewhort (74) from St. John's Jesuit. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/HEHphotos.lifepics.com)

THE PRESS OCTOBER 7, 2013 B-7

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Northwood

1930 Bradner Rd./Corner

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Calvary Lutheran Ch.

Sunday School 9:00 am.

10:00 amSunday worship:

Wed. 7:30 p.m. Pastor Robert Noble

Every 2nd Sun. 10:00 am Praise Service

The Press

Church Worship GuideDeadline: Thursday 11:00 am

Trinity

Lutheran Church

412 Fremont St.419-862-3461

Stephen Lutz, Pastor

Worship 8 am - 10:45 amSunday School - 9:30 am

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Elmore

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Walbridge

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EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

Route 579-center of Williston

Shawn O’Brien, Pastor

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Handicapped accessible-Nursery Available

Sunday School 8:30am

Sunday Worship 9:45 am

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Williston, Ohio

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Genoa

St. John's UCC1213 Washington Street, Genoa

419-855-3906 stjohnsgenoa.org

Sunday School 9:15 amWorship 10:30 am

Main at 4th, Genoa

Ramp & Elevator

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Trinity

United Methodist

Elliston

WoodvilleSolomon LutheranChurch and School

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Sunday Worship

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Wednesday worship - 7:30pm

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nspirational essage of the eek: Wrestling with God

An Old Testament figure who struggles with God only

argumentatively, his case against God is a pretty good

one. By God's own admission, Job is the most upright

man on earth, and yet, God allows Satan to take

everything from Job, including his property, his family and

even his health, over a wager with Satan. And thus Job

calls God to account for this. The very fact that the Book of

Job is in the Bible seemingly attests to the fact that God

admires those who would question and challenge Him.

The standard, "pious" interpretation of the Book of Job is

that Job never questions his faith in God, but patiently

endures the many afflictions sent his way. However,

careful reading of this challenging book actually reveals

that the majority of the book is devoted to Job challenging

God's justice, and as it were, wrestling with God.

Sometimes, our prayers can be a challenge to God - and

God is alright with that. He's certainly big enough to

handle any challenge. Therefore I will not restrain my

mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will

complain in the bitterness of my soul. - R.S.V. Job 7.11

By Mark GriffinPress Contributing [email protected]

The Woodmore girls’ soccer team’s motto, Together As One, is certainly hold-ing true this season under fi rst-year coach Jason Allen.

“We’re playing together as a unit,” Al-len said. “I don’t have that one stud on my team who’s scoring tons of goals, or one person stepping up on defense. It’s more of a collective effort, just a unit. I love that. A lot of (coaches) have come up to me and said, ‘Hey, who you gonna put up for all-district and everything?’ I said it’s going to be the hardest decision of my life because I have 18-20 girls who give me everything they’ve got.”

There was a lot on the line for Wood-more on Thursday night, when it played at rival Lake for a chance to win the Northern Buckeye Conference champi-onship outright. The ‘Cats have never won a league title in girls soccer.

Woodmore (11-1), which beat Lake 2-0 on Sept. 12, entered Thursday’s game as the third-ranked Divi-sion III team in the Northwest Ohio coach-es’ poll. The Wildcats have won nine in a row following a 4-2 loss to Southview, a Division I program, on Sept. 4.

“I’m not surprised,” said Allen, who has coached soccer at Rossford and St. Ur-sula Academy and also coaches women’s lacrosse at Defi ance College. “When I came to this program in May, I realized there was talent on the team and we had a chance to do well. I think the biggest motivating factor has been our team goal, to win the league. That’s something we want to do and we’re not going to stop until we do it.”

Woodmore outscored its fi rst 12 oppo-nents by a 50-10 margin and is led in scor-ing by sophomore striker Courteney Bu-chanan, who has 12 goals and two assists.

‘Together As One,’ Woodmore girls on top of game“Courtney just has a determination fac-

tor,” Allen said. “She’s determined to suc-ceed and she has a knack for being at the right place at the right time. We joke with her that out of those 12 goals, 11 of those have been within three yards of the goal. It’s not an accident. She’s just in the right place at the right time and makes the right runs.”

Camryn Bench, a freshman striker/midfi elder, is second on the team with nine goals.

“Before the season she told me she was a defender,” Allen said. “I said OK and put her at defense and didn’t like what I saw. I put her up top at striker, and that was the fi rst or second game. She ended up scoring against Eastwood when we beat them 2-1. I’ve had her at striker and midfi eld ever

since because of her speed.”

Seventeen dif-ferent players have scored goals for the ‘Cats this season. Jordan Williams has fi ve goals and four as-sists, senior captain and center midfi elder Leah Henry has four goals, and Emma Rothert and Sarah Blausey have three apiece. Center mid-fi elder Maddy Hines and Lily Rothert share

the team lead in assists, with six apiece.“Leah scores goals when she needs to,”

Allen said. “She doesn’t have all the (big) stats, but she gives me effort every single game. Maddy is very consistent and con-trols the midfi eld with Leah and does most of our corner kicks and free kicks. Sarah Blausey is amazing, the best defender I have on the team. She’s just fast and has saved us a few times on defense. She gives me 120 percent in every game.”

Junior keeper Julie Barbee has 38 saves in 12 games and has benefi tted from a strong defense in front of her, Allen said.

“She’s the only keeper I know who does not wear gloves,” Allen said. “She’s done a good job. There have been situations where some other teams, like Lake and Oak

Harbor, have had some breakaways and she’s made some key stops for us.”

Allen said the team’s athleticism along with its cohesiveness and will to succeed have played a big role in the Wildcats’ suc-cess. Woodmore is the only team to defeat state-ranked Oak Harbor (11-1-1) this sea-son.

He added that assistant coach Rachel

Swope has also been a big help.“I don’t know where I’d be without

her,” Allen said. “She played for me at Rossford, from 2006-10, and she helps me get the practices together if I’m running late from Defi ance. She helps me with stats, the media, and she coaches our reserve team when they play. She’s just a lifesaver for me.”

By Yaneek SmithPress Contributing [email protected]

Led by junior Ryan Avers, the Wood-more boys cross country team is hoping for big things.

Twice this season, Woodmore has fi n-ished second as a team, doing so at the Car-dinal Stritch Invititational and the Lakota Invite.

At the Stritch meet, competing in a race featuring 155 runners, Avers was seventh (17:27), followed by Joey McTague (17th in 17:51), Jordan Buck (18th in 17:53), Grant Matweijwzyk (23rd in 18:14) and Nick Emerine (48th in 18:58).

At the Lakota Invite (192 runners), Avers fi nished fourth in 17:02, followed by Buck (10th in 17:17), McTague, (14th in 17:29), Matweijwzyk, (29th in 17:57) and Emerine (42nd in 18:24).

Avers has consistently been Wood-more’s top runner, followed by the tandem of Buck and McTague and Matweijwzyk and Emerine.

Freshmen Jacob Amstutz and Noah Cable are the other varsity runners. Should Amstutz and Cable continue to improve, they’ll be in line to replace Buck and Mc-Tague next season.

“I feel pretty good (about where we are),” Avers said. “We’re working together, pushing our limits, doing hard workouts and the hard work pays off. We’re trying to get a team to regionals and compete with Lake for third place in the Northern Buck-eye Conference. And we’re trying to get into regionals and hopefully get to state.”

Success is nothing new to the Wild-cats. The team fi nished third at the NBC championships last year and fourth at the Division III district meet, earning a spot at regionals.

“(Coach Moreno) pushes us, but he doesn’t want to push us too hard for it. You’ve got to be careful and hope you don’t have injuries,” Ayers said.

Avers credits his teammates for the job they’ve done this year.

“Grant started kicking it in this year. He’s been putting a lot of effort in,” said Avers, who’s been running cross country since he was in seventh grade. “Jordan stepped up and is doing pretty well. Jordan and Joey go back and forth as our second

’Cat harriers pushing the limitsand third runners and Nick is doing well as our No. 5.”

The cross country runners train exten-sively in the summer, too. During the win-ter, Avers plays basketball, where he saw varsity action last season and is consider-ing running track in the spring.

“We had a running camp this sum-mer,” Avers said.

“We ran around parks and did some hill workouts. We pushed ourselves run-ning about nine miles per day during the summer to get our endurance up and get ready for the meets.”

“

“She’s determined to succeed and she has a knack for being at the right place at the

right time.

B-8 THE PRESS OCTOBER 7, 2013

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