Friday, October 30, 2009

Computer Problems

The Voice was silent this week with some computer problems. Hopefully this issue has been resolved.

Always remember the "NY" on the Yankee caps stands for "Next Year."

I'm sure my friends Doyle and Mike will appreciate it.

A Dry Friday?

This Friday promises to be interesting in the fact that it may be dry for the first time since Week 4.

Shamokin will be playing Mifflinburg at home. For the seniors, this will be their last home game. This game probably won't be as historic as last season, but the Wildcats have a shot at making the AAA playoff field.

This Shamokin group of seniors will have played under three different head coaches in four years.

I like Shamokin in a close one tonight.


Fighting for Playoff Lives


When a 4-4 Southern travels to 5-4 MCA, both teams a battling for their playoff lives. A win against Mount Carmel is always special. Monday's win for Lewisburg over Mount Carmel may be a program changer when you look back a few years from now.
Southern with their veteran offensive may have fixed some of their early season problems and are on roll. The Red Tornadoes have struggled passing the ball all season and the Tigers are pretty good against the run.


Southern in a close one here.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Shamokin wins in Mudbowl 2009

Shamokin Area picked up their second win of the season with a 39-20 win over Warrior Run played in the mud at Defender Stadium. The Turbotville area was drenched with a driving rainstorm during warm ups from about 5:30 to 6:45 pm.

On a night mistake-free football was at a premium, Shamokin got a kickoff return, an interception return, and held a plus three turnover ratio turning the ball over 3 times to the Defender's 6.

Brent Forbes rushed for over 100 yards in the first half and scored two touchdowns. Shamokin held a 20-0 lead early in the third quarter as Tim Boussan returned the second half kickoff for the score. Warrior Run run ceased momentum almost as fast with a scoring strike to Ian Adams on fourth down and the Defender had the ball deep in Shamokin territory after an Indian turnover.

Shamokin then capitalized on some Defender mistakes increased their lead to 33-7 and cruised for the victory.

It was the fourth straight week the area teams saw significant rain during a game on Friday. It was the third time this season a Shamokin Area football game lasted longer than 2 hours and 45 minutes.


District IV AA


Montoursville fell from the ranks of the unbeatens last night as Cody Haupt who was injured in the first half against Shamokin last week did not return for the second half. Haupt was around 1500 yards rushing for the season when the injury occurred and clearly a majority of the Warrior offense.

Who is the best team in AA? Hughesville, Danville, Mountoursville, Mount Carmel or Towanda. Each team has seen their highs and lows on the season but injuries are playing for the first four teams mentioned. One this is for sure who ever is healthy entering week number 11 will clearly be a favorite.


Upper Dauphin Falls


Upper Dauphin fell from the ranks of the unbeatens with a 26-6 loss to Millersburg last night. The loss now leaves Upper Dauphin one game ahead in the race for the TVC with games against Newport and Tri-Valley left. The Trojans were limited to one first down and 10 plays in the first half.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

12 Thousand vs 30 Million in Northumberland County

Last week a former department was charged with corruption in Northumberland County. The PA AG office did the investigation after being referred the case by the District Attorney through the Controller's Office.

All this to uncover 12K.

I wonder where 30 million went?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Upper Dauphin and Carmie Out to 7-0 Start

At the end of the 2006 high school season, Shamokin Area decided to severe ties with Carmen DeFrancesco. In 2007, after stops at Cardinal Brennan, Danville, and Shamokin all of sudden Coach Carm wasn't in high demand.

A few applications not many takers and Defrancesco found himself in high school football purgatory......Upper Dauphin. The Trojans would win a few games here and there and churn out a class of good athletes, but nothing of the like you would see playing about an hour north. There are no Southern's, Mount Carmel's, Selinsgrove's on the schedule and over a 1000 in attendance is a good night at the gate.

Starting out with a win over Pequa Valley in Week 1 in 2007, Upper Dauphin would lose the next 10 in a row, score only 18 more points and be shut out in 8 out of those 10 losses. Earlier in that 2007, I ran into DeFrancesco scouting Line Mountain against Juniata. He asked me to take a guess on who was the fastest person on his team? He later replied, "the head coach."

Three seasons later Tyler Koppenhaver, Ty Grosser, and Ty Rubenstine are at or near the top in passing, rushing and receiving in the Twin Valley League. When DeFrancesco commented about team speed he said I have a good sophomore class with a good work ethic. He also said the team isn't bad defensively. That was 2007.

You never know what the rest of the 2009 will bring, but this restoration job could prove to be DeFrancesco's finest.

Friday, October 16, 2009

What is This?????


Snow in October????

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Shamokin After Second Win Against Montoursville



Shamokin Area are searching for the second win of the season. Montoursville comes into Kemp Memorial at 6-0. Since the win against Central in Week 3, a near miss against Shik, lackluster against Danville, and good for a quarter and half against Selinsgrove, there is one common denominator. Physically the Indians will be in every game. Against the Warriors, this shouldn't change.

The things the Shamokin needs to improve on are penalties and turnovers. This weekends game will be a test with late November conditions arriving early. A blow to the Indians running game has been the loss of Ty DiRienzo for the season with a knee injury.

Indians will keep this one close, but I don't think they have the offensive firepower going right now to win this one.


SOUTHERN COLUMBIA


Kind of mystery team has been Southern Columbia. Southern at 3-3 hosts #2 AAA team in the state in Selinsgrove. Last week Bloomsburg's passing attack picked apart Southern and came up with a close win. The last time Southern had four losses this late in the season was 1986. With a week number 9 game with Mount Carmel does a potential 5-5 Southern make the playoffs?


Mount Carmel


Mount Carmel surprised me last week with there 20-0 shut out of Loyalsock. I got to see the Lancers against Southern and thought they had the defense to shut down the Red Tornadoes. Couple that with the lack of success with the pass all season. Hat's off to the Big Red. Mount Carmel cannot get caught looking ahead to Lewisburg and Southern Area.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Phillies, Two in a Row????

Could the Phillies win two World Series in a row? I will worry about that if and when they could get by the Dodgers. One of the interesting thing will be the 4 pm EST start for Game 2 in Los Angeles. The 1 pm PST start may be the middle of the night for some Dodger faithful.

Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS has scarred me for life as a Philadelphia fan. Never celebrate until the 5th bottle of champaigne is popped. Here is a brief description of what happened that faithful Friday from Wikipedia:

Game 3 went down in Philadelphia baseball annals as "Black Friday." The Dodgers opened the scoring in the second off Larry Christenson when Dusty Baker doubled home Steve Garvey from first on a close play at the plate. The Phillies tried to claim Garvey never touched home plate, but to no avail. Steve Yeager followed with a single to score Baker to make it 2–0.

In the bottom of the second, with two outs and Richie Hebner on second and Bob Boone on first, Dodger starter Burt Hooton began to dispute ball/strike calls issued by home plate umpire Bob Engel. Hooton's attitude and delay of the game aroused the displeasure of Philadelphia's infamous "boobird" fans, who took out their wrath upon their team's opponent. As the volume of the boos escalated to a deafening level, Hooton uncharacteristically lost control of both his pitches and his composure, issuing walks to Ted Sizemore, Christenson (forcing in Hebner), Bake McBride (forcing in Boone), and Larry Bowa (forcing in Sizemore), thus giving the Phillies a 3–2 lead. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda then pulled Hooton in favor of Rick Rhoden, who induced Mike Schmidt into popping up to end the threat.

While Rhoden and Doug Rau were busy shutting down the Phils, the Dodgers tied the game in the fourth on an RBI single by Baker. The score stayed tied at 3–3 until the bottom of the eighth, setting up a wild finish.

Hebner led off the eighth with a double. Garry Maddox singled home Hebner and went all the way to third as Reggie Smith's throw home to try to nail Hebner went wild. Maddox then scored when Bob Boone grounded to Ron Cey at third and Cey threw wildly at home in an attempt to throw out Maddox. With a 5–3 lead entering the ninth and ace reliever Gene Garber on the mound, the Phillies looked to be sitting pretty.

Garber retired the first two hitters, but then pinch-hitter Vic Davalillo shocked the Phillies infield by laying down an 0–2 drag bunt and beating it out. Lasorda then sent another pinch hitter, Manny Mota, to hit for pitcher Lance Rautzhan. Mota sent a deep drive to left that Greg Luzinski trapped against the wall. Ted Sizemore then mishandled Luzinski's peg attempt at second to try to nail Mota, scoring Davalillo and sending Mota to third. Phillie manager Danny Ozark came under fire later from the media for not having Jerry Martin, a faster outfielder, in left field at that point. Martin, many felt, would have reached Mota's liner easier than the bigger, slower Luzinski.

Davey Lopes followed by hitting a blistering grounder to third that took a wicked hop and struck Mike Schmidt in the left knee. Larry Bowa retrieved the carom out of the air, fired to first, and appeared to have retired Lopes, but Lopes was called safe. TV replays showed that Bowa's throw beat Lopes. Meanwhile, Mota scored to tie the game at 5–5.

Garber, in an attempt to pick off Lopes at first, threw wildly past Hebner, sending Lopes to second. Bill Russell then singled to center to score Lopes with the go-ahead run. Mike Garman retired the side in the ninth for the Dodgers, who narrowly escaped defeat.

Still as kid growing up in the 70's it is still strange to see Larry Bowa in Dodger Blue and Davey Lopes in a Phillies uniform. Last year, the papers tried to revisit that Game 3 ninth inning from 1977.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Weekend Wrap Up



Just hold on to your hats. Were not done yet. When the game ends at 2 am and all the other series are wrapped up, why the hell are we playing at 6 pm??? Major League Baseball did one thing right on Saturday in cancelling the game. Our course MLB caves into NFL pressure to compete with ratings against playoff baseball.

Umpiring? How could a third base umpire miss the foul/fair call on Friday in the Yankees-Twins game? The play wasn't even close. Tennis appeals anyone?


From the Gridiron


Dave Shinskie (Mount Carmel) may have played against the nation's number one defense on Saturday. Going into Saturday's game, Shinskie had 5 TD passes vs. 1 INT. In Saturday's first half, Shinskie was 0-9 with 2 INT's finishing 1-12-2. Observers said it was Tech's best performance in decades.

In covering football for over 2o years, Friday's Shamokin-Selinsgrove game ended with 2:31 left when the lights went out. I believe that is the first time that happened in recent memory. Back in 1972, Lourdes and Mount Carmel had a light problem but I don't know if the game was pushed to Monday from Friday.

After six weeks of high school in Northeastern Pennsylvania, you can see that Selinsgrove has the most dominant team. Playing without 3 starters, most notably Matt Weinrich, the Seals overcame seven 15-yard penalties enroute to the easy victory. Shamokin did play very well in the first quarter and half. The Indians scored the first points against the Seals first team "D". Hat's off to the Shamokin staff for coming to play.


Arrogance??


Going on the road in the first two years of the Heartland Conference has been at times very difficult. Last season there was the history making night at Mifflinburg.

So far in 2009, there have been road trips to Loyalsock, Danville, and Selinsgrove. I didn't meet the athletic director at Loyalsock until game time, Danville didn't return emails but were great once we got there. At Selinsgrove, there were 4 radio stations and one TV station trying to broadcast the game. Leaving Selinsgrove, I didn't know the name of either the athletic director and game manager.

Which brings us to arrogance part. The Seals were whistled for multiple "chop block" penalties which you have to ask yourself why do they need that tactic??? The tactic is some you do when you know you could get away with it. I compare it to spitting on your opponent.

Upon arrival in the Selinsgrove pressbox, my colorman and public address announcer knew each other from golfing in the area and coaching. Of course, he has to say I won't be using "yoos guys" tonight. "Yoos guys" or the uses of double plurals and double negatives brought over from Eastern Europeans who worked in the mines. Often formal education was over by the sixth grade so kids could support their family in the mines. Deep coal mining hasn't been in a major industry in the anthracite area since the 1940's.

For some reason, people "across the river" feel the need to use that slur. Selinsgrove is a great football team in 2009. Up until and including 2008, there are no state, eastern regional or Eastern Conference championship hardware sitting in the trophy case. There is no reason to be arrogant as you go about your football business in 2009. This includes from the arrogance in the pressbox to the "chop blocking" on the field.

If you feel the need to use the "yoos guys" for satisfaction. Keep in mind how I real feel which is simply, "eff ewe"!!!!!!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Indians on the Ropes!!!!

Before we start the Shamokin preview, we would like to congratulate Southern head coach Jim Roth on his 300th coaching victory.....C-O-L-T-S!!!!

With back to back losses to Shikellamy and Danville, Shamokin dropped to 1-4 on the season. What does Shamokin get for it's problems? This week they get Pennsylvania's second ranked AAA team in Selinsgrove and the state's third ranked team at AA in Montoursville next week.

Will the Shamokin team that cruised against Central and played Shikellamy tough show up? Or will we the one that was at Danville for the 1st and 3rd periods last week? Right now the Indians are staring at Everest in hopes of getting back to contention. Friday's game may be more about respectability.

Shamokin hasn't beaten the Seal since they did the trick twice in the 2003 season. By the way they were Selinsgrove's only losses of the season. Shamokin has proved they could move the ball at times, but penalties and turnovers have been their downfall. Based on recent performance of the Seal's "D" against Berwick and Shamokin's lack of passion against Danville, this game will make headlines if it goes the distance.

Selinsgrove 48-0 is the pick. Yes, their defense is that good!!!


*********


Two other games of interest Friday night are Southern Columbia at Bloomsburg and Loyalsock at Mount Carmel.

At one time the Southern-Bloom match was the marquee game of the year for both school. Bloom has regained some of the luster picking up a win in 2007 ending a huge drought against the Tigers. Bloom has a nice air attack but it was grounded in the elements last week against Loyalsock. The Panther QB's threw five interceptions. Showers are in the forecast for the game.

I like the Tigers to play solid and win 21-7.

Mount Carmel has a tough task ahead of itself. At 3-2, the Red Tornadoes can't afford to lose against Loyalsock with upcoming games against Southern, Lewisburg and North Schulykill. Loyalsock is coming into week six at 4-1. The Lancers have 9 interceptions in the last two games against Southern and Bloomsburg.

The Red Tornadoes haven't put the ball in the air successfully all season. If the Lancers could keep the Mount Carmel running game in check. It could be a low scoring game. As good as the Lancers are on defense, they don't have much speed on offense.

Loyalsock have to great runstoppers in the brothers named Kinney. The last time the Silver Bowl seen brothers as physical on defense their names were Sinkovich.

On a dry track I like Mount Carmel. In showers, I will go with Loyalsock. The Lancers don't do anything fancy, they don't beat themselves and they are a mudder in the weather.

Loyalsock 14-7.


College Front


Last week several former area athletes had great games on the college front. Dave Shinskie threw two TD passes in Boston College's win over Florida State.

Henry Hynoski scored a touchdown and had many punishing blocks against Louisville.



Boston College Bus


For anyone who want to go see Dave Shinskie play, there is a bus leaving the Kulpmont Area for the game against North Carolina State on October 17th. The cost of the bus is $150. The price is based on 30 people and includes ticket, transportation and hotel for Saturday night.

Contact: Tony at tonymazz22@yahoo.com