ir a principal |
Ir a lateral
A daily blog from the mind of Bryant Billing.A day full of basketball yesterday. My early morning plans of going to the Xenia/Tecumseh/Southeastern scrimmage at Xenia fell flat (still have food hangover from turkey day), but the nightcap went on as planned! As you can read more about here in the game article, Springfield battled a talented Graham team and went away with a 62-60 win over the Falcons. Graham jumped out in front to a 15-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Wildcats battled back to narrow the lead to 23-17 at the end of the second quarter. Springfield took the lead by mid-way through the third quarter, and the game went back-and-forth from there on out, with Springfield sealed the win with a three-pointer from Denzel Lassiter sealing the victory for the Wildcats with one minute left in the game.First off, thoughts on Graham: Anyone and everyone who watched Graham last season thought that Ethan Ward would be the leader for the Falcons this year, since Graham lost a historic senior class, including current University of North Dakota player Josh Schuler. And they’re all right, he probably will be. But, last night, he wasn’t. Ward rode the bench most of the first half after collecting two quick fouls in the first quarter. He finished with only 7 points, well below his 13.2 points per game average last season. Obviously, Ward is going to be one of Graham’s best players this season, and one bad outing in a glorified scrimmage game isn’t going to change my mind. However, it was Nick VanHoose who surprised me and a few other casual fans in the crowd. VanHoose averaged 5.7 points per game a year ago and was, according to head coach Brook Cupps, one of Graham’s best players off the bench. “He was our sixth man last year,” Cupps said after the game. “A lot of people don’t know how good he is; he’s a pretty good basketball player.” VanHoose finished with 23 points (13 in the first quarter), including three 3-pointers. Overall, Graham looked like they will be having another solid winning season this year. They have talent in natural shooters they have, and they have hard-nosed players who are coachable. And, Springfield head coach Darnell Hoskins pointed out after the game, Graham has a solid coaching staff, starting with Cupps at the top, so they’re in good shape for this season. Keep your eyes out for a season preview of Graham that will be posted here on PendaSports.com on Monday.Thoughts on Springfield: After a first quarter in which the Wildcats scored one field goal in eight minutes, I was ready to declare a 5-15 season was in store for Springfield this year. After the other three quarters, I think the record will be a good bit better than that. This wasn’t the first time by far that I had seen Springfield this year; I witnessed them twice over the summer and during a three-way scrimmage at Springfield High on November 14. But, I did not fully comprehend how the Wildcats would be this year until after the Foundation Game last night. First off, Springfield is going to run a system that is mostly unheard of here in the Miami Valley. Hoskins is a defensive man, and Springfield will live and deny with their defense this season. He uses his full varsity team and rotates players every two or three minutes, which is basically every dead ball. Based on last night, Springfield should be able to use this formation to their advantage. On defense, the Wildcats run a zone defense, which I could best describe as a match-up zone defense. No, it’s not the full-court, man-to-man press that I and other Springfield fans are used to seeing and loving, but it’s effective. Hoskins talked a lot after the game about the players buying into this system, and he said that they have done so. Well, I bought into it last night as well. Graham, while Division II, is an upper-tier Division II team, and quite talented on offense. For Springfield to be able to hold back a fast team like Graham shows good potential. I’ll post more on Springfield throughout this week’s countdown to the start of the boys season!HA-HA Notre Dame! I’m sorry, but I’m sure you have one of those Irish fans as a friend as I do. Let’s all give a collective “HA” to them. How can you not left after watching the Irish blow it against Stanford last night? In case you missed it, Stanford got the ball back with the game tied at 38-38 with five minutes to go. Stanford, led by Heisman candidate Toby Gerhart, stuffed the ball down Notre Dame’s throat as they had for the rest of the game, as Gerhart scored on a 4-yard touchdown run with a minute left in the game. HA! An even bigger “ha” goes to the fact that Notre Dame apparently just let Gerhart score on that final touchdown, as Gerhart simply took the handoff and waltzed into the end zone for a score. If you trust Kirk Herbstreit on ABC (I do), he said that Weis must have decided to opt to have the ball back in his offense’s hands for as much time as they could. Again, and reminiscent of the Alabama/Auburn game on Friday, I ask why you don’t have more confidence in your defense? Can you imagine being a Notre Dame player and get that call in the huddle? “Sorry, guys, we’re just goin’ let ‘em score.” There again, in Notre Dame’s case, they shouldn’t have too much confidence in their defense. So, just to recap, Notre Dame, who some said was only going to lose two or three games at max, lost their last four games of the season and finished 6-6. Oh well! Back on Gerhart, a big nod to him, as he finished with 205 yards on 29 carries. I still favor Colt McCoy of Texas over him, though.So, have we seen the last of Weis at Notre Dame? We’ll have to wait and see how he and his athletic director talk today. Hopefully, they keep him.And, to wrap things up, congratulations are in order for the Wittenberg Tigers football team, who defeated Trine 34-17 yesterday at Edwards-Mauer Field. Wittenberg will have their work cut out for them this weekend, though, when they travel out to Badger country to take on Division III powerhouse Wisconsin Whitewater.Until tomorrow: the rest, they say, is history.
A daily blog from the mind of Bryant Billing.Black Friday Lusted and Busted. Lusted, as in I lusted over a three-hundred odd-some dollar Sony 42-inch flat panel television that was on sale during the ’doorbuster’ sales this past Black Friday morning. Busted, as in my dream of ditching that old 28-inch, early 2000’s bulky television with the funny coloring was busted. Yes, I had dreams of eliminating my old TV. by purchasing a new one. I have misfortune of owning one of those old, bulky televisions everyone thought were so cool ten years ago. It even had an attachment for speakers, so you could have surround sound! Ten years later, we wonder why we ever bought the pieces of junk. Now, every time I patron one of the local sports-bars in Springfield (I like Frickers the best), I get the amazing experience of watching sports in HD on a flat-panel. Then, when I go home, all I want to do is bust that giant box. So, my father and I went out to the west side Wal-Mart with visions of taking that viewing experience home with each of us. Arriving at 4:20, we were all to saddened to see that, even though they weren’t supposed to, shoppers had already wiped out the televisions by putting them in their carts to claim them for their own. Oh well!My Black Friday story aside, let’s focus on going over this past 48-hour period of sports.We got what we expected on Thanksgiving Day. In the NFL ring, Detroit lost to a less-than-impressive Green Bay team (bet you wish you weren’t so happy to have cut Farve out now, huh?), Oakland got their clocks cleaned in the stadium in Dallas that’s worth more than the entire city of Springfield, and nobody really cares or remembers the New York Giants game. Happy Thanksgiving, sports fans! But, if you took my advice from the day before, you got to see a pretty decent Xavier and Marquette basketball game (X lost by ten, 71-61), and you witnessed the best football game of the day in the Texas and Texas A&M battle. No one has doubted probable Heisman winner Colt McCoy, who would get my vote after that performance, but we have all doubted the Longhorn’s defense. Texas’ secondary can’t cover a wide receiving unit any better than three amputees and a blind man. I still think those Texas Thughorns could defeat Floor-ida, but they better hope they don’t face a stout defensive team in Alabamer, because the Big Elephants would be able to stop McCoy and company. Okay, I admit, that was overkill on the name calling. Back on topic though, if Texas would beat Florida, it would be a 90-plus point game.Speaking of Alabamer… did any one else watch Auburn battle Alabama? The Crimson Tide again looked vulnerable on a big stage, and Auburn gave me and the rest of the viewing country doubts as to whether or not they can defeat the reigning national champions next week. Alabama missed a lot of tackles in the backfield, fell for trick plays, and was shabby in the red zone. Auburn is a decent team, but should a team that’s supposed to be on another level struggle defensively against a team who couldn’t beat 5-5 Georgia? I don’t think so. What impressed me about Alabama was quarterback Greg McElroy. He’s been lack-luster for Alabama so far this year, but he stepped up Friday, including on the Crimson Tide’s final drive, where he led his team down the field for the game-winning score. Oh, and how about Auburn’s clock management on that drive? Why call two timeouts with less than two minutes the game to give Alabama’s offense time to regroup and call a play in the red zone? Are you really that unconfident in your defense to produce a stop that you think you need to begin saving time for your own offense? Back in Ohio… we saw my pre-season prediction of Illinois defeating Cincinnati fall flat. Illinois definitely stayed with the Bearcats, but the Illini made Texas’ secondary look like the best in the country. It’s been saddening as a general sports fan to have witnessed Illinois’ demise so far from where they were two years ago after defeating Ohio State in November of 2007 in Columbus. It’s been a steep downward slope since then. What I will give Illinois credit for is staying competitive and trying in this game. They certainly didn’t look like they were trying to do that when I saw them in person at Columbus last September. And, it’s too bad Tony Pike was hurt in October, because he definitely would have been a legit Heisman contender, especially with all these games being played on national television. Still, until Cincinnati learns how to wrap a man up, they’ll be in for a repeat of the thumping a 9-4 Virginia Tech team gave them last year in the Orange Bowl come this bowl season.And high school basketball is underway! Girls teams from around the county took to the court for the first time this regular season. A big thank-you to Mr. Brian Masser, a Kenton Ridge High School Yearbook Adviser and teacher, who provided The Springfield Paper with this picture Kenton Ridge senior guard and Findlay signee Saira House laying in a basket over a Southeastern player as time expired in the first half of play. House led Kenton Ridge to a 61-39 win over Southeastern last night in Cougar Country with 17 points, while super-recruit Mariah Harris also added 17. (Get used to hearing the name Mariah Harris - she’ll be, quite possibly, the best recruit to have ever come out of Clark County. I’ll be writing more about here next week myself.). I’ll be putting my work in today covering area high school boys team. This morning, it’s off to a three-way scrimmage between Xenia, Tecumseh, and Southeastern at Xenia, which will begin at ten o’ clock. Tonight, it’s off to Springfield High School to watch the Wildcats play Graham in a Foundation Game at 7:30 p.m. More on all these teams tomorrow! Until then: the rest, they say, is history.
A daily blog from the mind of Bryant Billing.A big welcome to you if you’re reading this blog for the first time on a nice Thanksgiving day off! Please scroll down or follow this line to find out more information on our new blog! Hello to everyone else, and let’s get to it!Has anyone heard about those Wittenberg Tigers? I have from the endless press releases they’ve submitted this season detailing the (to-date) perfect season at 11-0. Yes, the Wittenberg football team of old is back, as they went undefeated this season in NCAC conference play and took home their first outright conference title in 3 years. What’s more, Wittenberg defeated Cincinnati Mount St. Joesph 42-14 in an opening-round playoff game at Edwards Maurer Field last Saturday, November 21. Impressive, huh? I know, you really don’t care. BUT… consider this: Wittenberg has had several senior starters play through the season injured, a few with sprained or torn ACL’s. I’m just giving them some ink - or space, I guess - since they’re doing so well. They deserve it.I talk with Tiger tight ends coach Rob Linkhart often, who has kept me up-to-date this season on his squad. Linkhart said earlier in the season that the coaching staff was concerned with their players playing on injuries and wondering how well they could do. He said last week that they’ve even somewhat surprised the coaching staff by their superb play this season, saying that their leaving a good mark on the program. It sounds like the Tigers are focused and ready to play this off season, and they continue their postseason march at home again this Saturday at noon against Trine. (Who? Exactly!) Best of luck to Wittenberg.Now to something more interesting… Why is Big Ben Rothlisberger going to play this Sunday? Yes, in case you haven’t heard, Rothlisberger is expected to play in this Sunday night’s game against Baltimore, even after receiving a concussion against Kansas City last Sunday, which was his umpteenth time receiving one during his NFL career alone. My question: does Ben want to remember any of his pro career? At this rate, he won’t ten years from now. I get it; it’s a big AFC North game for Pittsburgh. But, with all of these new studies coming out about the dangers of multiple concussions pose to football players, and with the NFL establishing their own board on the topic, isn’t one game off warranted? It comes down to career vs. season. With two Super Bowl rings on your finger, I’d say you could sit this game out. If I was Mike Tomlin, I’d force my Super Bowl quarterback to sit this game out - or at least severely limit playing time - and see what Dennis Dixon has to offer. They would be tied with Baltimore - not below - with a loss, and with Baltimore’s season to date, Pittsburgh would have the better chance of rebounding. Plus, with being swept by Cincinnati and having that factor out now, a division title may, surprisingly, be a stretch. Plus, even with a loss, Pittsburgh will still likely win the Wild Card over a faltering Denver team and a mediocre Jacksonville team who still has Houston, Indianapolis, and New England to play yet. But hey, good luck with that.Benson back against Browns! Yes, Cincinnati Bengal tailback Cedric Benson may be to be back on the field this Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium against the hapless Cleveland Browns! Good news for Cincinnati fans, who, while happy with Larry Johnson’s performance, still point out he is 0-1 as a Bengal. Bad karma! According to Yahoo! Sports, “Coach Marvin Lewis… [told reporters] Benson is “very close” and might be able to play.” It probably won’t matter, but Benson has been a good rebound story, and it’s nice to see that he’s on his way back. As a Bengal fan myself, I can’t wait to see Johnson and Benson on the field at the same time. Knowing the Bengals, though, I still won’t be surprised if they lose to Cleveland. Come on, NFL! The National Football League ruined a humorous moment again. If you were watching the Monday night game this week against Tennessee and Houston, you may have seen a referee apparently high-five Titan quarterback Vince Young. It was a funny moment, but the serious lawyer boys from the NFL had to issue a statement saying it was not the official’s intent to high five Young, and that he was just simply give the sign that the game was over when Young gave him the hand gestured. My point: who cares? I mean, really, I had forgotten about that incident ten seconds after I saw the replay on SportsCenter. It wasn’t a big deal; you don’t have to apologize for it. We all know they’re not fixing games in the NFL - no one is going to start a conspiracy theory after such a harmless incident. But in today’s politically correct world, the NFL wanted to clarify things. In doing so, they’re the only entity responsible for igniting conspiracy theories on this.Come on, NFL! Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, but let’s all give a collective “Come on!“ over today’s NFL line-up. First, we get that powerhouse two-win Detroit Lions game against Green Bay at 12:30 to kick things off. Then, it’s followed by an even more exciting Oakland at Dallas game at 4:15. It all gets topped off with the New York Giants taking on the Denver Broncos at 8:20, which most of you won’t see unless you have the NFL Network (not that I’m sad to be missing that game.) Isn’t it going to be an exciting afternoon? Throw out the “tradition” factor, can the NFL at least schedule a competitive game for once on Thanksgiving? We’re supposed to be enjoying our holiday with the family by watching football and generally ignoring them. This may be hard after Detroit fumbles for the tenth time, and we’ll have to talk to that strange cousin of ours with the knit sweater… sorry, off in to my own world. But, never fear, where the NFL falters, the NCAA makes up for it! Not only is there a great day of basketball lined up in the Old Spice Classic at Disney World, including a Xavier and Marquette game, but there is also a good Texas and Texas A&M game at eight o’clock on the football field! Now, those are interesting match-ups!In all seriousness, I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving with your family, and I hope you get to be thankful for being a sports fan around the people you love! I know I’ll… well, try. Any way, thanks again for reading, and until tomorrow: The rest, they say, is history.
A daily blog from the mind of sports editor Bryant Billing.Ah, it’s good to be back in the swing of things. A big hello to everyone one, and welcome to your new best source for local athletics: PendaSports.com! I, of course, am Bryant Billing, the sports editor of the Penda Publishing Company. I am also a internet, radio, and television sports show host, among other things. The sports writers of the Penda Publishing Company are going to use this new website to provide additional coverage and commentary on the games and teams we cover that just can’t fit into a weekly sports section. In case you’re wondering, we’re made up of three newspapers: The Springfield Paper, The Outlook of Champaign County, and The Fairborn Paper. So, you’ll get the best sports coverage of Clark and Champaign County and Fairborn right here! And don’t worry, you’ll be hearing plenty from Bill Hart, Nick Frazier, and Casey Matteson too! Granted, we’re at a dead period right now - Thanksgiving’s coming up, and we’re in the middle of a transition period in high school sports - so I’ll probably be your lone host for this week.This blog was started, in part, because I couldn’t keep up my own blog. I had a blog of my own that I actually started about this time last year, but, I’ve found, it’s too much work for one guy, and I couldn’t keep up with it. So, the logical solution? Get a website for everybody. And, here we are! Anyway, I wrote - or tried to, at least - a daily blog on there called “From Billing’s Mind…” and I’m now reviving it for a fresh start.So, be sure and check back daily for the best local sports coverage there is! Let’s get started!Basketball’s back! The Kenton Ridge High School Cougar basketball team got thing kicking last night with a Foundation Game at London. I didn’t go (new episode of ‘V’ on ABC!) since these are, basically, glorified scrimmage games. I’ve been surprised by the number of casual fans I’ve come across that have no idea what I’m talking about when I bring up the Foundation Games, so if you don’t know, here’s your sign: It’s a scrimmage game in normal game conditions - with a normal game clock and jerseys - that donates all proceeds to a charity of the two participating school’s choice. The whole point of that dissertation was to bask in the glory that basketball season is in full swing. Boys high school starts in roughly a week, and NCAA Mens is in full swing! And, who cares about the NBA? So, get to your local gym, and watch the best sport there is! When is Notre Dame going to fire Charlie Weis? We all know his reign has come to an end. Heck, even he’s admitted such. So, why not just get it over with? Granted, ‘da Eyerish’ are showing some class and not ditching him before the season is over. From the looks of it, at least they have the decency to let him finish the year out. But, does it really matter? Nothing would be different about Notre Dame this season if Weis was fired yesterday. They wouldn’t play any worse in their remaining games, or in their bowl game, if Weis was fired. You never know, they may even play better. So, why delay the inevitable? Just get it over with and name a head coach so the Notre Dame fans I know (only a few, and too many, at that) can move on and tell me how good they’ll be next season. Just like they have for the last five years.Yes, I know… this was a very bare first installment. One junk paragraph and the other on a subject I’m sure half of you quit reading after I said ‘da Eyerish.’ But, hey, why not start off slow?See you tomorrow… with better topics!
By BRYANT BILLINGSports EditorDAYTON — The Shawnee Braves had been trying to come back for over three quarters. The Braves’ offense, so proliferate in the regular season, had been inept for most of the Division III regional final game against Cincinnati Wyoming. But finally, with 8:24 left in the game, Shawnee capped off a 15-play, 79-yard drive to tie the score at 7-7 and spark life in the Braves.“It was big,” Shawnee head coach Rick Meeks said after the game of the drive. “They had a good drive there, and a few things went our way and we were able to score. But, you know, we didn’t have a whole ‘lot of time to celebrate.”That’s because the Wyoming Cowboys went back out by a 7-point margin only 17 seconds after Shawnee tied the game when Cowboy Spencer Herbst took a pass over the middle 64 yards for a touchdown. It was the last time either team scored in the game, and it lifted Wyoming to a 14-7 win over Shawnee last Friday, November 20, at Welcome Stadium in Dayton.“What you’ve got to kinda count on when you’re playing a good team [is] every now and then, they’ll make a good play,” Meeks said.Wyoming had opportunities to make a few good plays in the first half, but, for the most part, they didn’t. It started on the first drive of the game when Shawnee’s Steven Sarven intercepted a pass at the Braves 2-yard line with 10:07 left in the first quarter to end the Cowboy’s first series. Shawnee went three-and-out on their ensuing possession, though, and Wyoming capitalized on their next drive when Cowboy quarterback Kyle Seyfried threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to receiver Harrison Olge with 5:15 left to take a 7-0 lead after the extra point.Shawnee’s defense ended another potential scoring drive when the Braves’ Eric Dewitt recovered a Seyfried fumble with 8:50 left in the second quarter at their own 27-yard line. The Braves’ offense again failed to do anything offensively after the turnover, going three-and-out. It was a theme for Shawnee in the first half, as they managed to get only two first downs in both quarters combined and only 44 offensive yards, while Wyoming controlled the ball for the majority of the half with relatively little to show for it.“[The defense] just gave an outstanding effort,” Meeks said of his team’s defensive performance in the first half. “Bend but don’t break; they get down inside the redzone, and it looks like they’re going to get into the end zone, and our defense continues to step up and make plays. That’s the way they were all year.”On the other hand, Meeks was quick to give credit to Wyoming for stopping the Braves offensively.“They had a nice scheme on us,” Meeks said. “They were just big, strong, fast kids.”Wyoming didn’t have as easy a time stopping Shawnee in the second half. The Braves controlled the ball on offense for most of the half, and defensively, Shawnee forced Wyoming to punt and blocked a field goal attempt by the Cowboys to prevent any scoring from them. After Shawnee blocked the field goal with 3:56 left in the third quarter, the Braves began what was their only scoring drive of the night. After driving 78 yards, Shawnee running back Kris Hanaway punched it in from one-yard out and, after the extra point, the game was tied at 7-7. It looked like the momentum had shifted the Braves’ way, and if it had indeed shifted, it shifted right back to Wyoming. It only took one play for the Cowboys to even the score, as Kyle Seyfried threw a short pass to Spencer Herbst over the middle, who took it the rest of the way for the 64-yard touchdown. With that, Wyoming was back on top at 14-7. Shawnee went three-and-out on their responding drive, and, although the Braves got the ball back with 54 seconds left in the game, they couldn’t move the ball, as quarterback Evan Sorts threw an interception on a fourth-and-sixteen to give the ball back to Wyoming, who ran the clock out.“[Wyoming’s] quarterback made a great throw [on that play],” Meeks said of the touchdown that won Wyoming the game. “[We had] great coverage, but they just had a great play. They’re good; you make one little, small mistake against a team like that, and they’re going.”'“We don’t have anything to hang our heads about,” Meeks said in conclusion about the season. “It’s hard, now, after a loss, but we had a good season, and we enjoyed it.”___Scoring by Quarters:Team 1 2 3 4Shawnee- 0 0 0 7Wyoming- 7 0 0 7Individual Statistics:Passing: Player, Completions-Attempts, Yards, Touchdowns, Interceptions. Shawnee- Evan Storts 9-23 144 0 1. Wyoming- Kyle Sefried 17-26 227 2 1.Receiving: Player, Receptions-Yards, Touchdowns. Shawnee- Steven Sarven 4-56, Xavier Jordan 3-69, Cody Combs 2-19, Totals 9-144. Wyoming- Spencer Herbst 2-64 1, Evan Aleshire 5-63, Hardy Meisner 5-61, Isiah Mearor 2-27, Harrison Olge 1-7 1, Chris Dolle 1-7, Jon Tighe 1-6, Totals 17-227 2.Rushing: Player, Carries-Yards, Touchdowns, Fumbles. Shawnee- Kris Hanaway 10-36, Eric Dewitt 3-7, Evan Storts 13-0, Dan Rohrer 1-0, Steven Sarven 4-(-4), Totals 31-39. Wyoming- Isiah Nearor 18-71, Kyle Seyfried 15-14, Harry Meisner 2-6, Drew Perry 2-3, Totals 37-94.
By BRYANT BILLINGSports EditorLet me be the first to welcome you to the new blog of the Penda Publishing Company! The launching of this blog marks a new era in the growth and the development in the sports department here at Penda Publishing and at our newspapers.This blog will not only contain the articles that appear in each editon of our newspapers, but it will be an outlet area for all of our sports writers and columnists to provide additional coverage and commentary to the games, teams, and players they are covering. I hope you take the time and return to this blog often to get the best coverage of your favorite team!Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!
