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Times-Advocate, 1996-01-17, Page 4Page 12 Times -Advocate, January 17, 1996 This Week in Sports... • Precision skaters meet and greet - page 13 • Stephen Atoms finalists at North American Silver Stick - page 14, Hawks down Irish in fourth encounter Exeter defeats Lucan after rebounding from a 5-2 victory over Seaforth at home Friday Gary Buan and Chris Skalkos LUCAN - The Exeter Hawks travelled to Lucan oik Saturday night to face off against the Lucan Irish for a fast skating, physical game defeating the Irish 4-2. The Irish controlled the puck in the Hawks zone for the opening minutes of the first period. The Hawks broke up their offensive threat and set one up for them- selves, Chris Kennedy passed the puck to Mark Bell at point who laced the top corner past a fully stretched goalie, Chris Birch with a slapshot. Lucan tied the game half -way through the first, Trevor Emms scored on a screened shot to beat Exeter goalie Dave Nahrgang. Mike Bonar and Chad Greenlee as- sisted on the play. The second period was end to end with total oliour minutes in penalties called. Good clean hock- ey was the key in the second with fast skating change on the fly type play. The Hawks scored two goals with less than five minutes re- maining both of which came off of point shots. Sean McCann assisted on Mike Bowerman's goal. With a total of three seconds remaining in the frame Chris McDonald assisted on Mark Bell's second goal of the night. It proved to be the game winner upping the Hawks lead to 3-1. "You never want to give onc,•up with three seconds left, it's a tough pill to swallow," said Lucan coach Scott Bogart. The Hawks capitalized on the powerplay early in the third when Sean Brown beat Chris Birch. Jason McBride was credited with the as- sist. The Irish refused to give up scor- ing their second goal of the game when a back hander by Dave Lind- berg floated over the shoulder of Dave Nahrgang. Brent Mills and Chad Lambourn assisted on the goal. The last time these two met on I.ucan's home ice, an ugly five on five brawl erupted in the second pe- riod and a total of 51 penalties were called during the game. The Irish won the match 7-4, hut the Hawks returned the favor two days later beating them 5-2 in Exeter. By contrast, Wednesday's game saw only seven penalties called. None were for fighting or roughing. "Everyone in the town of Exeter thinks were running a goon show out here, in reality that's not the case," said Bogart after the game. Jeff Dalrymple, assistant coach for the Hawks, said they were ready if things got physical. "We were prepared for more than what actually happened," said Dal- rymple. "We dressed seven de- fenseman to make sure we were deep enough and they all played great," he said, adding three goals came off a defensman's stick from the point. The decision to start Nahrgang in net stemmed from his last per- formance against the Irish when he stopped 33 shots and was only scored upon during powerplays. "He's a big guy and he doesn't get intimidated or frustrated very easily," said Dalrymple. "He kept us in when we needed him the uron-Perth County will have Triple "A" hockey SEAFORTH - It looks as if Huron County may be getting Triple "A" hockey. Regional hockey enthusiasts held a meeting in Seaforth earlier this month and decided to create a Triple "A" hockey zone extending from Tavistock to Goderich, and from Lucknow to Embrow, re- ported the Signal Star. • The executive group is interested in forming a Midget team as well as teams at the Bantam, Peewee and Atom level calling them- selves the Huron -Perth Lakers. Don Richardson, President of the Exeter Minor Hockey Associa- tion and John Rasenberg, executive member of the Shamrock Hock- ey League attended the meeting. "Personally I'm not for it and I'm not against it, but they pretty well established it is going to come," said Richardson who spoke to the T -A last week. When asked about concerns that Triple "A" teams would drain smaller communities of their best players, Richardson said he doesn't think Exeter will be affected. "We may not lose any players. Our minor hockey program is fair- ly competitive...a lot of the kids have gone on to play Jr '13' and Jr `A'," said Richardson. "But it will help the players in the smaller hockey systems to get out and be recognized." Executives are waiting for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association to approve the application and declare the 41 community zone ac- tive. Sports- Litc Gary Buan At six foot five inches, 14 year-old Marshall Middleton may be the tallest Midget basketball player in Huron County. With a 4-0 record on the year, Middleton and the South Huron midget basketball team are off to a high flying start looking down at the competition. Middleton has been playing basketball at a competitive level since he was in grade seven. He was familiarized with the sport through tele- vision and he first stepped on the court when a member noticed his size and asked him to join the team. Middleton is currently in grade nine playing with the Panther midget team after declining an offer to try out for the junior basketball team. "I wanted to start at the bottom and learn the fundamentals," said Middleton, commenting on why he declined the junior team's offer. Coach Wally Webster said Middleton is improving after not being aggressive enough at the start of the season. Middleton is a centre who doesn't take many shots from the outside, he likes to park himself under the basket using his height to get re- bounds. Basketball at the midget level is played with four quarters, consisting of eight minutes per frame. Middleton plays approximately 20 minutes in a game taking all the jdmp balls. Although Middleton is one of the top scorers on the team he admits that he is not the best dribbler. Due to his height the ball has to bounce a lot higher for it to get from the floor back to his hand making him more susceptible to shorter players trying to Steal this ball. "I don't dribble that much; when I do 1 get down low and I tend to Red tight shot. Mark Livermore floats a back -hander past a sprawled out Seaforth goal keeper during a Hawks home game against Seaforth Friday night. Livermore's third period goal secured the Hawk's 5-2 victory over a tough and chippy Seaforth team. Exeter went on to defeat the Lucan Irish 4-2 the next night. most." Hawks beat Seaforth Friday The Hawks came into the game off a hot win over the Seaforth Centenaires at the South Huron Recreation Centre.Friday night. Exeter beat Seaforth 5-2 in a tough and chippy game that saw 27 penalties called in the third period alone. Ryan Chamney and Ben McCann scored for the Hawks in tile, first • period with assists from Chris McDonald, Jason •McBride, Craig Corriveau and Brian Gardner. Nathan Burns pumped in a pow- erplay goal in the second off a feed from Jeff Glavin and Shayne Rob- inson and McDonald and Mark Livermore scored in the third with Greg: Dalrymple, Chamney, Ben McCann and Chris Kennedy pick- ing up assists. : 'Ihtly�wks defensive. , lines teamed up with netminder Darren Kints allowing Seaforth only two powerplay goals. The Centenaires outplayed the Hawks for much of the second pe- riid hut Exeter came out strong in the third clinching the game with two quick goals. "We got off to a good start scor- ing on our first shift and that seemed to open the game up_ for us creating more opportunities," said Revington. Despite the number of penalties called in the last period, the Hawks managed to keep Seaforth off the scoreboard while scoring twice on even terms. "Penalties arc always a factor hut penalties didn't decide the out- come," Revington said. Exeter will play Mitchell Jan. 17 before returning home to host Ha- gersville Jan.19. Two Exeter teams are among six play- ing in a new indoor soccer league HURON PARK - Exeter and area soccer players are getting their kicks indoors this winter. The Exeter Mens Indoor Soccer League began their season Wednes- day night at the Centralia Rec- reation Centre in Huron Park with six teams meeting • for ..the first time. In game one, The Tusken Raiders beat Stratford United 10-4, in the second game St. Columban claimed victory over London Slavia 3-1 and the feature game of the night saw the Exeter Centennials beat the Exeter Fury 8-2. George McEwan, a volunteer co- ordinator and player, said two Exet- er teams consist of a mixture of summertime soccer players and Middleton, newcomers to the sport. He em- phasized the team names "Cen- tennials" and "Fury" are used for simplicity and the indoor league is not an extension of the Western Ontario Soccer League in which these two teams play. "We're striving to make this fun and competitive. We look at it as being good training for the summer," he said. McEwan said the Centennials had an ad- vantage over the Fury on Wednesday because the have been involved with an indoor league based in London and are experienced with the different style of play. "You have to change your strat- egy indoors. You can't kick and run like you would outdoors, that sim- ply doesn't work." The same rules as outdoor soccer apply, however, the indoor game is played on a gym- nasium and the ball can be played • ,,.Ak 1 if/, pass' more. I usually only dribble when I'm driving to the net," said Middleton explaining how he guards against turnovers. Being six foot five one might think that slam dunking comes naturally. This is not the case for Middleton who has yet to make this one of his of- fensive threats. "I am going to work on my jumping skills, hope- fully I will be able to (slam dunk) next year," said Middleton. Webster likes to use Middleton's size as an in- timidator against the opposition. "At the start of the game they stay away from me, but near the end they come on strong," said Middle- ton. . Middleton creditscoach Webster for making the team work hard in Practise producing good players "He gels into the game. When we are in practise we have to do a lap for every foul shot we miss," ha said. "We're doing great and practising hard- usually four times a week." Middleton tries to refrain from fouling other players, he doesn't feel the need to go in and hit p40- pie around but said he would if he had to. • off the walls eliminating an out of boundary zone. The net is much smaller and there are only six players on the floor, set up much like hockey with three forwards, two defensive players and one goalie. There are no off - sides. • McEwan said the indoor game is designed to keep the ball moving with less stoppage in play resulting in a fast and high scoring game. "There is more passing and shooting," he said. The two Exeter teams will meet. twice more during the 12 week schedule on Feb. 14 and March 27. Next Wednesday the Fury will battle the Tusken United while the Centennials take on St. Columban. oit midget "1 try to give more than I take." He has only been fouled out once so far. It happened in the first game of the season. Middleton likes to win and hopes the team con- tinues to be successful. He had his first taste of vic- tory when the Exeter public school's boys team went undefeated winning their league. He plans to continue playing basketball all through high school. At the time he isn't looking for a basketball scholarship but if one were to come his way he would consider it. Middleton said he is interested in the mechanical •field for a possible career choice and plans on en- tering some mechanical courses next year. "English is one of my downfalls, but my grades are average," Middleton said. Middleton is planning to use his height again next year to his advantage, by takingup the sport of vol- leyball. He is also debating on adding rugby to his sports repertoire, possibly playing in grade 10. Being tall has it's disadvantages. Clothing is dif- ficult to find and a size 15 shoe must be specially or- dered. However, when it comes to basketball he enjoys the advantage of being tall. "When I go up to the net I can reach over anyone."