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lone regional survivor Bentz, O'Brien Johnsburg qualifyers By Mike Lamb CARPENTERSVUUE - It would be easy for Marty Sobc- zak to be disappointed, but the McHenry coach decided to look at the Crown-Dundee wrestling regional postively. On the other hand, Johnsburg coach Mike Roberts had no reason to be disappointed at all. Only one Warrior survived the regional and advanced into the Barrington sectional. Bob Sarabia took a third place in the 126-pound division. Two Skyhawks will be making the trip to Barrington next weekend. Heavyweight Jim Bentz settled with a second place, while fresh­ men Jim O'Brien took a third at 132-pounds. "I'm less dissappointed than last night," said Sobczak Sun­ day evening. "The team didn't finish up as I planned, but these boys are an exceptionally group of individuals." Several Warriors lost their sectional opportunity in the wrestlbacks. Russ Bunday and Roland Hunt just missed out on the sectionals with fourth places. "Well, like I said before - two months ago I didn't think we would get anybody to the sec­ tionals. For awhile there, It looked like we would get a few more through," Roberts said. "I had a good feeling we would get Bentz through. I'm just real pleased with Jim O'Brien. To make the sectionals as a fresh­ man is a tremendous ac­ complishment." As expected, Woodstock won the regional title and will ad­ vance as a team into the sec­ tional under the new dual system. The Blue Streaks scored 196% points, compared to second place Dundee-Crown's 182. Crystal Lake South was third with 94%, Crystal Lake Central 47, Jacobs 45, Johnsburg 39%, McHenry 39 and Cary- Grove 21. Woodstock led the field with 11 of its 12 wrestlers qualifying for sectionals. Crown-Dundee was next with seven and Crystal Lake South had five qualifyers. Bentz lost his bid for a sectional title when he lost 11-5 to Carnell Washington in the championship match. Bentz earned the right to wrestle in the title match by receiving a bye during the first round and defeating Frank Flemming of Dundee-Crown 4-1. Flemming had defeated McHenry's Dan Mohnen 5-3 in the preliminary round. Bentz will carry a 17-3 record into the Barrington sectional. Roberts said the lack of ex­ perience finally caught up with Bentz in the title match. "Carnell Washington is a good heavyweight. He's not a big heavyweight, but has good size at 220 pounds. He moves well and he know's how to wrestle," said Roberts. Sarabia defeated Pat Hughes of Cary-Grove 2-0 in the third place match to advance into the sectionals. The McHenry senior scored a reversal early in the second period and held on for the rest of the match. Sarabia led-off the regionals with a 9-2 win over Crystal Lake Central's Jeff Szot. But Sarabia lost to Bill Rich of Woodstock during his second match, 9-3. Sarabia was able to advance into the third place match by Continued on pago 19 ' Lady Warriors fall to Jacobs, Waukegan West STAFF PHOTO-MIKf I AMI jonnsburg's Jeff Preston found scoring inside a little easier in the fourth quarter, as the Skyhawks rallied past Marian Central. Preston scored 15 points. Putting it all together has been a problem for the McHenry girls' basketball team. That problem continued to plague the Lady Warriors last weekend. Using halfcourt pressure defense, the Lady Warriors were able to force Fox Valley Conference leading Jacobs into 30 turnovers. But McHenry lacked the ability to score, shooting only 21 percent from the field and 44 percent from the line. The result was another loss last Thursday, 52-40. Saturday, the Lady Warriors only managed to hit on 31 per­ cent of its shots from the field and lost to Waukegan West, 70- 56. The loss to Jacobs left McHenry still winless in the FVC with a 0-7 record, while the Golden Eagles lead the FVC at 7-1. McHenry is 3-13 overall. "Except for shooting per­ centage, we outplayed them everywhere except in reboun­ ding, which was.still close," said McHenry coach Pat Wirtz. McHenry found itself behind Jacobs by 23 points early in the third quarter. Wirtz had his team switch to a full court press and slowly closed the gap. Within a three minute period, the Lady Warriors closed the gap to 44-38. But that would be as close as McHenry would get. Renee Mezzano led McHenry with nine points, while Andee Norton scored eight and pulled down eight rebounds. Sherri Stoltman led Jacobs with 18 points and Heather Rayka scored 17. "Greta Larsen played her finest game in three years on the varsity offensively," said Wirtz after the Waukegan West game. Larsen scored 24 points to lead McHenry in scoring. She also grabbed 10 rebounds. Sara Prust added 11 to the Lady Warrior cause. Waukegan West jumped off to a 15-8 first quarter lead, but McHenry managed to play even the second and third quarter. Waukegan West's 23-18 fourth quarter edge put the Lady Warriors away. Besides Larsen and Prust. Wirtz also had praise" for Patty Johnson. "Patty Johnson did all of the ball handling and did an excellent job taking charge. She had 10 assists and scored nine points," Wirtz said. "The opposing coaches had plenty of praise for her. They would have liked to have someone like that on their ballclub." Hope Ceaser, an all-stater, led Waukegan West in scoring with 30 points. Kelly Hughes helped out with 24. ^ Again, McHenry was able to force the opponent into tur­ novers. Waukegan West com­ mitted 21 turnovers, to McHenry's 14. But Waukegan West out rebounded McHenry 38- 30. PAGE 20 - Pl^INPEALER^WEDNEgPAY^FEBRUARY lS, jW4_ let's' talk m Sports Sarabia McHenry's Johnsburg hands Marian upsetting news SURROUNDED BY TIGERS -- two other Central teammates have McHenry's Mark Peterson found scoring Peterson boxed In. Peterson was held to tough Friday. Corky Card/ along with six points. Warrior cold spell continues Central handrMcHenryr^rd straight loss By Steve Metsch Shaw-Free Press Service CRYSTAL Lake - McHenry's boys' basketball team certainly can't use a lack of opportunties as an excuse this time. McHenry took an in­ credible 75 shots at the bucket Friday night, yet still fell short to Fox Valley Conference rival Crystal Lake Central. "Hie Warriors' cold spell neutralized a fourth-quarter rally and Central held on, 61- 53. McHenry shot a woeful 33 percent (25-of-75) from the field for its third straight loss. "How many easy shots did we miss tonight? We weren't shooting bad shots - you know every team is going to shoot some bad shots once in a while - but most of our shots were good p e r c e n t a g e s h o t s , " McHenry coach Ken Ludwig said. "I don't know how many shots we had in the paint tonight." he added. "We had a bunch - they just wouldn't go. We dig our own hole that way. We just don't have any real, real natural shooters. We just don't have them." Central does, namely Todd Howell and Corky Card. Howell padded his FVC-leading average with 24 points. Card, fourth in the league, chipped in 18. "Those kids are tough offensively. Boy, they're tough," Ludwig said. "But this is what athletics are about. The kids have to learn to battle back. I think they know they can do it. It's just the idea that we've got to do it." The Warriors (5-4, 7-11) nearly did. Central, which had opened a 19-point third quarter lead, watched that dwindle to 54-47 on a pair of Mark Peterson freebies with 1:37 left to play. But McHenry was forced to foul and the threat evaporated. "Well, they had opened the third quarter in a zone and we were scoring real well. But we were standing around and they switched to a man-to-man. We quit running our man offense and they did a nice job of doubling up on the ball," Tiger Coach Arnie Kay said of the near comeback. Central, sometimes ac­ cused of relying upon Card and Howell a bit too heavily, debunked that theory. Dan Key scored 10 points, including six straight free throws. Mark Statter scored just three points, but offense wasn't his duty. "I thought Marie got in and did some good things on the weak-side rebound. They put (Corey) Scott on the weak-side boards and he was hurting us. We put Mark in and and he shut that off," Kay said. The 6-foot-3 Scott finished with 12 points and McHenry's big man, 6-foot-6 Peterson, managed just six. Pat Dunne kept the Warriors alive with 14. Central's biggest spark­ plug, literally, was Mike Williams. The 6-foot-7 Continued on pago 19 SHAW-FRfE PRESS PHOTO By Mike Lamb %. .. JOHNSBURG - Ben Beck walked past his players during pre-game warmups with a smile on his face. He had a gleam in his eye. It was as if he knew something good was about to happen. Something good did happen for Beck and his Johnsburg S k y h a w k s . U n f o r t u n a t e l y f o r Marian Central, it was bad news. The Hurricanes visited Johnsburg Friday night and came home a 57-53 loser. The loss hurt the Hurricanes deeply. Marengo had lost to Lake Zurich on Saturday, and a Marian win would have left the Hurricanes just a half game out of first place in the Northwest Suburban Conference. Instead, Marian finds itself 1% games behind Marengo with a 8-4 record. The win for Johnsburg raised its record in the NWSC to 3-7. Marian assistant coach Tony Huemann had a hard time trying to figure out the loss to Johnsburg. "Marengo blew Johnsburg away and Johnsburg comes back to beat us. The way they played tonight there is no way Johnsburg should have lost to Marengo." Beck was tickled about beating the Hurricanes. "It's a nice win anytime you beat the second place team in the con­ ference and your rival." The critical point of the ballgame was early in the fourth quarter. The Skyhawks scored eight points before Marian could score a point. By that time, Johnsburg had surpassed Marian's 37-33 lead and held a 41-37 advantage. With less than two minutes left in the game, the Skyhawks held the Hurricanes to just two baskets and John­ sburg was the owner of a 46-39 lead. Johnsburg three seniors were the major catalysts. The three of them scored 44 of Johnsburg's 57 points. Jeff Jayko led with 16 points, while Jeff Preston scored 15 and Joe Majercik 13. Those three offset Marian's Chuck Hartlieb's scoring performance of 22 points. Andy Hartlieb also scored 13 for Marian. "We came here last year and came out with a loss," said Huemann. "The two teams play pretty close together. We were afraid we're going to get beat here. It's a rivalry. The Johnsburg crowd also played a big part in the game according to Huemann. "Every time they scored a basket they (the crowd) hollered. As a player it has to effect you. Johnsburg fans are good fans." The crowd really came to life during the Johnsburg fourth quarter surge. Beck agreed with Huemann on the crowd's part in the win. "The fans are dynamite. You can see why our players love to play at home. They don't let us quit," said Beck. The Skyhawks had plenty of times to quit. Marian had the lead for most of the first three quarters. But Johnsburg stayed with Marian for most of the first quarter. The score was tied five times before Andy Hartlieb's jump shot gave Marian the lead, 12-10, which it held until the fourth quarter. Chuck Hartlieb hit on a jump shot with four seconds left on the clock to give Marian a 14-10 first quarter lead. The Hurricanes expanded their lead to its largest with three straight baskets before Johnsburg could respond in the second quarter. Johnsburg took a timeout with still 6:13 left on the clock. The timeout seemed to help, as the Skyhawks out- scored Marian 12-5 in the remaining six minutes in the half. When the first half buzzer sounded, Marian only held a 25- 22 advantage. Jayko hit on a jumper from justoverthe half- Continuod on pago 19