The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Whew! R-B wins wild one Rockets find feisty foe in Harvard, but hang on for G-5 triumph BySamNatrop Herald sports editor HARVARD -- It's a game Har­ vard High School coach Tim Haak would love to have back, and it's one Richmond-Burton coach J. Randy Hofman probably couldn't get rid of fast enough. It was only the third week of the season, but the Big Eight Confer­ ence opener for both schools was played at classic playoff pitch. And in the end, only 12 inches stood between victory and defeat. Richmond-Burton held Harvard on a fourth down and one with less than four minutes to play on the R-B three-yard line. The Rockets elected to take an intentional safety in the final minute in holding off a class Hornet unit in an emotional 6-5 BEC win at Dan Home Field Friday night. And if Friday's contest was any indication of the caliber of football to be seen in the area in 1965, then fans following the Hornets and Rockets are in for a treat. "It was a great game. You can bet I'll be playing it over a thousand times tonight," a dejected, but proud, Haak said after the game. "When we went for it on fourth and one and came up short, that was the big turning point. The momentum swung in their favor." And whereas that sort of gamble is more often than not second- guessed, Haak's decision couldn't be called anything but the right thing to do. Harvard was moving the ball and moving it well against the hard­ hitting R-B defenders. The left side of the Harvard line -- guard Trevor Berg, tackle Adam Borgeson and ends Todd Streit, Nathan Linhart and Eric Hanson -- provided the holes, and running backs Chris De- May and Ted Hartwig provided the leg power. "We were moving the ball with our quick-hitters," Haak said. "If we had recovered a fumble and been stuffed three times, then, no, I wouldn't have gone for it. But there was no reason for me to believe we ( couldn't get one yard." DeMay took the handoff and tried the right side, only to have R-B's Carl Metz, Jeff Moore and Dennis Komar lead the defensive surge that kept the Hornet halfback away from the first down. "They say champions make defen­ sive stands," R-B coach Hofman be­ gan, "and we made two of them. The key goal-line stand in the first quarter (on which Harvard opted for a field goal) showed me our kids have character." On the Rockets' ensuing posses­ sion, they netted nine and one-half yards and faced a similar fourth- and-short situation, only the ball was at their own 13. R-B took an intentional delay of game penalty moving the ball to the eight, and then lined up for a punt. Harvard, however, Jumped offside as Richmond stood in punt forma­ tion. The ball was forwarded five yards for the penalty, but R-B again took time off the dock with an inten­ tional delay penalty. Punter Brad Miller then took the snap from center and fell down in the end zone with 1:25to play. *"No way was I going to go for it I had planned all along to take the intentional safety," Hofman said. "When they jumped off sides, it didn't make any difference. I was going to take it anyway." The Rockets had their chances to win this one outright, however. With the ball at their own 15 mid­ way through the second quarter, Miller fired a pass toward Duke Weber. The ball was tipped by net defensive back Scott Wj but Weber snared the ball and the race to the end rone was on. : Eighty-four yards later, Wysntra caught up to, and grabbed Weber at the one. Weber, who was trying to break into the aid zone stuck the ball toward, but fumbled as he was tackled out of bounds. The ball fell into the end zone and Streit fell on the ball for a touchback. 1- R-B's score came just moment? ROCKETS--Page 15 > v - x * V' AH SWIMS at 2 p.m. except Willie: 'II ain't sol Page 11 Dickerson, Ra-ts come can't get enough of them lays Central batters frustrated Gary By Phil English I Herald sports writer CRYSTAL LAKE - From the ear­ ly looks of things, the host Crystal Lake Central Tigers could have gone home with their tails between their legs. Cary-Grove's visiting Trojans, took to Metcalf Field Friday night, and after capitalizing on Central's early game blunders, held the lead. After 10 minutes of football, it was Cary-Grove 7, Tigers 0. Unfortunately for the Trojans, there was still 38 minutes of football left. And despite a few fatal mo­ ments of butterfinger ball, the Ti­ gers made the most of the remain­ ing 38 minutes, tacking on 35 points as punishment, to keep Cary unde­ feated on the year and open the Fox Valley Conference with a 35-7 win. The win was the second in two weeks for the Tigers, who upped their record to 2-1. The win was not the prettiest by coach Bill Mack's standards. On their first three posessions of the game, the Tigers fumbled, threw for an interception, and fumbled again. The second fumble set up Cary's lone score. "Things were very sloppy," Mack said. "I don't know if the kids were a little too ready or not ready enough. I told them before the game that Cary was here to take their best shot and would do a lot of different things. "After the first fumbles, the team started to settle down," he added. "After the initial adjustments, I thought the kids played pretty well." In the more than just pretty well department, Tiger running back Jeff Aldridge carried the ball a mere eight times for 215 yards, unofficial­ ly, including scampers of 75, 59 and 48 yards and two touchdowns. In the second half, Aldridge car­ ried the ball only three times for 128 yards. In the first half, Aldridge took in a 59-yard touchdown run. Wing back Whit Friese carried the ball only twice in the second half, but racked up 112 yards on 11 car­ ries for the night. Central's defense did not see as much action on the night. Doug Hughes led Cary's rushers, toting the ball 12 times for 35 yards. Run­ ning back Guy Pearson hauled the ball only twice for 31 yards, while back Kevin Collins had seven car­ ries for 33 yards. Cary's spread offense posol little problems to the Tigers, other than the first score. Trojan quarterback Hughes, in shotgun position for most of the game, threw 24 passes on the night, completing only four for 44 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. "I thought when we came out, we started things off well," Cary coach Mike Buck said. "In the first half, we really only made three mistakes, and they got the three touchdowns. And when you play a good football team like Central, you can't make those mistakes. "The second half just wore us dqwn," he added. "We ran the shot­ gun mainly because we have some inexperienced linemen. I thought Doug (Hughes) played fairly well. He showed some guts and made some solid plays." But the solid plays came few and far between for the Trojans after the initial score. In between impressive defensive stands came the big plays. Central's two second half touch­ downs either came via 70-yard rush­ es or were preceeded by the same. Central took Cary's late second quarter momentum away, when a bad punt gave the Tigers the ball on the Cary 19 with 1:15 remaining. Three plays later, the Tigers owned a 20-7 lead at the half on a tailback Joe Adams' two-yard burst up the middle. Cary did manage to put together some of its best offense in the second half, but Central managed to come up with the show stopper. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Cary owned the ball at their own 20. The Trojans managed to fight their way to the Tiger 14 in 11 plays, including a 23 yard gainer from Hughes to running back Mike Wagner. Central's defense made the calls and halted the Trojans to end the final Trojan ra'1" After faTing bet'nd 7-0 early, the Tigers scp -ed for Jie first time on Aldridge's 59-yard* r with 40 seconds left in the first qiarter. Cary held onto the L_\ "uen Jeff Stowell's PAT went to the right. Central's next score came at the G: 34 mark of the second quarter. Following a four-play drive, high- TIGERS -- Page 13 Herald photo by Amy K. Brown Crystal Lake Central running back Whit Friese dashes his way to 35*7, in both teams' Fox* Valley Conference opener. The Trojans extra yardage Friday night, as the Tigers rolled over Cary-Grove, are 0-3 o " ~ ' Streaks get their money's worth, rip Schurz, 55-20 By Steve Peterson Herald News Service WOODSTOCK -- Bob Johnson knows a good omen when he sees one. Johnson, the offensive coordinator for Woodstock's football team, had called the Blue Streaks to a huddle at practice Wednesday. After finding a shining nickel on the Blue Streaks' practice field, he proclaimed, "this is a good sign. We'll score five touchdowns this week." Johnson will happily admitt he was a bit off following Friday night's 55-20 romping over Chicago Schurz. The Blue Streaks scored five touchdowns all right, but it was at halftime and Woodstock led 35-6. Johnson's boss, Bob Bradshaw, need not worry about the offense if they continue to put up numbers like they did against the Bulldogs. "I was giad to see the offense get going. It was good to get some other kids in and see what they could do," said Bradshaw after his team made it a clean sweep over non-conference foes to run its record to 3-0. A balanced offensive attack led the way for the Streaks in the first half on this crisp night. The Streaks enjoyed good field position throughout the game as most of the first three quarters was played in Schurz' territory. Bob Birdsell rushed for touchdown runs of 23, one and 13 yards and gained 72 yards in 10 tries. Birdsell finished, unofficially, with 14 carries for 123 yards. The lopsided score allowed Bradshaw to sit his regulars after the first score in the second half. Quarterback Timm Fields completed 5-of-8 passes for 144 yards and rushed for 28 more in the first half. The senior signal caller also had an 80- yard TD pass to Ken Kohley. Jerry deGelder contributed 39 yards on five tries and a five-yard touchdown run. Woodstock's first-team defense turned in another stellar showing. Schurz did not gain a first down from scrimmage for the first half and did not score until they were up against second stringers. The Bulldogs were held to negative rushing statistics in the opening half. "The defense played good tonight. They have a lot of speed. They did not score on our first-team defense," Bradshaw said. The game matched two squads which had won their first two games. One could tell from the opening kickoff this was not just another football game. Jim Whiting, raced down the sideline 85 yards for an apparent Woodstock score. But there was a dead-ball offsides call, nullifying the TD. STREAKS-Page 13 are 0-3 on the year. Central is 2-1. .&• Herald photo by Eddy Montvllle Richmond-Burton back Dennis Komar bursts through the Harvard line Friday night. Komar and the Rockets won their Big Eight Conference opener in thrilling fashion, 6-5 over the Hornets. Saturday, September 14,1985