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

Don Lawrence * Sports editor * Ti a Don Lawrence sports editor No team will play as well as they might if they don't have fan support. Of course, a lot of people will disagree with that statement but this point has been proven time and time again. A team, no matter what the sport, will play better if their fans are behind them. Take for example Team Canada when they played hockey with the Russians back in 1976. When the fans were with the team, they played good hockey but when the fans began to boo, the team's playing fell apart. Midland needs to realize this fact as much as anyone needs to. Turnouts for Midland Centennials and Midland Athletics hockey games have been to date. poor. One or two games have been the exception but for the most part, what is said here is true. Midland Centennials fan attendance has been getting better in the last few games but the team has been winning lately. That doesn't seem right somehow and yet, there's nothing that can be done about it. Everybody loves a winner. That's the rule that has been handed down through the ages by sports fans everywhere. Okay, so let's say you have the fans behind you but you wonder how much involvement you actually want from them. If they give you 100 per cent participation, there's always the danger of them becoming a mob. Soccer fans in England are a good example of this. Fans supporting either team segregate themselves into different halves of the stadium and in this way become a small army. In these groups, tempers are torched and it is a normal thing to see several fans injured or maybe killed in the name of support for their team. Sports fans in Midland have luckily not reached this stage yet and needless to say, we can all hope that it never does. With increased numbers of supporters at events, someone's bound to get hurt. The odds are against anything like this not happening. One student at Midland Secondary School found this out the hard way during MSS' recent semi-final football game against Barrie Central. Some protection must be found for spec- tators though and it is clear that this accident could have been avoided if the fans had simply stayed back from the sidelines. So, it all comes down to what level of in- volvement can be maintained by the fans with safety overriding the relationship. Players have protective equipment but the fans only have common sense and I have to wonder if that's really enough. Flag football Hallowe'en night dance? Friday night's game in Orillia for Midland Athletics hockey club turned out to be a free-for-all with nine major misconducts handed out by referees, five of those to Midland. Midland lost the game 7-5 to the Terriers despite their high-spirited play and were unable to make complete line moments. changes by the end of the match with only nine players on the bench in the closing 1 Centennials down Kings 9-8 in cliff-hanger by Don Lawrence It-was a battle of giants when Midland Centennials and Penetanguishene Kings met for Jr. C hockey action in Midland Centennial Arena Friday. Penetanguishene Kings were squeezed out of the game by a score of 9-8 in a cliff hanger that left the fans wanting for more. Penetanguishene were expected to be down several of their kev players for the game due to a bench clearing incident last Sundav in Parry Sound. They were allowed to play three of the five suspended players because they said they wouldn't have been able to ice a team with two injuries as well as the suspensions. The Kings started off the scoring in the game with their goal at 12:49 of the first period by Paul Robillard when he took the puck off the stick of a Midland player and broke in all alone. A quick move around Brad Bumstead in the Midland's net gave him his unassisted goal while Penetanguishene was shorthanded. Midland started their scoring about a minute later with a goal from Ed Cooper, assisted by John Witzke. Pass Paul Hahn took a pass from Noel McEachern at the halfway point of the first period and the Raiders league leaders Last year in Penetanguishene Recreational Flag Football League action, Raiders finished in second place in final league standings and went on to win the playoffs. This year, they are in first place after the final week's play this past Sunday. Last year's league winners were Cumming- Nicholson who finished in third this season. Sunday's action was the last week of league play - and Raiders needed a win to hold onto first place. That's exactly what they got too as they downed Crusaders 25-6, with Kim Ormiston scoring two touchdowns and one convert, Dean Anest one touchdown and Brian Rawlins one touchdown. Unknowns 28-7. Unknowns finished in the basement of the league with two points. Bayshore Lanes Strikers came close to doubling Midnite Express with their 13-7 victory. Broncos stomped on Oilers 7-6 for their win which brought them within one point of the Oilers. Raiders finished in first place with 16 points, followed closely by Redskins in second with 14. Raiders were also the highest scoring team with 222 points in nine games and they also allowed the least number of points against them at 70. Semi-final playoffs will be Nov. 9 at Penetanguishene Secondary School football field two went in to score Midland's second goal. Midland scored once more with 3:12 left in the first period when Ken Mugford put the puck in the net with help from John Witzke and Al Pumputis. The Centennials took a 4-1 lead before the end of that period with 58 seconds left to play when Steve Dunn ac- cepted a pass from Ed Cooper and Andy Seeman. Ken Mugford scored his second goal for Midland with 12:48 left in the second period ona power play. Noel McEachern received the assist on the goal. About a minute later, 'Noel McEachern scored his own goal, assists going to Frank Dance and Ken Mugford. With the score sitting at 6-1 for Midland, the Centennials began to sit back a bit and rest on their lead. Penetanguishene took advantage of this as thev_wasted no time in putting the puck in the net 49 seconds after Midland's last goal. Carl Cowan recorded the goal with an assist going to Doug Gillespie. Three minutes later, Cowan scored his second of four goals with the assist being given to Terry King. Penetanguishene were short handed at when he took a pass from Steve Dunn and John Witzke. Goaltender His shot from the blue line got past the sprawling Kings' goaltender while plavers swarmed around the net, ef- fectively screening the goaltender. ce Penetanguishene were to score two more times in the second period to keep their momentum going. Carl Cowan scored his third goal of the game with Frank Hall and Jerry Robitaille claiming the assists. That goal came with 5:31 left in the second period as Cowan pushed the puck into the empty net with Brad Bumstead out of the crease. Penetanguishene's Bob Weatherill figured on the scoring of the next goal with 2:13 left to play in that period. Chris Anderson and Todd Clarke were in- strumental in the passing play they in- stituted in front of the Midland net, allowing Weatherill to step right into where he could get his shot away. Midland only led by a score of 7-5 at the end of the second period. Two minutes into the final period, Paul Hahn scored an unassisted goal to put Midland 4 Robitaille at 16:39 of the third period. Doug Gillespie got the assist on the play. Paul Robillard scored his second of three goals for Penetanguishene when he shot from the blueline and scored to put the Kings within one goal of Midland at 14:01 of the third period. Robillard tied it all up for the Kings with 6:52 left to play with the assist being given to Carl Cowan on the goal. The Kings applied steady pressure on Midland from that point on and Midland, in turn met the pressure with full force. Wide open hockey filled the final moments of the game with both teams having lots of scoring chances. Goal Midland came up with the first and only goal in the remaining time with only 16 seconds left. Travis Bonneville did the honours for Midland with Andy Zurawski assisting on the goal that won the game for them. Midland Centennials started congratulating - each other at this point but they completely forgot that they still had time left to play. Penetanguishene Kings didn't forget this however as they dug deep into Midland's end and almost tied the three goals ahead. Ormiston leads the league in scoring with 70 That lead didn't last and will get under way at 12 noon when Crusaders the time of the goal. "game up again. points. will play Oilers. Midland's Dale Denis _lon though as __ But the final buzzer Scoring for Athletes Edge Crusaders was by Paul At 1:15, Strikers will take on Renegades and found the mark once Penta giliahenee came went and Midland Piitz with one touchdown. Raiders will meet Midnite Express at 2:30 p.m. more tokeepthem from back with three Centennials were the Elsewhere in the league, Redskins defeated Cumming-Nicholson will come face to face with _losing their lead t t Cumming-Nicholson 8-6 while Renegades outscored fe 5 ; unanswered goals, the winners after a hard Redskins at 3:45 p.m. now rallying Kings first coming from Jerry fought game. Wednesday, November 5, 1980, Page 31 # Ae St Ain Ree emt tee Bee