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Show Miners Split Weekend Series Open League Season Friday 4 On the map, Morgan and Ogden are only a few miles apart, connected by a short stretch of Interstate 84. But, in the minds of the Park City Miners, there is a world of difference between the two. On Friday night, the Miners travelled to Ogden and came away with their second consecutive preseason presea-son win, defeating St. Joseph 50-38 on the Jays' home court. But Morgan was a dif- -ferent story. Facing the tenacious 2A Trojans Saturday Satur-day night, the Miners completely com-pletely were outplayed, losing los-ing a 68-45 decision after trailing by as many as 34 points early in the fourth quarter. According to Miner Coach Bruce Reid, the key ingredient ingred-ient was composure. On Friday night the Miners had it; on Saturday night they didn't. After moving out to a narrow 21-18 halftime lead against St. Joseph, Park City fell behind early in the third quarter. In an attempt to break the Jays' momentum, Reid went to his bench, calling on Swedish exchange student Kenneth Palmman. "Palmman in the second half came in and ignited the team," Reid said later. "He got some crucial buckets and a couple of offensive re-' bounds that really helped." The Miners moved back out in front by six points after three quarters, then outscored the Jays 13-7 in the final stanza to win by a comfortable margin. Palmman finished the game with eight points on three field goals and two free throws. Jeff Smith was the game's leading scorer with 14 points, all from the field. Dick Olsen added another 12 points, and had an outstanding outstand-ing game under the boards. "Olsen got 15 defensive rebounds, which is probably as many as we've had (from one player in one game) in a couple of years," Reid said. Snowing signs of emerging as the team's floor leader is junior guard Trent Leavitt. "I thought Trent played a good game," Reid said. "He's starting to take charge on the floor and the kids are starting to look to him." Leavitt also performed well when the pressure was on at Morgan Saturday night, but it wasn't nearlv enough. Apparently intimidated intimi-dated by the agressive Trojan man-to-man defense, the Miners turned the ball over repeatedly in the early minutes, falling behind 10-2 midway through the first quarter. "It (the Trojan defense) was almost a zone in that they were anticipating where we were going," Reid said later. Morgan's defense was so effective that no Park City forward could score a point for the first 10 minutes of the game. The Miners' first three baskets all came from long range: two by Leavitt from beyond the top of the key, and one by Toly from the corner. At the end of the first quarter it was 13-6. The Trojans continued to ' outscore the Miners by a 2-1 clip in the second quarter. At the half the score stood at 28-14. Reid noted that Morgan also dominated the boards, outrebounding Park City by at least a 2-1 margin. But things managed to get even worse in the second half. During the first five minutes of the third quarter, the Trojans scored 16 unanswered un-answered points, turning the game into a rout. When Leavitt finally broke the ice for the Miners with his third long bomb of the game, the score stood at 44-16. Morgan Coach Ken Hunt sent in his second team. . From that point it was simply a matter of running out the clock. The Morgan lead fluctuated between 28 and 30 points until late in the fourth quarter, when the Miners managed to narrow the gap to 21 at 66-45. The final margin was 23 points. The Miner forward line, after being held in check for most of the game, managed to pick up some points in the final 10 minutes, Dick Olsen finished as the game's top scorer with 13 points. The only other Miners in double figures were Toly and Leavitt, each with 10 points. Jeff Smith added eight. For the Trojans, Darrin Peterson and Scott Stenburg led a balanced scoring attack at-tack with 12 points each. Scott Brooks added 10. y ft w , " ' O'KELLY-LEAVITT Insurance Agency Inc. Shirley O 'Kelly, Tlgent All Types of Insurance 421 Main Street 649-6831 your Independent Insurance M agent. SCftVIS VOU FIRST Representing over 50 Companies Neither team had much luck at the free-throw line. The Miners hit 11 of 21 while the Trojans made 12 of 28. The Miners finished the preseason with a 2-4 win-loss record. Their first league game is scheduled for Friday Fri-day in Park City against the South Summit Wildcats. Miner fans will recall that South Summit whipped Park City 58-31 in the Top of the Mountain Classic held Nov. 21 and 22. "What we would like to prove is that we are a better team than we were at that time of the season," Reid said Monday. "I don't think they are 27 points better than we are." The junior varsity game is set to begin at 5:45 p.m., with the varsity contest following at 7:30. As these photographs photo-graphs show, Morgan's Mor-gan's Kirk Smith (20) gave the Miners a fight underneath the baskets Saturday Satur-day night, battling Park City forwards Jeff Smith (30) and Roger Smith (31) at different points in the game. 0 v I 3 if v TThe Newspaper A Thursday, December 11, 1980 Page 17 by Jim Murray t Bomber Makes Good It was just a year ago today the young quarterback sat in the darkened corner of the Coliseum locker room and pondered what to do with the rest of his life. It was clear pro football was not a viable alternative. His team had just won, but he had just lost. Vince Ferragamo looked like a guy on his way to a ledge. You would have thought some doctor just gave him a month to live. Guys going to the electric chair have a better outlook. It was hard to credit anybody who had this much going for him could get so down on himself. Six-feet-three, the body of a Greek statue, a face right out of Lord Byron, the skin clear, all his eyes and teeth, mind gifted enough to get into med school, just 25 years old, you had to wonder why a game seemed like the end of the world. A reporter tried to console him. "You know, being a doctor isn't exactly a dead-end," he sought to solace the young athlete. "In fact, if you ask 100 people if they'd rather quarterback the Rams or perform surgeries, you'd be surprised how many would answer they prefer doctor to quarterback. You can't cure cancer with a football." Vince Ferragamo was not cheered. "The coaches have lost faith in me, the fans have lost faith, now I have to lose faith in me," he murmured, disconsolate. It was somewhat true. The staff had unceremoniously jerked Ferragamo out of a Minnesota game at the half and installed a guy who had been selling real estate only three weeks before. Bob Lee pulled a game out in overtime for the Rams, and it was the game which really put.the Rams in the Super Bowl. Coaches always seemed to be deciding Ferragamo was just another pretty face, anyway. He even left Cal Berkeley and jumped all the way to Nebraska and sat out a year because the coaches at Berkeley preferred Steve Bartkowski. At Nebraska, he was never more than one interception away from a benching. And even though he made Ail-American, the Rams drafted him on the fourth round. For the Rams, that's late in the afternoon. Ferragamo's problem has been, he is a home-run hitter who strikes out a lot. And football coaches and baseball managers are all alike. The baseball managers remember the strikeouts, never mind that Babe Ruth and Wilver Stargell led their generations in them. The football coaches remember the interceptions, never mind that George Blanda and Fran Tarkenton led in this category, too ( as they also led in most touchdown passes ) . A cursory study of the record would have shown Ferragamo, like an old Bolshevik, was just a natural-born bomb-thrower. When they finally gave him the football in 1979 after Pat Haden got injured, he threw two touchdown passes, one 40 yards, and one 29. He threw one 71 yards the following week. The speed burners on the Rams, the little receivers no one had ever heard of Billy Waddy, Willie Miller, and Preston Dennard began to run their routes with renewed joy and hope. They knew the Great Profile could get that ball to them. Coaches tend to think of long scores as raw luck. In baseball, a guy hits home runs and they say, "Yeah, but can he control the ball downfield with little seven-yard over-the-middles to backs coming out of the backfield?" A few Sundays ago, Vince Ferragamo had what has come to be a typical Ferragamo day four touchdowns and four interceptions. He broke the Rams single-season record for touchdowns, 26. He also edged up on the single-season record for interceptions, 19, with five to go. He also won the game, 38-13. Nobody had to come off the bench to bail him out. Laid end-to-end, Ferragamo's Touchdown passes would make everyone's else's look like handoffs. It was a different Vince Ferragamo who stood toweling himself off in his locker room, Sunday, one December later. Did he remember that day a year ago when he seemed to want to join the French Foreign Legion or at least the march of medicine? "I remember it quite vividly," Vince Ferragamo Ferra-gamo said gravely. "At the time, I felt too apprehensive about my career and future. I felt abandoned. If I had been more logically oriented, I would have reasoned that these things work out in the long run." And they did. And while the league doesn't wish' the young man had gone out and thrown himself under a train, they wouldn't have minded if he had taken good advice and turned in his football for a stethoscope. It would have been a boon to mankind, particularly that element of it which makes its living in the NFL defending against the bomb. Cci 1980 Los Angeles Times THE GAZEBO 649-9301 444 Main Street Precision Hair Care Cathy Hansen Cathy Morris Jerry Frkovich Perms, reg. $30 Cut, reg. $12 Conditioning, reg. $3 $45 Value Special Dec. 11-Dec. 20 $30 Call for appointment. r i |