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Show Golden Eagles Test Struggling Flint at Palace By HC Roberg ribune Sports Writer As tin new kid uri the International Hockey League block, the Flint Spirit are finding things a little rough Maybe In lie is too kind a word. 1 The Spirits haven't exactly t spooked anybody or have thrown shock waves into the league. F lint, the Golden Fugles opponent lhursdav and F'riday nights at the Salt Palace is dead-las- t in the IHL's Eastern Division. F'aeeoff is 7 30 p m each night The Spirits have given up the most goals in the league (173). the lowest wins (7), the most losses (2ti) and the lewest points (17). Its been a lean season so far for Flint Coach Doug McKay But there are reasons for it Without any NHL affiliation, the Spirits have had to obtain players through personal contacts, tryouts, league drafts and lree agents. McKay knew the first part of the season would be a period of adjustment for the fledgling franchise, despite being in a city which has supported professional hockey for the past 16 years. It took a lot of civic pride just to keep a team located in the Flint area. In goal, the spirits have primarily used former Golden Flagle Dave I'urru Barro has recently posted a Saginaw. impressive victories over Toledo and Saginaw Flint hasn t fared all that well during the month of December. The Spirits have won but once in 1 games and have lost six of their last seven games, including four straight. The Golden Fagles find themselves g in the t in a Western Division. Salt Lake is presFeo-riently tied with Indianapolis and for third with 34 points. Salt Lake saw its modest winning streak snapped last River-men- . Saturday night by the Beoria Flayers like John Vecchiarelli. Jim Fgerton, Mike Opre, Scott Robins and Carmine Vani have supplied most of the offense for the Spirits. Vecchiarelli is among the league leaders in The Golden Fagles have met the Spirits already twice this season and have come out in the victory column and on each occasion by scores of That's because the established Flint franchise had a conflict with city officials over playing sites, and when things couldn't be worked out to of both parties, the satisfaction moved its act 65 miles up the road to pair of 1 dog-figh- a luur-gam- e Two Golden Flagles players have enjoyed playing against the Spirits l Brent Sapergia had a goal rout and Scott MacLeod in the has had his share of points in the series. MacLeod has moved into a second-plactie lor the league scoring honors with former Golden Ragle Jock Callander of Muskegon. Each has 45 points. MacLeod has 18 goals and a team-hig27 assists. Sapergia resides in fourth-placamong the league scoring leaders with 44 points (a team-hig19 goals and 25 assists). fuur.-goa- 11-- 3 e h e h Sapergia and MacLeod share the longest consecutive-gamscoring streak at seven. MacLeod leads the Golden FJagles in power play goals with six and assists with four. Center Bobbv F'rancis and left e 11-- 3 several categories. game-winnin- g m the Beoria series. Heinz has lost tour last six starts with a shootout victory and a w ing Gary Burns are the other Golden Fugles player in double figures with 16 and 10 goals, respectively ot his In his last four games. Kosti has posted three wins and a In other Golden Fagles moves, de fenseman Mike Guenlzel has been re- moved from a tryout and JL added to the active roster. Alan? Graves remains on the re,t serve list. Kurt Kleinendorst has' come back from an injury and is on a Burns, however, has missed the last two games after taking a puck in the mouth during a warmup last week before practice, lie remains on the active roster and could resume active status this week five-gam- e The Golden Fagles have played it right down to the wire in their last five games. Fach of those games has been decided by a single goal. The Golden Fagles have won lour of those games. Goaltenders Rick Heinz and Rick Kosti will share the duties in the Flint Series. Heinz took over for Kosti in the second period last Saturday after Kosti had yielded four goals to the Rivermen. Heinz appeares to have recovered from a slight groin pull he suffered in tryout. Defenseman Jim Laing has retired and defenseman Randy Fierce is still sidelined with a shoulder injury five-gam- e nail-bitin- first-perio- 9 Following the Flint series, .. the'F Golden Fagles take to the road to e open a swing which begins Sunday night in Milwaukee. On New Year's Fve. the Golden Fa- - i A gles will be at: Flint five-gam- d ' i Named MVP .US' Norseth Sparks Blue to Victory f ,.tk - KanAla (AP) sas quarterback Michael Norseth. who says he has always liked watchattack of Purdue, ing the got a chance to try a version of it in the 48th Annual Blue-GraFootball MONTGOMERY. pass-happ- y y Classic Wednesday. Norseth, directing the Blue offense which was coached by Purdue's Leon Burtnett, passed for 228 yards and the winning touchdown in a victory over the Gray. "We came out throwing and that's the kind of offense I like," said Norseth. who passed 168 vards in the first jsalt akr Sribunr 27-2- 0 ,i Sports half. knew Coach Burtnett liked to pass the ball. He told us at practice that that was exactly what we were going to do." Both offenses exploded early, with the Gray clinging to a halftime lead. But Norseth put the Blue on top for good mid-wa- y through the third touchdown quarter with a pass to Purdue wide receiver Steve conGriffin followed by a version pass to Greg Baty. "We started out throwing a lot to the backs, but after the Gray adjusted Michael did a great job of hitting the wideouts," Burtnett said. It's awful hard to adopt to an offense you've never seen in just a few days, but Michael did amazingly well." Norseth, who shared time at quarI Thursday Morning, December 26, 1985 20-1- 9 Section B d Page 14 two-poi- Assoc ioted Pi ess Laser pi ioto picked up a first down as Alonzo Johnson of Florida went after him in Blue-Gragame. Norseth was games MVP. High and Snow College quarterback Mike who Norseth, played his major college ball at Kansas, ul y Buckeye Linebackers to Challenge Cougars By Ray Herbal Tribune Sports Writer ORLANDO. Fla. Ohio State linebacker Thomas (Pepper) Johnson was talking with a group of writers at one end of the press room. BYU halfback Vai Sikahema huddled with several other writers just a feet away. Fach stole curious glances at the other. - Later, during lunch. Sikahema. who had an absolute brillant rushing-receivinday in the Cougars' 26-- g 6 regular season finale against Hawaii with more than 300 yards, asked: "What did he say about me?" Johnson, who is comfortable talking to the press, was impressed with "that No. 23 who comes out of the backfield a lot " For the most part. Ohio State's players refer to BYU's athletes by number. They are not familiar with names, but go by the number of the players they see on film 'yeah, that guy is pretty good. Reminds me of Purdue's (Rodney) Carter who caught a lot of passes against us.y said Johnson. Carter caught 15 balls for 190 yards in USD's victory over the Boilermakers. "Yeah, I'll probably be on him (Sikahema) a lot. Looks to me like I had better have my speed and concentration levels high Saturday. continued the Buckeye defender. "What I gotta do is make him change his routes, make him do things he doesn't like. That Carter got most of his yards in the first half when we played zone." There weren't many Pepper Johnson's roaming around the WAC this who year. He's a made first team DPI And, yes. he has the muscles to match. Yet, some feel he might be only the second best linebacker on the Buckeyes' squad. Daring Chris Spielman. a sophomore out of Massillon, gets a lot of votes as OSD's top 'back41-2- 7 6-- d er. Johnson is careful not to get into a verbal contest over who's top dog in Columbus. "Chris and I are different types." said the native of Detroit. He's a gambler. He's more flashy and he comes up with more tackles because he gambles a lot. Ho comes up with a lot of big days "We know each other pretty well, and when he gambles I know how to cover for him. There are times when he goes away from the book and will make a spectacular play. Then, there are times when he'll get burned when he guesses wrong." There is a eomraderie among the Buckeye linebackers that can be particularly unnerving to rival offenses. Johnson. Speilman. Bryon Lee and Larry Kobe are a close group. "We'll challenge any other bunch to anything. In pool, basketball, swimming. anything. We are athletically sound. And being big helps us a lot because we get respect from the offensive line." noted Johnson." Johnson said he would rather play teams that live by the run, not by the "But playing a passing team pass keeps you on your toes more, and you are more into the game mentally because you want an interception or something like that which will excite uour team "I'm big enough lo physically handle a back coming out and 1 think I have the mentality to confuse a guy." When informed that Purdue's Jim Flverett passed for 497 yards against the OSD delense. Johnson explained . LaVeil Denies Rumors time." noted White, who played in the 1982 game. Three years ago. the coaches really worked us hard, too hard maybe. I think we were overtrained. this time the pace is easier " Ml By Ray Herbal Tribune Sports Writer Citrus Bowl ORLANDO, Flu. notebook, and the Cougars survived ct another La Veil Fdwards-muving-- - n rumor "I don't know how those things gel Murad." the BYU coach said Christmas morning about the rumor which hud Edwards being considered lor lie Atlanta Falcons head job. The rumor apparently was started b bioudeuster Larry King "1 wouldn't know Larry King ll '.iw him." added Edwards, who then - in), "that's good" when informed the Falcons had rehired Coach Dan I Hen-mug- Ohio Slate will have more home slate fans in attendance Saturday The Buckeyes sold some 11,000 tickets while BYD boosters bought 7.000 Chuck Rohe, executive director of the Citrus Bowl, said BYD has a dozen charter airliner fights coming out ol Utah Both Ohio State and BYD have large lollowings Fivery year, Fldwards is reported headed somewhere, but each spring the likable Cougar head man is back on (he Provo campus The Cougars worked out tor about minutes Wednesday, the Buckeyes actieed longer Then both squads sited the FIpcot Center There is. aecoidmg to linebacker Leon White, a decided difference be-ween the preparation for this year's meeting with lino Stale and (lie procure sessions ol 19112 when the Buck-us blow mil BYD, 47 17, in the Holi- I'll j)i V a lot 4 the Orlando area There are 26 married BYD playprs and only three Buckeyes have spouses "I Hunk." receiver Mark Bellini told an Orlando Sentinel writer, "the Ohm State guys must think we're weird or something, but our guys just lead a little dilferent lifestyle in too young and my parents keep saving I should enjoy mysell while I'm single " pasier this backers are skilled people." BYD linebacker Kurt Gouveia did not practice Wednesday. Gouveia is still nursing a knee injury from the Hawaii game. "But he'll be allright and lie'll play Saturday." assured Ed- wards. Meanwhile. Robbie Boseo looked sharp in passing drills the past two days Boseo became sick lo his stomach Monday morning and had to sit out some of the drills Ohio State's brilliant split end. Chris Carter, said he is most impressed with Cougar defensive backs Jelf Sprowls and Rodney Thomas "And that No 25 (Sprowls seems lo be the hardest hit t er in their secondary." coni inued Carter, who led the Buckeyes in receptions this season with 53. and in touchdown catches with eight My-sel- M I day Bowl "Wo are going in . Again Furl Bruce said lie was very impressed with BYD's trout five. "That Jason Buck can really do some Hungs Re s a very skilled ath tele BYD s delensive tackles are very strong and their oil.side line USD Coach postscript lo the ansaga. "You know." La Veil said as an aside."! was bilking lu Dick Felt this morning, and I think we re gonna be pretty good next year" The last lime Edwards made that statement was in August. 1984. as the Cougars were in training for their na lionul championship seuson And (mall) nual Fidwards-moving-o- a "We disguised our delense. That Jim Flverett would not throw into double coverage for nothing. Hopefully, we can change some things for (Robbie) Busco. Maybe we can confuse him. make him throw into double coverage. or put a lot of pressure on him." Concerning Ohio State's intimidating reputation. Johnson said: "We think we can handle a finesse team. If a team keeps going to the well and keep getting water, one time or another we will cut the rope." The Detroit native was asked why he didn't go to the University of Michigan. Well, I wanted to go to a Big Ten school and I wanted to stay fairly close to home. But Michigan wanted to turn me into a tight end. Hey. if I was gonna play tight end. man. I would have gone to Brigham Young where they throw the ball." , lum of Navy , . 3 y Florida running back Neal Anderson scored the other Gray touchdown in the second quarter. The Gray drove deep into Blue territory twice in the fourth quarter, but the defense held both times. Utah's Enroll intercepted on the Grays final possession to ice the victory. Willie Plcss of Kansas, who recovered a fumble to kill one of the threats, was named the Outstanding Defensive Player. Napoleon McCal- - touchdown pass. Rice' Hamrick kicked the extra !, , point for a Gray lead The Blue's Tucker fumbled tbq,;. next kickoff and Pearson recovered J line. Karcher conn at the Blue nected with Anderson on a , touchdown pass and Hamrick added.', the extra point. , James Bowl. Don McAu-laplace-kickkicked two field goals in the first half for the other Blue points. Quarterback Ken Karcher of Tulane gave the Gray the early lead with a pair of touchdown passes in the first quarter. g Offensive Player and Mis-State's Aaron Pearson its top, sissippi defensive star. r t The Blue scored first on McAulay's a, field goal set up by a in which Norseth completed four passes for 44 yards. After Louisiana Tech's Douglas Landry intercepted a Norseth pass (o ,.( kill another Blue threat, the Gray, drove 62 yards with Karcher hitting Kent Hagood of South Carolina with a , terback with Indiana's Steve Bradley, was named the game's Most Valuable Player. Running back Allen Pinkett of Noire Dame, who scored two touchdowns for the Blue in the first half, was named the Blue's Outstanding Offensive Player in the game, played before 18.500 spectators at Cramton Syracuse was the Gray's ' McAulay had a field goal cut the gap to 14-The Blue cut the lead again when Pinkett capped a drive with a.,,i touchdown run. A conversion try failed. ,, The Blue went ahead when Bradley directed a scoring drive that ended with Pinkett taking it in from the 1. McAulay's extra point gave the, Blue a 4 lead. i The Gray regained the lead on An derson's run with 3:50 left jjn d two-poin,- d 19-1- the half. ' 1 |
