Thunder & Lightning

(From Wednesday, Nov. 15)
     HARBOR CREEK — Mercer County is flooded with catchy monikers for its players or units.
     Kennedy Catholic has ‘Salt and Pepper’ in seniors Ross Gargano and Lee Plotts, while Wilmington and West Middlesex have the ‘Hounds Hammer and Big Red Machine, respectively.
     But in Grove City, there is no such thing, yet, but junior fullback Chris Clark could assume the nickname ‘Thunder and Lightning’ by himself after running around, past and over the Seneca defense for 228 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries as Grove City rolled to a 24-13 win over in the opening round of the District 10 Class AA playoffs at Wilmington High Saturday afternoon.
     With the win, the Eagles (7-3) will face Fairview (9-1), a 31-14 winner over Greenville, at 7 p.m. Saturday at McDowell High School.

Mercyhurst Prep runs
over all Lakeview's 'D'

(From Wednesday, Nov. 15)
     HARBOR CREEK — There’s a reason Mercyhurst Prep rolled through the 2006 season undefeated.
     And that reason?
     Simply put, the three-headed rushing monster of Jayson Nickson, Buddy O’Leary and Sam Kinnear.
     Friday night, Nickson (20 rushes for 120 yards), Kinnear (11 carries for 117) and O’Leary (20 totes for 107 yards) combined for 344 yards and 5-of-6 touchdowns as the Lakers rolled to a 39-0 win over Lakview (7-4) Friday night at Harbor Creek High School’s Paul J. Weisz Stadium in the first round of the District 10 Class A playoffs.

SR girls feeling stately

Rockets upset
South Park 1-0
in PIAA playoffs

(From Saturday, Nov. 11)
     BRIDGEVILLE — There’s a first time for everything!
     For Slippery Rock High School, Nov. 7, 2006 will go down in history as the school’s first PIAA soccer victory — regardless of gender — as the girls team secured a 1-0 double overtime victory over WPIAL champion South Park (18-6-1) at Chartiers Valley High School.
     With the win, the Lady Rockets (20-2) advanced to the PIAA Western Region Semifinals against WPIAL fourth seed Seton LaSalle (17-4) at noon Saturday at Seneca Valley High School.
     “Technically on paper, they’re more talented than we are,” Slippery Rock coach Blair Gantz said. “But I’ll tell you right now, everything that happened here tonight was all heart. I have nine seniors and none of them wanted this to be their last game. They wanted to win a game at states and now we’ll try to keep rolling ... wow."

All Rhoads point
to Vanderbilt

SRHS point
guard to play
Division I hoops

(From Saturday, Nov. 11)
     Slippery Rock High School’s Jence Rhoads has always dreamed of playing collegiate basketball at a big time institution.
     Starting next winter, the 5-11 senior point guard will have the opportunity to do just that after signing her national letter of intent Wednesday afternoon to continue her academic and athletic careers on the hardwood at Division I Vanderbilt University, which competes in the Southeastern Conference.
     “I’m so excited about going there next year,” said the daughter of Bob ‘Posey’ and Melinda Rhoads. “(Signing the letter of intent) felt awesome. I was kind of in awe, because I had been dreaming of this my whole life. To be finally be able to sign my letter of intent, it was an amazing feeling."