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Citizen sports beat | Lose 58-54 Late game Barrie press sinks PSS Senior basketball coach Don Beatty felt Monday's Barrie / me~ against ug fntral would provide a svod indication of his steam's improvemnt this year. If they could stay within striking distance of the notoriously powerful Barrie squad, Beatty felt, it would perhaps be a sign that PSS was through being considered an also- ran in high _ school basketball. Well, the senior gars Penetanguishene Seco- ndary School 'team did more than stay close to their opposition during Monday's match. In fact they had the game all but won except for a display of excellent checking on As Dangerous maneouver behalf of Barrie that resulted in late PSS turnovers and a 58-54 Barrie victory. "We haven't been under that kind of pressure very often," said Beatty of the full LIES. Penetanguishene's Chris Rob itaille takes the worst of quarter action in the senior basketball game at PSS a bump with a Barrie Central player during third Monday. Merkley loses to Howard in Consols Russ Howard's rink emerged victorious in the British Consols playdown curling bonspiel held at the Midland Curling Club over the weekend. Howard's rink of Paul MacDonald, Kent Car- stairs and Carl McAllen defeated Penetanguis- hene and Orillia in the four game series. They won the final game with a score of 8-1. Rod Reynolds, president of the Midland Curling Club said they were a little disappointed that only three teams came"out to play in the bonspiel. He added however , that with so many bonspiels going on at this time of year, the | Vince Moreau and Louis Desrochers madly sweep a t fock down the ice. Moreau's rink of Martha Reimer, ~ Anne Timmons and Desrochers managed to come in second in the Turkey Bonspicl held at the Three rinks take turkeys at Curling Club meet The rinks of Jake Reimer, Vince Moreau and Morris Bellisle were the winners of the Turkey Bonspiel held at the Penetanguishene Curling Club on Sunday. Jake Reimer's Rink o! Lorraine Moreau, Kevin Timmons and Steve Leclair, Vince Moreau's. rink of Martha Reimer, Louis Desrochers and Anne Timmons and Morris Bellisle's rink of Joan Maurice, Mike Downey and Rick Moreau scored high in the two eight end game series. For each win the teams scored ten points. They also scored quarter points Hard teams have to choose which ones they want. Reynolds said that the Penetanguishene rink of Larry Merkley had to play off against five te anim s in Penetanguishene to make it to the British Consol Bonspiel. He said that Orillia's Larry Will's rink had to play off against six work Penetanguishene Curling Club on Sunday. Each of the team members took home a Christmas Turkey for their winning efforts. for the number of rocks they won each end by. The curling club presented each of -the winning team members with a turkey for their efforts. Twelve teams took part in Sunday's bonspiel. At the end of the first game all three of the Staff photo other rinks before they could come to Midland. It was expected that more teams would enter the bonspiel tournament would take all weekend to play. However, on Sunday the curling club was closed up tight since the bonspiel ended sometime on Saturday afternoon. Staff photo winning teams were winners. Jake Reimer was in first place, Vince Moreau in fourth position and Maurice Bellisle was fifth out of the six winners in the first game. All the teams came back with a fine effort in the second game. and the- court press applied by Barrie. with less than three minutes remaining in the game. "We haven't been in those crucial situations before because we've rarely been in the running with the top teams." Penetanguishene was sitting on a 54-49 lead with less than three minutes left. The Barrie press was successful in stripping the ball from PSS and the momentum, something PSS seemed to have going their way after three- quarters of see-saw play, swung to Barrie's side of the court. "They kept whittling . the score down and we turned the ball over too many times," was Beatty's explanation. Penetanguishene was in obvious control of the game in the third quarter. Shooters were connecting from well out and an attempted Barrie press didn't pay dividends. The only weak point in the PSS game seemed to be nabbing stray rebounds around their own basket. The loss was Penetanguishene's first after two wins. Top scorer for PSS was Frank Berdan with 13 points followed by Mike Condren with 12, Ken Tessier with 11 and Tony Vanderzwan with 10. Juniors win The PSS junior team stretched their record to two wins and no losses with a 66-52 win over Barrie Central. The team played the first half utilizing a stack offence. This strategy places two men on either side of the opposition zone and in close proximity. One player stays back at the foot of the key, directing the play. This formation results in a slow, methodical attack and a low scoring total but it appeared successful for Pen- tanguishene as they led 27-26 at the half. : The second half saw a return to regular offence- more passing and more shooting-and PSS dominated, especially in th third quarter in which they built up an 18 point lead. "That's where we won the game," concluded coach Ralph Battrick. Following the third quarter PSS concentrated on defence and the two squads traded baskets until the final buzzer. Mike Berdan and Kevin St. Amant shared the scoring lead for Penetanguishene with 14 points each. Brant Farquhar netted 10. Three losses in row for midgets The PSS midget lost their third straight game of the season against a large Barrie Central team. Barrie took advantage of their size in stealing the ball and nabbing rebounds as they handed Penetanguishene a 38-27 loss. Barrie capitalized on PSS's lack of a strong defence up until the fourth quarter. Coach Paul Fawcett commented if his team could con- sistently play the style of defence they exhibited in the final quarter they might be able to pull out a few victories. Brian Lethbridge was Penetanguishene's top scorer with 13 points, folowed by Keith St. Amant with 10. Midland hockey players eye Penetanguishene ice Hockey players in Midland will be without a house league for the second year in a row it was announced Thur- sday. "We decided we'd better make up our minds right here and now,"' said league president Rick Emerson. "We couldn't have the boys waiting for a decision when- they could be registering in Penetanguishene."' Registration tor the Penetanguishene Little NHL (PLNHL) took place Sunday, and to date there are approximately 150 boys signed to play when the league schedule begins January 5. The PLNHL received 20 applications from Midland players as of Sunday afternoon but, no decision will be made on whether they will be allowed to play until after an additional registration period Thursday evening. PLNHL president Stan LeClair said Monday, the Thursday night registration was being held because of a poor turnout at both previous registrations. "We're still below the normal number of registrations," said LeClair, "but we are expecting more registrations from Tiny and Tay Townships who are within our jurisdic- * tion." LeClair said the PLNHL executive is concerned about the decline in enrolment for house league hockey - a trend that has been developing for the past several years. _ "We are contemplating a couple of things to try and improve the situation, " he said. "Reducing the number of teams would allow us to maintain the same ice time but the boys could play longer games. If we were short of players to make up teams then we will bring in boys from Midland." LeClair said the league executive had not decided on any moves yet and that it was still possible that players from Midland would be admitted to the league. Rick Emerson said that registration for the Midland House League would not have reached more than 150-200 and of that number only about 50 would be likely to try the PLNHL. One of the main con- cerns that prompted the MMHA to consider a house league season beginning so late in the year was the fear that boys who had _ been without a hockey league for two years might give up hockey altogether. "The boys' desire to play falls off at around 13 years-old," said Emer- son, "and if there is no league for two years you're going to lose a certain percentage of players 13 years and up. Younger players will always come back if they are interested, but the older ones will probably take up something else like skiing."' Emerson also said that even if the arena was ready by mid-February, the season would be too short to be worth the expense. "The boys will all need new equipment. A player's equipment will be three years old by now and I doubt if most parents could justify spending the money for such a short season." A PSS player defends against a high- stepping Barrie Central shooter in the High stepper PSS end. Barrie overcame a five point deficit with less than three minute' to play to win the senior match 58-54. Staff photo Kings suffer second defeat by Dave Fuller As the Montreal Canadiens fall to earth, so do Penetanguishene Junior Kings, or so it would seem. Saturday, at the Elmvale-Flos Memorial Arena, Kings took a five- goal lead into the third period of their Ontario Junior Hockey game with Oro and then stood by and watched as Oro struck for six unanswered goals to win the game 8-7. The defeat was only the second of the season for Kings and the first time any team has come from so far behind to draw even close to them at the end of a game. Kings scored twice in the first period and five times in the second, and looked like they were going to finish off the weaker Oro team as they have done to so many unfortunate opponents in the past. Within the first minute Schmidt 11th at World Cup ski meet by Dave Fuller Cross-country skiers take heart--even the best have their problems in the early season. If you are regretting your enthusiasm at the start of the ski season, because stiff muscles and an aching back tell you it was too early to throw yourself into it at full throttle. be reassured. Angela Schmidt is a cross-country skier of some note in this area, having won every local event for the past few years and currently the Canadian Junior Cham- pion, and even she can experience difficulties in the early going. Schmidt took 11th and 12th place finishes in the first round of World Cup cross-country skiing at Telemark, Wisconsin on the weekend, but expected to do better. The rerason she and her coach came up with the disappointing finish was a simple one- it's still early in the season. "My muscles didn't have the endurance or strength they had last year during the season,"' Schmidt said. Now keep in mind that the lady has been training two hours a day since the fall, running, roller skiing and , St. Joseph School beat out Burkevale, Corpus Christi and Ecole Ste. Croix from Lafontaine in a volleyball tournament held December 8. The victory also marks the conclusion of the volleyball season for those schools -as they begin training for basketball. Celebrating the They're the champs running in school competitions, all of which have put her in better shape than most of us. "It's still early yet, there's still time to get back into the condition I was in last season. This is the earliest I've ever started racing."' In years past Schjmidt's season would start with the first race of the new year and continue until spring. Now, however, she is a member of the national team and will be called upon more often and earlier than before. "Three weeks can make a lot of difference," she said, "Instead of training two hours a day, now I'll be doing three." Schmidt placed eleventh in the five kilometre race and 12th in the 2.5 kilometre event among Junior competitors from Finland, United States. Norway, Canada and the Betsy Haines of the United States was the top woman skier of the meet. "Right now the Americans are good," Schmidt says, "they're training hard for the early season and they're in shape for it." victory are: (left to right) Carmen Gignac, Gisele Marchildon, Jacqueline Limoges, Celia Dyer, Cathy King, Jackie Belcourt, Jo-Anne Belcourt and Lisa Charlebois. Brenda Dorion was absent. The team was coached by Madeline Paille. Staff photo of the third period however, Oro scored their first of six straight goals and Kings were unable to stop the flood. "We folded like an accordian,'"' said coach Paul Henry, "it was just carelessness, stupidity." Both teams were short on men for the night, Kings were without Mare Duquette and Paul Robillard, two of their most effective forwards, as well as regulars Aime Gignac and Mark Decourcy. Ken Parent was _ not available for duty against Oro and Pat Duquette, recently recovered from an injury that kept him out of the lineup since the beginning of the season, was also absent for the night. "Nobody was exempt from blame this time," said Henry, "including myself. It's hard to stay up for every game when you're winning by the high scores that we have been. I hope it teaches them you can't give anybody an inch." Kings' Vince Decola struck first in the game taking a relay from John St. Amant and Gary Walter, but Oro tied the score just before the end of the period. Before the buzzer could go however, Mike Orser scored from Andy Zuroiwski to give Kings the lead. Decola opened the second period, as he did the first, with a goal from St. Amant and Walter at 1:14 and minutes later Ross Prentice connected to make it 4-1 for Kings. St. Amant assisted on the play. : Orser made it 5-1 from Zurowski and Andy Seeman before Oro came back to score at 9:04 of the second period. St. Amant scored Kings sixth goal from Prentice, and Decola finished the scoring for Midland on a play set up by Prentice and Walter. Oro narrows lead Oro scored 43 seconds into the third period but it wasn't until 6:00 of the third that Oro found their pace and began to narrow the Kings lead con- vincingly. A goal at 7:51 and two power-play scores in the next five minutes brought Oro even with the stunned Kings and a final goal at 13:55 proved to be the game winner. Wednesday, December 21, 1977, Page 15 wos. 7a