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Mount Union 62 Muskingum 7 by Dick Ross |
MEN OF HARLECH
Between the football crowd and
Parents Day I had to park beyond Shields Hall, almost to Rockhill, at 11:30 A.M.; by noon,
some people were parked west of Parkway on Hartshorn and College. The buffet was
well attended as usual, the rear of the dinning room was curtained off for the
"Legacy Luncheon" and most of the rest of the Campus Center was in use by those
who had filed through the parent's "Cook Out" but elected to eat indoors.
The Muskies arrived today in white jerseys, with magenta numerals, and black trousers: the Raiders arrived, en masse, in solid purple, with white socks. Mount's Band continues to impress: today they played from an "MU" formation, a few years ago they had trouble filling out a lower case "m" but it looks like they're headed for a full "MUC," if not a script "Mount Union."
SHOUTING IN A MIGHTY CHORUS
Just when it looked like
things might be getting better for the Visitors, # 12 Sr. DB Brooks Greenleaf of Stow
picked off a Muskie pass and rambled 39 yards to put the Defense on the Scoreboard.
Don Montgomery's men then hung another "three and out" on the New Concord boys,
and the offense came back with five plays, 53 yards, topped off with a 23 yard TD to # 88
Sr. WR Rob Sondles of Wadsworth. Chenos upped the count to 34, before the Muskies
came back to score 7 against a largely second team defense. Mount retaliated with a
six-play 57-yard drive, that culminated in Marino's record breaking TD.
Next week "On the
carpet" B-W, George Finnie Stadium, Bagley Road, Berea, Ohio, just off I-71, a
pleasant drive from most of Northeast Ohio. Please join me there; two years ago, I
am convinced, Mount's monster crowd helped make a difference in the outcome.
Dick Ross
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The
trip from Cleveland seemed a bit easier this time as we didn't have to leave so early and
I was able to help with the driving. The seventy degree temperatures of the work
week had dropped well into the fifties, by overnight rains, but we were pleased that we
didn't have to deal with the rains, either for the drive down or for the game. Once
again, variegated clouds over Cleveland turned into blue skies and sunshine as we
approached our hilltop destination, in Alliance.
The Campus Center and tail gate crowds translated into an announced attendance of just
over 4,000, although it looked like every one of more than 5,000 seats was occupied.
I've never been quite sure how the OAC counts attendance: the "freebies" for
visiting HS Families, Parents Day, and homecoming are, most likely, not counted.
Muskingum College was founded in 1837 by the United Presbyterian Church in New Concord,
Ohio. Like Hiram, lots of beautiful scenery and not much else, although New Concord
is much more of a town than Hiram.
Our cheerleaders, in their "winter" back uniforms, were building four high
pyramids, with the top girl as high as the back row of the covered stands, impressive and
a bit scary. There are still no men on the squad. Make no mistake these girls
must be strong, as well as cute, and very gymnastic; when tossing the souvenir footballs
up into the crowd, at least one seemed to have a QB caliber arm! Kickoff temperature
was listed at 48 degrees, it got warmer as the afternoon went on, but the twenty MPH wind
from the North held steady.
After a second "three and out" by Muskingum, courtesy of a knockdown, by # 8 Sr.
OLB Brian "Butch" Cassidy of Eastlake, of a pass by QB Jeff Morris and a sack by
# 94 Sr. DL Ryan Belaney of Lisbon, Mount returned to the attack, on a short field,
provided by a 48-yard return to the Muskie 4 yard line by # 31 Soph. RB Dan Pugh of
Norwalk/St Paul. Dan followed up the runback with 2 plunges of two yards each for
the first of his two TD's on the day. This time #1 Sr. Rodney Chenos of Galloway
nailed the conversion, to up the total to 13.
breaking the
mark of 35 he had held jointly with Ed "the Plague" Bubonics and Kevin
"Super K" Knestrick, all of whom wore jersey # 2. Although this is his
fourth year on Campus, Chuck missed his first year of football with an injury; he has
announced that he will be back next fall for his "Real" Senior year. Dan
Pugh opened the second quarter with his second two-yard TD and Chenos upped the count to
an even twenty, with the conversion. 
Once again, the half-time joke was that Mount's AD (Larry Kehres) had assigned guards to
the Visitor's buses to make sure they didn't try to leave at the intermission, as did much
of the crowd in the East stands. Mount took the ball to open the second half and
went 72 yards in five plays. The touchdown looked as if # 16 Sr. QB Gary "the
Professor" Smeck of Lancaster was conducting a football class, full of very able
students. Gary had plenty of time on this play and selected # 81 Sr. Adam "Big
Red" Irgang, one of at least four with a hand raised in the North end zone.
Later in the Quarter # 42 Soph. RB Vincent Ilaqua of Willoughby/Lake Catholic, younger
brother of former JCU star Carmen Ilaqua, did a Chuck Moore impersonation and
"popped" a draw play for a 47-yard TD and went into the end zone with his arms 
The final Stanza produced some major substitutions - even in a game like this one, Section
5, the parent's section, is always full till the final gun. # 15 Fr. QB Brian
Reisert of Cincinnatti/Moeller, # 22 Soph RB Dustin Blake of West Jefferson (near
Columbus), # 43 Soph. RB Mark Brace of Ashtabula/Geneva and # 33 Fr. RB Brandon McDowell
from Cleveland Villa Angela - St. Joseph, all got some work but the TD, with 55 seconds
left, went to # 32 Fr. RB Michael Dietrick of Seven Hills/Normandy.