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By DAN MILES Sports Editor Still basking in their glory of winning the first opening basketball game in nine long years after soundly thumping Cam bridge 59-52 Saturday night, the New Philadelphia Quakers will be going after peicey lo. 2 Friday when they host rival over. It'll be the opening game of the season for the Dover club and the first Cardinal Conference bout for both teams Dover earlier was billed as a favorite in the Cardinal Conference race but af ter Saturday night’s hustling perform ance by the Quakers, Friday's clash will undoubtedly present a rugged test for the Tornadoes. WHILE THE victory signalled the end of a long drought that began in 1964 under Coach Leo Benjamin also against Cam bridge, it was a milestone reached for Jim Watson who has never enjoyed the luxury of being 1-0 in his six years as head coach Whether or not the pendulum will start its swing the other way after two poor seasons of 4-15 still remains to be seen. But as far as Watson is concerned, Sat urday night's efforts were quite satis fying and perhaps the best overall per formance in many years by his Quaker teams. PACED BY two sophomore starters In 6-foot-5 Dave Heck and 6-foot Phil Tidr ick, who ended with high point honors of 14 and 10 markers, respectively, the Quakers jumped out to a lead late in the first quarter and never lost it. With an eight-point spread midway in the second quarter, Watson began sub stituting freely one and two players at a time. It really didn’t seem to matter what combination was playing because the Quakers still stretched their lead to 11 points just before Cambridge put on a press and managed to cut the margin to 32-24 at halftime. ‘WANT TO have about eight or nine different starters,”’ said Watson, ‘‘ones that will play a lot of basketball and can do the job.” Joining Heck and Tidrick in the parade of scoring were six other Quakers: se niors Larry Mushrush, Fred Walton, Greg Turner, Gary Stephan and Matt El vin and another sophomore in Jeff Math ias. Mushrush, Walton and Elvin, all who started, ended with a balanced scoring of 8, B and 8 points while Turner had 5, Step han 4 and Mathias 3. BUT THE BEST individual perform ance was turned in by the big man Heck who along with Walton controlled the boards for 11 and 12 rebounds, leading the team’s total of 37. Cambridge ended with 25 rebounds Heck, who at one point made a smooth move underneath the basket by dribbling around his defender and twisting his lay up in for the basket, only ended with three personal fouls but all three came in the final two minutes of play and two within 10 seconds of each other when the game was already out of reach for the Bobcats THE QUAKERS only suffered a brief letdown early in the third quarter — something that Watson attributed to as “too long a rest at halftime for a few players.” From the field, the Quakers shot an ex cellent 49 per cent on 21 of 43 while Cam bridge could only muster 30 per cent on 19 of 64 attempts. In the turnover department, New Philadelphia had 21 compared with 18 for Cambridge. NEW PHILA-39 Mushrush 3-2-8, Heck 6-2-14, Walton 3-2-8, Elvin 3. 1-7, Tidrick £ 2-10. Turner 1-3-5, Stephan 1-2-4, Math ias 0-3-3, Totals: 21-17-59. CAMBRIDGE—S? Crawford 7-3-17, Loper 1-1, Greene 6-3-19, Hayes 2-0-4, Eubanks 1-0-2, Bhater 0-3-3, Snoddy 0-4-4, To tals: 19-14-52 New Phila 16 32 39 5b Cambridge 10 24 35 82 Reserves: Cambridge 43-40 didn’t change any game plan. We had one plan. That was to win.” The Browns, who've won 93 of 45 games with Pitts burgh, were shut out for the first time since the series begain in 1980. Their deepest penetation came on the first series when they drove to Pittsburgh's 29-yard line before Don Cockroft missed a field toa try, and they didn't cross midfield in the second half. “We wanted to control the ball on the ground and keep it away from them like we did past time, said Cleveland Coach Nick Skorich. ‘But it didn’t turn out that way. ’ ‘ “They were just a much better team today,” said Browns’ quarterback Mike Phipps, who passed for just 27 net yards and was sacked four times. “We had a good week's work and we thought we were ready,”’ he added, ‘'We realize they are a good football team, but we think we are too, they were just better today.” One reason the Steelers were better was outside linebacker Andy Russell, who made two fumble recov eries that set up Pittsburgh scores. “Our confidence has been hard earned,” said Rus sell, one of the old-timers on the Steeler squad. ‘‘You not near tense when you are afraid, but we weren’t af raid.” Another Steeler linebacker, Jack Ham, picked off a pass by Phipps for his sixth interception of the season and made several key tackles. “We kept them inside, made them play catch up, Ham said, “And they had to pass instead of run. FAG is a good quarterback, but we had him covered today. Offensively, Pittsburgh took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on a 36-yard field goal by Roy Gerla, who added boots of 44 and 37 yards in the final period. In between were two touchdown runs by Harris and an 83-yard scoring bomb from Bradshaw to tight end John McMakin early in the final period. While Harris was running for 102 yards on 20 car ries, members of his fan club, ‘‘Franco's Italian Army, snake-danced through the stands with a banner proclaiming, ‘Run, Paisano, Run. “Basically I'm not a guy to really get hyper about a lot of things, said Harris, But it certainly does help to know the fans are behind you. Harris, who needs 40 yards to become the fifth rookie in pro history to rush for 1,000 yards, plunged one yard for a touchdown In the second quarter. In the third period he slipped a tackle and drove between two Browns on an 81-yard touchdown burst. It was his ninth touchdown rushing of the season, a new Steeler record. “T didn't think I would break 100, Harris con fessed. ‘IT didn't have a long run and the first time I handled the ball I lost five yards. “Once I looked up at the scoreboard though and I saw where I had run for 65 yards,” he added. ‘That surprised me. Harris went over the 100-yard mark on the last Steeler drive, picking up 37 yards in five carries to set up Gerela’s field goal. “I have to thank the coach for keeping me in there and the line for doing the blocking,”’ Harris declared. The Browns can still overtake the Steelers, and both teams may wind up in the playoffs under the “wild car’ system. Nonetheless, Pittsburgh can clinch the title next week if it beats the Oilers in Houston and Cleveland loses to the Bengals in Cincinnati. There weren't that many victory shouts or outward signs of jubilation in the Steeler locker room after the game, and many players were already thinking of next week's game. “The biggest one is up— Houston,” said Bradshaw. “That could be a big one, but we have to play like we did today or we're going to run into trouble.” After Houston, the Steelers play the Chargers in sunny San Diego. Joe Green put it this way: “I'd sure like to go out there with it all sewed up.” BROWNS’ BILLY LEFEAR §T RETCHES THINGS A LITTLE TOO FAR It was Ernie Holmes doing the holding as Ralph Anderson looks on
Newspaper Details
Dover Times Reporter
Dover, Ohio, US
Mon, Dec 04, 1972
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon H.
OH, USA 10 Jan 2026
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