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(Continued From Page 1) some sloppy Granville tackling.Thomas-the-TerribleAll Thomas-the-Terrible accomplished in the opening game heartbreaker was 129 yards from scrimmage in 17 tries for a 7.7 yards-per-try aveiage, which, alack and alas doesn t fully reflect the disaster he personally brought about with 184 additional yards fed into the computer, a 99-yard gallop with a Girkins pass, during the course of which he embarrassed Howard Bitner with one of the prettiest straight-arms ever seen on Harmon-Burke field. Later, taking a kick-off on his own 15, Thomas loped, sped, twisted and bulled his way down a field strewn with would-be Granville tacklers to erase a short lived two point (17-15) lead won seconds earlier on Dave Piper's picture place kick from the Lakers’ 22.Aces Impressive on OffenseThe one-man show by Thomas failed, however, to dim the Aces’ overall fine offensive performance. A running attack mounted by Scott Smith, and Mark Bowman, juniors, and Ron Felumlee, senior, and eight pass completions by Girkins in 13 attempts (he had four intercepted) showed that they couldmove the ball pretty much as they pleased.Bitter as acknowledgement may be, mistakes made the difference, and there’s no way toerase the two most costly ones, a pass interception and kick-off return that add up to 12 huge points.Both teams parried thrusts through the first quarter during which neither team could score, and the Blue Aces scored first on a picture play early in the second period. Steve Scott, senior end, took a Girkins forward on the Millersport 20, fought his way out of one tackle, broke a last ditch tackle by Laker Quarterback, Dave Brookover on the one, and fell into the end-zone. Dave Piper’s place-kick made it7-0.It continued to look like Granville was off to the races when, only a few seconds later, Jeff Carter, who played a whale of a game at tackle, both ways, all night, recovered a Brookover fumble on the Millersport 34.After a first down, it was first and 10 on the Laker 23, and, after a Girkins pass for Scott had misfired in the end-zone, Granville’s strong armed quarterbackaimed one for Lee Bowman that wound up in the arms ofThomas just inside the goal line, and the big Laker fullback, squirmed away from Bowman and two other Blue-clads, took off on a straight course down the east side lines, administering the coup de grace to Bitner at the Granville 40, and toured the rest of the way unmolested forthe TD.Perhaps a portent of things to come, a Granville off-side penalty gave the Lakers another shotat the PAT after Thomas’ kick was wide. Spurning another kick-attempt, Thomas crashed tackle for a two-pointer and a Millersport lead, 8-7.60 Yard DriveOpening the second half, Granville hammered their way 60 yards, a drive highlighted by Scott Smith’s 20 yard off-tackle slash, to score on a two yard plunge by Mark Bowman. Piper again place-kicked for the single point and the Aces led for the second time, 14 8.After holding the Lakers, the Aces got the ball on their own two, could go no place and one of series of poor Lee Bowman punts squirted straight up in the air, bounced on the 15, and the visitors had it first and goal on the Acts' eight. On the very first play Thomas bulled his way through Mark Bowman to score, then kicked the extra point and the Lakers were back on top15-14.Once again Granville was to drive for a score, after Bill O’Neill, Granville’s promising sophomore back raced back to the Millersport 43 with Thomas’ kick-off. The drive sputtered on the Laker 22, where Piper gave the locals the lead for the third time, 17-15, only to see it the shortest-lived lead of the game,erased on Thomas 85 kick-offreturn on the next play.Lead Changes AgainWith Granville again offside on the PAT, history did not repeat itself as the Aces forward wall thwarted Thomas’ two-point attempt, and the men of Sheets were down 21-15.13 seconds later, however, Millersport stretched that lead to 28-15, on a combination of another bad Bowman boot that squished out of bounds on theGranville 30, and on the succeeding play, the man Thomas broke Girkins and Scott att-emtps to stop him and tore into score standing up.This made it Thomas 27, Granville 15, and it was Tim Zimmerman’s place-kick for the PAT that kept Thomas fromscoring ALL his team’s points.After the kick-off and on the second play another Girkins pass went astray, and was picked off by Millersport’s Steve Boyer. But the Laker's returned thefavor as Mike Stiff, sophomore Granville guard pounced on a Brookover fumble on the Aces 49 and they were off and running.Two first downs came on a ground advance led by Scott Smith and Mark Bowman, but the last score of the game was to come on a Girkins pass to Scott, on the 20, who fought off Laker tacklers and just managed to get over into the corner. On a quarterback keeper, Girkins picked up a PAT two pointer to make it 28-25 with 5:29 remaining.But Millersport, with only six first downs up to this point in the game, ran off a string of fouraided by a major and minor penalty inflicted on the Aces, and the game ended with Millersport again threatening.(Continuedon Page 15, Col.l)tf'mm ■ rnrnSOawiry* mj» w * w 0 w m j* «you won 1 tii a better choice for student or sportsman! Hardy 100% wool shirt featurebob tail styling, allowing you to tuck it in or wear it out as the weather dictates. Choosefrnm n uuirlp uariptw nf 4
Newspaper Details
Granville Sentinel
Granville, Ohio, US
Wed, Sep 15, 1971
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Mary K.
NA, 30 Nov 2019
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Granville Commencement Daily
Granville Licking Pioneers Minutes and Isaac Smucker Scrapbooks
Granville Times and Denisonian
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