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Football: Miners gain momentum after two wins in SCC

Published

12 years ago

September 11, 2013

BenGil Staff

Michael Henderson rears back to fire a pass. Henderson passed for over 50 yards and recorded 2 touchdowns.

Want proof the Miners are at the top of their game right now? Look no further than their 2-0 record in both the regular season and the South Central Conference. The Miners tacked on another victory to their record last Friday evening in nearby Litchfield after caging the Panthers by a score of 42-29 to give them another victory in the SCC.

The 3 hour and 5 minute game finally wrapped up at 10:05pm Friday evening. The long battle consisted of countless penalties, a number of close calls, and complaints from both sides of the field. Despite being the loud chants and major setbacks, the Miners kept their composure up until the final seconds of the game. Gillespie scored early in the first quarter and never let Litchfield take the lead, although the game was tied twice.

Brady Anderson, junior, put the Miners on the scoreboard first within 5 minutes of the game. After the successful two point conversion, the Miners led 8-0 up until the end of the first quarter where Litchfield connected on a 76-yard touchdown pass to bring the game within two points 8-6. The failed conversion left the Miners with a two point lead at the end of the first quarter, 8-6.

The defensive squads for both sides proved to be effective again in the second quarter as each team held each other to just a single touchdown. Although the Miners defense struggled to against Litchfield’s air game, a few key interceptions turned the game around. Michael Henderson was the leader on the offensive end with over 55 yards rushing in the second quarter alone. Henderson went on to extend the lead for the Miners to 14-6 late in the second quarter after a three yard touchdown run.

The lead didn’t last long though after a personal foul penalty set the Panthers up in good scoring position to knot the game at 14 points after the successful two-point conversion. Following the touchdown, the Miners had little time to get into field goal position to take the lead before halftime. Logan Cooper was able to rush for 34 yards in the third drive for the Miners, but the halftime sirens stopped him well short of the end zone. The game stood tied 14-14 at the half.

The Miners kicked off to start the third quarter, but had the ball within 2 minutes of the quarter. Between Derrick Tiburzi and Michael Henderson, the pair recorded over 30 yards on the ground while a completed pass to Chris Halpin added another 20 yards on the first drive to set Michael Henderson up for a 9-yard touchdown run to give the Miners a 20-14 lead again.

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Blake Peterson gains a first down for the Miners with a 10 yard gain.

After another long passing play, the game was tied again: 20-20. The Panthers kicked off with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, but it only took the Miners less than 20 seconds to take the lead again after Chris Halpin’s return set Derrick Tiburzi up with a short touchdown run with 37 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Following the unsuccessful conversion, the Miners led 26-20.

The Miners finally broke away from Litchfield in the final quarter outscoring Litchfield 16-9. Within 4 minutes of the fourth quarter, the Miners extended their lead 34-20 after a touchdown by Chris Halpin and the successful two-point conversion by Henderson. But within 30 seconds, the Panthers were attempting to tighten up the game after they brought the game within a touchdown. The 59 yard touchdown reception by Litchfield decreased the Miners’ lead to 34-27.

That was the closest the Panthers would get though after Chris Halpin returned the kickoff for a 90 yard return to increase the lead to 42-27 after the successful two-point conversion. With 7:46 remaining in the game, neither team would score another touchdown. Litchfield scored 2 points off a safety, but two points wouldn’t help the Panthers get anywhere close to a victory as they trailed by two touchdowns. The Miners let the clock expire at the end of the quarter to give them their second win of the season: 42-29 at Litchfield.

Derrick Tiburzi led the team on the offensive end with 147 rushing yards and 1 touchdown while quarterback Michael Henderson closely trailed with 126 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. Chris Halpin was the leading receiver last Friday with 52 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. On the defensive end, Hunter Vesper led the team again in week 2 with 6 tackles while Tiburzi came in a close second with 5.

The Miners (2-0) will travel to Pana (1-1) this Friday evening, September 13 to take on the Panthers at their homefield. Pana, another SCC rival, is coming off a 27-7 victory over Roxana last week. Kickoff will be at 7:00pm.

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Featured

Gillespie man injured in DUI accident

Published

10 years ago

October 16, 2015

BenGil Staff

Genisio's Ford Mustang in the City of Gillespie's impound lot Tuesday morning.

A Gillespie man was taken to a local hospital after suffering injuries following a single-vehicle accident that occurred Sunday morning, October 11, after he drove off the roadway and into a deep ditch near the intersection of Route 16 and Charles Street in Gillespie.

Gillespie Police Chief Jared DePoppe reported that the police department was dispatched to the scene of the accident shortly before 3 a.m. Officers arrived to find Jonathan Genisio, 29, of Gillespie as the driver and only occupant inside the Ford Mustang vehicle.

Genisio was arrested, but give a notice to appear in court so he could seek medical treatment. He was charged with six different counts in addition to having his vehicle impounded. His charges include driving under the influence of alcohol, no insurance, improper lane usage, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failure to notify SOS of an address change and failure to wear a seat belt.

At the time of publication on Thursday evening, the vehicle was recovered from impound and Genisio was discharged from the hospital. The extent of his injuries was unable to be released by medical personnel.

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Community News

Gillespie council discusses budget and meeting process

Published

10 years ago

August 1, 2015

BenGil Staff

Treasurer Dan Fisher (right) addresses the council.

The treasurer for the City of Gillespie had a lot to say about how city officials handle their subcommittees and how city funds are spent during the city’s committee meeting held Monday evening, July 27.

Dan Fisher, the elected treasurer for Gillespie, spoke to the council for over 30 minutes about how bills are paid and more importantly, how purchases are appropriated for and planned. During the city’s board meeting held earlier this month, Fisher suggested the council move their meeting dates to coincide with how the bills are paid.

He explained that many council members bring up issues or have questions about certain bills during the council meetings, but the questions are left to be answered by the city clerk who isn’t present at the board meetings. In addition to dragging out the meetings, Fisher said the questions should be taken care of before the meeting is held.

“We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things,” Fisher told the council Monday evening. “We need to spend more time on appropriating.”

We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things

Fisher distributed a “Budget Basics” packet to board members during the committee meeting held Monday and said the council should consider implementing a purchase order system to account for all purchases. “That way when the bills come in, we can match the form up with it and everyone knows what the purchase was for and what account it comes out of,” he clarified.

Council members agreed with what Fisher had to say to them. “We need to spend a lot of time when do our appropriation and it’s going to take a lot of time from everyone, including myself,” he continued. “We need to find a way to be collective in how we do things.”

Fisher closed by adding that the council also takes too long at their regular city council meetings, which are held on the second Monday of each month. Speaking of the city’s July meeting that lasted nearly 3 hours, Fisher said the council needs to be much more “business-like”.

“We take too long at our meetings,” he closed. “It’s been proven that people lose focus after 90 minutes and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get a meeting done in 1 hour and 15 minutes.”

City clerk Frances Smith spoke up after Fisher referred to the council’s last meeting. She prefaced her statement by saying she didn’t intend to saying anything, but continued by saying that the council’s July 13^th meeting took her three days to transcribe. “It makes the clerk’s job hard – whoever it is,” she said. “There is a lot of side conversations and it’s very hard to hear on the tape.”

Ash Street Project

Alderman Steve Kluthe informed the board that he received the bid specifications back for the Ash Street Project which allows the council to advertise the specs to get an idea how much drainage project will cost.

Kluthe said the bid specifications cover everything including equal opportunity employer and prevailing wage information, but said the project could probably be handled by a local contractor. The project includes installing a culvert that will transfer the water to Cherry Street.

The council hopes the completed project will then alleviate the water that currently gets backed up north of Ash Street. “They are going to put a culvert underneath Ash Street to the north and grade the ground on the north side so the water flows to the culvert and down to the south end where there is a storm drain,” Kluthe explained.

TIF District

We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development

Fisher informed the council that the tax bills for the TIF district went out and the city can expect to receive close to $60,000. He reminded the council that even though the city made a big payment to United Community Bank last year in excess of $90,000, there will still be a payment made to UCB for their portion paid into the TIF until the TIF expires, which Fisher said is 12-14 more years.

After the city pays UCB, Fisher said the council can expect to still have somewhere north of $40,000 remaining each year. “I would like us to start to look at other projects that meet the TIF criteria that we could spend $20-$30,000 per year,” Fisher explained. “Long-range projects – projects that could last 10-12 years. We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development.”

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