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Homecoming Victory for the Miners

Published

13 years ago

September 27, 2011

BenGil Staff

Jason Whitlock runs it in the endzone.

The Gillespie Miners walloped the visiting Bunker Hill Minutemen football team by a final score of 65-14 in Friday’s homecoming and league outing.

With the win, the Miners extend their record at 4-1 on the year and 3-1 in the conference.

The Miners jumped out to a 37-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of rushing touchdowns from Johnny Cox.

The first from Cox came within 2 minutes of kickoff and was a small 5 yard rush, but the second came with 4:52 minutes left in the first quarter after he broke 2 tackles to reach the endzone. The third touchdown came 30 seconds later from freshman Derrick Tiburzi after his 30 yard touchdown run moved the Miners 23 points ahead. The third Miner touchdown came after the Miner defense forced a safety from Bunker Hill setting up the offense with a short field.

After the Miner defense recovered a fumble and ran it back into the endzone; it was safe the say the Miners were well in control of the game as they led by 30. But, it was not enough for Coach Borgini and the Miners as Eric Tiller sealed the first quarter 37-0 with a 3 yard touchdown run with 43 seconds left in the quarter.

Leading 37-0 to start the second quarter, the Miners showed no signs of letting up. Less than 1 minute into the second quarter, Johnny Cox amassed for a 48 yard touchdown to extend the lead 44-0 after Aaron Semplowski’s successful field goal. The Bunker Hill tried to get their offense fired up, but a turnover amounted for another Miner touchdown as Austin Semplowski rushed for the 12 yards to find the endzone and extend the lead to 51-0. After leading by over 50 points, the Miners’ bench was finally getting some rotation.

Derrick Tiburzi fights his way up the middle for a small gain.

The Minutemen lost yardage on 3 consecutive plays and again, they were punting it away with 3 minutes left before halftime. The Bunker Hill turnover amounted for another Miner touchdown after Eric Tiller’s 18 yard rush. Tiller’s touchdown put the Miners 58 points ahead with less than 2 minutes left in the quarter. 30 seconds later, the Miners were in procession of the ball again after senior, Keith Lovejoy, recovered the offensive fumble.

The Miner’s were unable to find the endzone with only a minute left before halftime.

The Miner’s would receive to start the third quarter as they led 58-0. The game clock was now able to run the since the lead margin was greater than 40 points. With the clock running, the Miners were not able to rain the touchdowns on as fast as they were in the first half. The Miners were able to produce just one touchdown in the third quarter after Hunter Vesper’s 3 yard rush put the Miners 65 points ahead. The second offensive drive from the Miners resulted in a turnover.The turnover gave the Minutemen the ball to start the final quarter.

Trailing by 65 points, the Minutemen finally ignited their offense. A 32 yard pass from Huette to Williams put Bunker Hill on the scoreboard with 9 minutes left of play in the game. The failed extra point field goal closed the gap by 59 as the Miner’s led 65-6. The Miner offense was unable to to find the first down marker after the Bunker Hill touchdown and they were punting it back to them. But after the punt attempt was dropped, the Minutemen were able to set up shop in Miner territory. Minimal gains from the Minutemen left them with less than 3 minutes of play, since the clock was still running in the fourth quarter.

Johnny Cox leaps for the first down.

But with 2 minutes left to play, Huette was able to find the endzone on a 15 yard pass to Chris Moore. After the successful 2 point conversion pass, Bunker Hill now had 14 points to the Miner’s 65. A Miner fumble left Bunker Hill another chance to score, but one minute was not enough time to find the endzone 55 yards away as the Miners secured their fourth victory on the season.

Offensively, Johnny Cox led the Miners as he rushed for a total of 92 yards. Other large numbers were: Tiller with 64 yards, Tiburzi with 49 yards, and Graham Cooper with 27.

Defensively, Jason Whitlock led the squad with 5 tackles as Johnny Cox, David Chapman, and Derrick Tiburzi all finished with 4 tackles each.

With the win, Gillespie improves its record to 4-1 on the season. The Miners travel to Mt. Olive to confront the Wildcats in a Prairie State outing on Friday, September 30. The Wildcats go into the outing with a record of 1-4. Mt. Olive lost 56-6 in their recent league outing against Staunton.

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Featured

Gillespie man injured in DUI accident

Published

9 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

9 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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