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Miner Football Bounces Back after Loss Against Staunton

Published

13 years ago

September 20, 2011

BenGil Staff

Cort Hellmann blocks for Johnny Cox on a small gain.

One week after getting beat by Prairie State rival: Staunton, the Gillespie Miners posted another victory on their 3-1 record. After being tied with conference competitor North Mac (1-3) for three quarters, the Miners finally pulled the game out in the fourth quarter with the help of Graham Cooper’s 54 yard rushing touchdown which came in the final minutes of the game.

As defense played a venial role, it was an offensive showdown. North Mac struck first with an early touchdown, but it was soon answered with a Miner touchdown. It stayed this way for 36 minutes as the game was still tied at 20 heading into the fourth quarter.

On a night with little defense early, the Miner defense had to contain the Panthers for 1:03 minutes as the Miners led the game 27-20. Just 15 seconds later, the Panthers were 50 yards away from a touchdown. The touchdown would have tied the game, but freshman Michael Henderson intercepted the Panther quarterback and sealed the Miners’ third victory on the season as they beat North Mac 27-20 to improve their record to 3-1.

The Miner defense got to take the field first as the Miners kicked off to start the first quarter. The Miner defense was strong on the first set of downs as they forced North Mac to punt it away, but the punt provided no spark for the offense as the offense was punting it back to the Panthers within 3 minutes. The Panther offense worked out a few loop holes and were back on the field to redeem themselves after the first offensive drive didn’t even reach the red zone. Just 3 plays later, with 8:41 minutes on the clock, the Panthers were on the scoreboard after a 55 yard rushing touchdown.

The Panthers led 7-0 after the successful extra point and it was the Miners turn to return the favor after the short kickoff. Cam Tucker, who completed 4 of 7 passes Friday night, started the second offensive drive with an incomplete pass. The incomplete pass was followed by 2 running gains from Johnny Cox as he led the Miners in the red zone. The next handoff turned into 7 points for the Miners as Graham Cooper’s 24 yard rush was followed by Aaron Semplowski’s successful extra point field goal. The touchdown knotted the game at 7 and closed the first quarter.

It was reverse order in the second quarter as the Miners took the edge first. The Miners started out with the ball in the second quarter and held it for over 5 minutes as the first offensive drive was a combination of short rushing gains from Cox, Cooper, and Derrick Tiburzi. The short running gains just wasted time as most of the yardage came from quarterback Cam Tucker. Tucker, who completed 2 of 3 passes in the second quarter, passed for over 20 yards in the quarter.

His main focus was receiver Cort Hellmann as Hellmann received for 18 yards in the quarter and was also the intended receiver for a deflected pass. The deflected pass amounted to nothing as the Miners were dancing in the endzone moments later after Johnny Cox’s 4 yard rushing touchdown. Cox, who rushed for 98 yards in the game, put the Miners on top as the score was 14-7 after Aaron Semplowski’s successful extra point. The Miner lead was held for 30 seconds before the Panthers returned the kickoff to tie the game at 14 with 7 minutes left before halftime.

Graham Cooper runs it up the middle for a first down.

With plenty of time to score again before the half, Cox started the second offensive drive with a 37 yard rush. Graham Cooper, who led the offense with 158 rushing yards, responded with another first down after his 18 yard blast up the middle. But soon after the large gains, North Mac had 5 minutes on the clock to take the lead after they recovered the Miner’s offensive fumble. After the Panthers burned 3 minutes off the clock, the Miners were once again receiving a punt. The offensive squad couldn’t reach the endzone in the allotted time and the Miners walked into the locker-room at halftime all tied up at 14 with the Panthers.

The Miners were on the receiving end to start the third quarter. Freshman Derrick Tiburzi, who rushed for 28 yards in the game, was the powerhouse on the Miner’s first offensive drive as he started the drive with 2 first downs after large rushing gains. Cox and Cooper followed as they added another 20 yards to put the Miners about 45 yards away from the endzone. An incomplete pass and other short rushing gains amounted to the Miner’s third turnover on the night. The turnover gave North Mac the ball with a small backfield. The Panthers were able to reach one first down marker before the Miner defense was able to recover a fumble which came with 5:53 minutes left in the third quarter. The fumble recovery proved to light the fire as Cam Tucker found his receivers for a combined 38 yard gain. The passing gain set the Miners just 25 yards away from the endzone with less than 4 minutes on the clock. After 2 rushing gains amounted to negative yardage, the Miners had 12 yards to go to reach the first down marker. Cox received the next handoff and not only surpassed the first down marker, but also walked into the endzone to put the Miners ahead of the Panthers once again.

The Miners kicked off with a 20-14 lead after Aaron Semplowski’s extra point attempt scuffed up the scoreboard. The defensive crew played a tough man-to-man coverage for 2 long minutes and had the Panthers backed up on the Miners 10 yard line. With no backfield to work with and less than a minute on the clock before time expired in the third quarter, the Panthers were out of options as the passing attempts proved to be stillborn. The only option was to pound the ball up the middle to be in better field position for the fourth quarter. That plan was abolished after the Panthers ran the ball in the endzone after a 90 yard rush. After the Panthers fumbled the extra point handoff, the score was tied at 20. The Miners had a chance for one play before the third quarter ended. The ball went to Cox and he fought for 4 yards as the siren closed out the third quarter.

With the score tied at 20, the Miners were in possession the ball to start the final quarter. It didn’t take long for the Miner offense to break the threshold as Graham Cooper’s 54 yard rushing touchdown capped a 76 yard, 3 minute drive. With Aaron Semplowski’s extra point field goal successful, the Miners took the lead for the third time of the game as the Panthers now trailed 27-20. The Miner defense took the field for perhaps the last time. The Panthers could only fight for 8 yards in the drive to set them up 2 yards away for the first down. On fourth and two, the Panthers had no other decision than to go for it, but the decision turned out to be a mistake as Johnny Cox recorded the sac. The sac gave the Miners the ball with 1:42 minutes left on the clock.

Graham Cooper opened the Miner’s second offensive drive with hopes of adding another touchdown to his previous two, but Cooper could only fight for 2 yards. Cameron Tucker ran on the quarterback sneak on second down. On the play, Tucker gained 5 yards, but was severely banged up on the play so Michael Henderson filled the quarterback position. Henderson and the Miners lost a handful of yards on third down and punted it away on fourth down.

The Panthers opened the drive with 1:03 minutes left. With 4 receivers wide, the Panthers were down to their last option. On the first play, the quarterback floated a pass over the heart of the defense and Michael Henderson snatched it out of the air to record his first interception on the season. Henderson returned the interception for over 20 yards, but it provided no advantage to the Miners as they kneed the ball to let the remaining 45 seconds on the clock expire as they defeated North Mac 27-20.

Johnny Cox rushes for 98 yards in the game.

After the game, quarterback Cameron Tucker was taken to the hospital to have his wrist looked at. Tucker’s wrist was ruled broken by the doctors and Tucker will be out for the next 6 weeks of the season. Cort Hellmann is expected to take over as quarterback for the Miners.

In their next game, the Miners take on Bunker Hill for homecoming, which will take place on Friday, September 23 in Gillespie. Gillespie will attempt to establish another winning streak and add another victory on its 3-1 season record. The Minutemen enter the bout with a 0-4 record after their 42-0 loss 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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