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Miner Football Opens Season with a Win

Published

13 years ago

August 29, 2011

BenGil Staff

Austin Semplowski breaks the tackle for a 15 yard gain.

With a 9 point deficit at halftime, the Miners struggled in first half as they tallied three turnovers. The Miner defense stepped it up in the second half of the match-up as the offense paved the way for a victory. As an offensive fumble in the beginning of the fourth quarter took the fans off their feet, they were chanting and screaming within minutes after the Miner defense sacked the Riverton quarterback for a turnover and excellent ball position.

Within three minutes left in the game, Cameron Tucker ran it in for a touchdown on the quarterback sneak to put the Miners 7 points ahead of the Hawks after Aaron Semplowski’s successful extra point field goal. 50 seconds later, Cort Hellmann intercepted a pass and again set the Miners up for another touchdown. Once more, the Miner offense pounded the gaps and set Derrick Tiburzi up for a one yard rushing touchdown to give the Miners a 33-19 victory over the Riverton Hawks.

The first half was slow as the Miners struggled to get the game plan together. The Miners yielded 2 turnovers in the first quarter and could only cough up 22 offensive yards, 15 coming from freshman Derrick Tiburzi. Riverton wasted no time as they were on the scoreboard within 5 minutes into the first quarter and led 6-0 heading into the second quarter.

Johnny Cox leaps over a defender for a 7 yard gain.

Within minutes of the second quarter, Riverton found the endzone for a 12 point lead. Cameron Tucker was near perfect in the second quarter, hitting 3-of-4 attempts for a combined 21 yards for the Miners. On the second offensive drive, many rush attempts and the help from a holding penalty, set Johnny Cox up for a 21 yard run to give the team their first touchdown of the season.

With 5 minutes left of the second half, Riverton wasted no time as a 53 yard pass tacked another 6 points to their score and now put them 13 points ahead after the successful conversion. After a Miner offensive turnover, Riverton again had the ball with less than a minute of play. With no gains from the rush attempts, the Hawks attempted to pass with 20 seconds left. The first pass attempt from the quarterback was intercepted from Austin Semplowski, but time expired as he was tackled after a 15 yard return. The Miners headed into the locker room with a 19-6 deficit at halftime.

The Miners opened up the second half with the football. Tiburzi opened the quarter for the offensive squad with a short 4 yard gain. Johnny Cox got the ball on second down and ran it 68 yards for a Miner touchdown. The extra point was successful from Aaron Semplowski and in just two plays, the Miners were trailing by a single touchdown. After the defense stopped the Hawks and forced them to turn the ball over on downs, it was another chance for the offense. The offense was again marching their way to the endzone. Short run gains from Tiburzi, Cox, Tiller, and Tucker set the Miners 4 yards away from the endzone. After 2 unsuccessful running attempts, Johnny Cox pounded through the middle for a 4 yard touchdown and tied the game at 19 to end the third quarter.

Graham Cooper takes it through the gap for a short gain.

The fourth quarter was suspenseful. The defense held the Hawks to no touchdowns and just a handful of first downs. A quarterback sack from Keith Lovejoy set the Miners up for their first successful touchdown attempt as quarterback Cameron Tucker scored on the short run. After Tucker’s touchdown gave the Miners the 7 point lead, the Hawks had 4:50 minutes left to answer back. With 3:37 minutes on the clock, safety Cort Hellmann intercepted the quarterback and set the offensive squad less than 50 yards away from the endzone. A personal foul penalty and other short running gains set freshman Derrick Tiburzi up for the one yard touchdown rush. After the successful extra point from Aaron Semplowski, the Miners led 33-19 with a minute left. After 3 unsuccessful passing attempts from Riverton, time expired and the Miners secured their first victory of the season.

The Miners (1-0) will now prepare for their first home game against Kincaid on September 2. The Ponies come into the Prairie State game with a 0-1 record after being dropped by New Berlin, 48-7, in a non-league game. Members of Gillespie High School’s undefeated 1976 football team are planning to celebrate the 35th anniversary of their winning season during the Miner’s home opener.

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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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