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Miners take Second Loss on the Season

Published

13 years ago

October 17, 2011

BenGil Staff

Cort Hellmann flees a Pawnee defender.

The Miners took their second loss on the season after being defeated by the Pawnee Indians 22-7 in a Prairie State Conference match-up and on the Miners’ senior night.

With the loss, the Miners move their record to 6-2 on the year and 5-2 in the conference, dropping to second place in the Prairie State Conference title race.

The Miner’s were battling uphill the entire game as they tallied 15 total penalties in the game, three being in crucial positions that resulted in points for Pawnee.

The Miners got off to a slow start after winning the coin toss. After Aaron Semplowski lost his shoe on the kickoff, Pawnee had excellent ball position on the 46 yard line. Being only 54 yards away from the endzone, the Indians were on the scoreboard first after a fourth down penalty from the Miner defense gave them a first down and a fresh start. The Indians scored on a 12 yard pass with 7:51 minutes left in the first quarter, but after a failed conversion, the Indians led 6-0 and the Miners offense took the field for the first time.

The Miner offense had a rough time adjusting to the unusual cold weather at Alumni Field in Gillespie, as wind gusts were as high as 15mph and the temperature was below 50 degrees. The Miner’s first and second offensive drive amounted to the same result: punt on 4th down and 20 yards to go. The Miners only had time for two offensive drives in the first quarter and could only find the first down marker once in the entire quarter. Cort Hellmann, quarterback, completed 1 pass on 2 attempts in the first quarter resulting in 18 yards through the air.

Johnny Cox attempts the stiff arm as he rushes for 9 yards on the play.

With the score still at 6-0, the Indians opened the second quarter with the ball. The Miner defense was strong throughout the game as they stopped the Indians on four different fourth down occasions throughout the game, two being in the second quarter. The Miners were able to stuff Pawnee on their opening drive on a fourth and three. The turnover on downs proved to spark the Miner offense as the Miners took control of the lead just 2 minutes later. Graham Cooper was able to rush for 23 yards to start off the first offensive drive before rushing for the 39 yard touchdown that brought the first points to the Miner side of the scoreboard. After Aaron Semplowski’s successful field goal, the Miners were in control of the lead 7-6 with 7:45 minutes left before halftime.

The Miners were not able to hold the lead for long as the Indians regained control just two minutes later after passing for over 44 yards. The Indians completed a 37 yard pass to bring them into the redzone and position the ball 7 yards away from the endzone. Just seconds later, a 7 yard pass amounted to 6 more points on the scoreboard. The Indians decided to attempt the two point conversion and after the rush up the middle was successful, the Indians led 14-7.

The Miners had time for one more offensive drive, but a fumble speared the hopes of tying the game before halftime. The Miners fumbled the ball on third and one with 4:34 minutes left in the second quarter. The Miner defense was able to prevent the Indians from finding the endzone and they trailed at 14-7 at halftime.

After winning the opening coin toss, the Miners chose to receive to start the second half. The opening drive resulted in turnover after the Miners punted on fourth down and twenty-three yards to go. Gillespie struggled to find the endzone in the second half of play, but didn’t struggle gaining yards as the Miners were able to gain over 94 yards on ground in the third quarter with the help of Derrick Tiburzi’s 41 yard rush. It was the same story for the Pawnee Indians as the Indians turned the ball over twice in the quarter, one being an interception from Cort Hellmann.

With the third quarter resulting in no additional points for either team, 12 minutes were set on the clock for the fourth quarter as the scoreboard still read 14-7 in Pawnee’s favor.

Graham Cooper rushes for the only touchdown on the night.

Coach Borgini and the Miners realized that a defeat would drop their ranking in the Prairie State Conference to second place as they opened the fourth quarter with the ball. The Miner offense struggled during the fourth quarter as they could only gain about 30 yards on the ground and 19 yards in the air. Hellmann completed two of five passes in the fourth quarter with both receptions being caught by Graham Cooper.

The Miner defense tried to ignite the offense as they intercepted Pawnee on two separate occasions in the fourth quarter, but it did not provide any extra support as the offense tallied three turnovers with one being an interception. The turnovers from Pawnee did not prevent them from finding the endzone as the Indians scored just one more time in the fourth to add extra cushion over the prior 14-7 lead. The Indians rushed up the middle of the heart of the Miner defense for a 9 yard touchdown to extend their lead to 22-7 after the successful two-point conversion.

The Miners now sport a 6-2 record on the season and fall to second place in the conference race with the loss to Pawnee. They take the field next when they travel to New Berlin for a non-league game on Friday, October 21. The Pretzels are coming off a 47-14 league loss to Riverton and their record now stands at 3-5. Next week will be the last week of regular season and then the Miners will be in a familiar place for Gillespie football: playoffs.

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The senior captains stand center field before the game.

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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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