Oh, yeah, Hobart won game, too

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

HOBART -- To its credit, Hobart took care of business against Highland, amid all the pomp and circumstance of the final regular-season game at the Brickie Bowl.

The Brickies were in control throughout their 56-6 victory, jumping out to a 21-0 lead with 4:26 left in the first quarter.

"It wasn't hard to focus," senior Bobby James said. "We couldn't let Highland come in here and beat us."

Hobart led 36-0 at halftime, then went to its reserves in the third quarter. The Brickies appear poised to make a nice postseason run.

"You never want to go backing into the playoffs," Hobart coach Wally McCormack said. "We told the guys, we can be (upset), get arrogant and lazy in the second half. Or we can be happy that everybody played. I'm happy for our kids with the way everything worked out."

After getting shut out for three straight games, Highland scored a touchdown with 1:04 left in the third quarter on sophomore Nigel Palmer's 49-yard run. Trent Altieri ran for 97 yards on 14 carries for the Trojans.

Perfect again

Fourteen times, Wheeler has played conference games since the Greater South Shore Conference began.

Fourteen times, Wheeler has won.

The Bearcats capped off their second consecutive perfect conference mark Friday night with a 28-0 victory over Calumet, which hadn't lost a GSSC game this season.

Wheeler is the only champion the GSSC has known in its short history.

"That's outstanding," said Bearcat senior Clay Duarte, who scored three touchdowns in the victory. "It just shows how all our hard work has paid off, and it shows how great a program the coaching staff has built here."

Wheeler finished the regular season 9-0 overall -- the second perfect mark in the program's nine-year history. The 2003 squad went 9-0, as well, winning the Lake Athletic Conference Blue championship.

New sensation

Perhaps the most encouraging thing to come out of Friday's game for Wheeler was how well the Bearcat starters performed in some unusual situations -- like playing in the fourth quarter, and spending nearly 20 minutes at a time on the bench while Calumet's offense marched slowly but effectively down the field.

Wheeler was still the stronger team at the end, punctuating the game with a 1-yard Mike DeSimone touchdown run in the final two minutes, then stuffing Calumet's George Ezell for a 13-yard loss to send the Warriors to a final four-and-out on the last drive of the game.

"That was great for us to have to go through that," Duarte said. "It's not often our offense has been on the sidelines for 15, 20 minutes at a time. It was hard for us to stay in a rhythm like we normally do. That's probably how it's going to be a little more from now on."

And as for playing a full four quarters for a change?

"I feel great," Duarte said. "I'd play five if they'd let me."

Michael Osipoff and Mark Lazerus contributed to this report.