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You don’t see many 51-point games at the BanJo

Zero. That’s the number of times a Marietta College basketball player scored 30 points in a game last season. And it’s not because the Pioneers didn’t have the talent. Quite the opposite, actually, as they advanced all the way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Division III Tournament. The thing about the Pioneers is they have so much talent that it makes it hard for one player to go off for a bunch of points. Head coach Jon VanderWal typically rotates 10 players in and out of the lineup in a given game, and any of those 10 players has a chance to lead the team in points. They ...

JOHNSTON: Fort Frye football and food for thought

BEVERLY — Fort Frye’s Braden Medley pounced on the Dalton fumble at the 2-yard line like it was a sirloin steak. Ah, the sweet taste of Fort Frye victory. Then, Cadet running back Tyler Fisher took an Ian Ellis hand-off and raced, like he was late for Mindy’s supper, 98 yards to the house. All of a sudden, instead of the Cadets being buried in pasta, 21-7, they’d knotted the score at 14-all. “That was big, right at the beginning of the game,” said FFHS head chef Eric Huck afterwards. “They (Dalton Bulldogs) were about ready to score and we got a turnover. Then, we ran a ...

ALBRIGHT: What a ride for Don Fosselman

Don Fosselman is hanging it up. No, I cannot believe it either. Father time usually always makes the final save. Fosselman laid out the plan to feed him an easy shot, too. “I always said when my youngest grandson reached his senior year I was going to walk away,” he said. But, his coaching skills were still sharp in the farewell season. And, this swan song might just be one of his finest coaching jobs. There was no shortage of questions for this final team. Could Caleb Thomas step in seamlessly in replacement of all-state first-team goalie Jacob McKnight? How ...

JOHNSTON: Joe Bergin feeling, looking good

Joe Bergin has had an amazing comeback. The seventh-year Marietta College men’s boss faced a life without Pioneer soccer for five-plus weeks last May and June with a heart issue and a journey to the Cleveland Clinic. But happy to say, Bergin, a former MC soccer standout and 1986 grad, was back coaching and preparing for the 2019 season at the start of the summer. “They fixed all the things they needed to fix, and the heart works,” said Bergin after Marietta College defeated the Baldwin Wallace University Yellow Jackets, 3-1, Saturday night in a showdown match at Marietta ...

Tigers looking for more payback against ’Dogs

Marietta High got some partial payback against Athens High during the regular season when it blanked the Bulldogs, 6-0, at Jerry Brock Field on Sept. 19. Now, the Todd Morris-coached Tigers, No. 8 in the OSSCA State Poll with a 17-0-1 record (5-0-1 ECOL), will be looking to end Athens’ 2019 ...

Warren headed in right direction

VINCENT — Friday’s football game between Warren and Williamstown will ultimately go down as a loss for the Warriors. In the grand scheme of things, though, it’s possible the game will be looked at as a turning point for the program. Williamstown, a perennial W.Va. Class A football powerhouse, got everything it could handle from Warren. On the game-deciding play in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, the Yellowjackets came up with an interception in the end zone to seal the Warriors’ fate. The thing is, this game could have been decided much sooner. Williamstown held ...