PHOTO: Garaway’s Bryce Books (top) finished fourth at the state wrestling tournament.
Despite coming up on the short side of a 27-20 final score, Newcomerstown football coach Dirk Gadd remained optimistic.
“That’s a real good team,” Gadd said of the visiting Toronto Red Knights. “They’re in the playoffs every year. There’s no way this will do anything but make us better.”
The Trojans had plenty of good to carry them through to next week’s game against Conotton Valley.
Against Toronto, the Trojans took a 20-19 lead on a tough, tackle-breaking 22-yard run by senior Lukas Justice with 5:59 on the clock in the third quarter.
Toronto threatened right back.
Quarterback Max Rebich hit a long pass with on the Red Knights’ next drive that gave the visitors the ball on the 1.
Newcomerstown’s defense proved up to the challenge, stopping the visitors on four plays and taking the ball back on downs at the 2 with 2:14 to play in the frame.
“That’s something for us to build on,” Gadd said of the big defensive stand. “They challenged us tonight. You learn more from losses than you ever do from a win, so we’ll look at film and move on from here.”
Toronto eventually got the ball back and scored on a 45-yard pass from Rebich to Colt Joynson early in the fourth quarter.
Newcomerstown put on a drive, but lost the ball on downs at the 16 with 6:22 on the clock. Toronto drove to Newcomerstown’s 10 before losing the ball on downs, but there were just 10 seconds left on the clock.
Newcomerstown took the early lead, topping off a three-play drive with a 27-yard run by Justice and a two-point conversion run by Marshall Norman.
Marcus Justice added a score on a pass from J.J. Justice, but the Trojans had a tough time stopping the Toronto passing game.
“There were times they beat us at the line of scrimmage,” Gadd said. “There were times we won up front and there were times they won up front. We’ll have to figure that out.”
VOLLEYBALL
A familiar face to area volleyball fans popped up on the sidelines of the Tuscarawas Central Catholic Saints this season.
Central’s new coach is Laini (Leindecker) Beans. She is a 2013 graduate of New Philadelphia High, where she was a four-time All-Ohio player. She played at the University of Albany, were she was a three-time team captain and a conference Player of the Year.
She takes over a team that played in the Final Four last year, but had significant graduation losses.
“I got away from it (volleyball) for a while, but I think it’s a good chance to give back, even though I have boys,” she said.
The Saints were in action against Indian Valley last Thursday, a match the Braves pulled out in five scrappy games, winning by scores of 24-26, 25-16, 25-27, 25-23 and 15-12.
During the contest, Indian Valley senior Gionna Miles recorded her 1,000th career dig.
Beans coached at New Philadelphia Middle School last year before taking the reigns at Central this season.
“That’s really good team,” Beans said of the Indian Valley squad. “We want to put ourselves in situations where competition will make us better.”
LOOKING AHEAD
While it’s true that the high school football season is only two weeks old, plans are already underway for winter sports.
The Tuscarawas County Sports Hall of Fame has scheduled basketball preview nights for both the boys’ and girls’ seasons.
The girls’ basketball preview will be held on Monday, Nov. 2, while the boys’ preview will be held on Monday, Nov. 9.
Both events will be held at the Tuscarawas County Senior Center.
More information will be available as the events approach.
(Reach Hank at hank.keathley@gmail.com)
“I knew I was approaching the record, but at the end of the day, that’s not what this is about. It’s more about getting to the next week successful and healthy. Thankfully, we got both done tonight.”
