Cedar Point Trip

Visited Cedar Point yesterday. Here was the itinerary:

1. Magnum XL-200
2. Top Thrill Dragster
3. Corkscrew
4. Power Tower - shot
5. Power Tower - drop
6. Matterhorn
7. WindSeeker
8. Wicked Twister
9. Troika
10. MaXair
11. MaXair
12. Raptor
13. Raptor
14. Blue Streak
    LUNCH

Lorain County High School Football Week 2 Predictions

The High School season is underway. Here are my week two predictions with the winner listed in bold.

Clearview at Vermilion - I will covering this game for WOBL radio - tune in to 1320 AM or listen online

Amherst at Midview
Avon at Wellington
Brookside at Rittman
Columbia at South Central
Elyria Catholic at Buckeye
Firelands at New London
Lorain at Parma
McDonald at Oberlin
North Olmsted at Elyria
North Ridgeville at Lakewood
Norwalk at Keystone
Shaker Heights at Avon Lake

Week 1 results: 9-3

Elyria Catholic 45, Clearview 6

The Lorain vs. Elyria match-up turned into a big win for Elyria Catholic as they defeated Clearview 45-6. You can listen to the replay online.

Panthers Sophomore QB Jeremy Holley made his first varsity start and was 13-19 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns including two scores to Jordan Alpater. Holley replaced the graduated Danny Reaser who was the top player in Lorain County last season and set several school and county records during his career at EC.

Clearview vs. Elyria Catholic tonight

I will be covering high school football tonight at Elyria Catholic High School as the Panthers host the Clearview Clippers. You can tune in to 1320 AM or listen online (replay will be available online as well). I'll be working with play-by-play announcer Bob Karlovec and sideline reporter Darrin Goats.

A lot of similarities between the two schools who are just six and half miles apart:

• Both teams are in Division 4, Region 14
• Both schools respective cities, Lorain and Elyria, are similar in size.
• Clearview has posted consective winning seasons since 2006 (38-13 during that time period). Elyria Catholic has a streak going back to 2005 (46-18 record).
• Both return their leading rusher from a year ago: Clearview's Matt Jordan and Elyria Catholic's Joe Dempsey.
• Both teams need the replace their MVP quarterbacks. Elyria Catholic replaces Lorain County MVP Danny Reaser with sophmore Jeremy Holley and Clearview replaces Senior All-Star Game MVP Davon Daniels with Freshmen Roger Engle.

Clearview

• Top players are: RB/LB Chad Anderson, RB/S Matt Jordan, LB Josh Molina, C Nick Osborn
• Head Coach Mike Collier begins his 5th season and has a record of 31-10.

Elyria Catholic

• Top players are TE/LB Matt Morgan, RB/LB Joe Dempsey, LT/DE Alex Nielsen, C Luke Williams.
• New Head Coach Polevacik was promoted this past off-season after serving as the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Panthers. He replaces Ben Malbassa who leaves EC for the head coaching position at Benedictine. Coach Polo has been assistant at EC since 2007.
• Luke Williams, returning starting center, is out with a strained knee. David Smith, a standout defensive lineman will start at RG and Spencer George moves to center

The two teams played each other last year in week one. The Panthers prevailed 45-6 in a game when EC pulled away in the 2nd half. Reaser had a big game with 5 touchdown passes. Clipper fans used white Styrofoam cups to spell out BEAT EC! on the fence behind the end-zone. After the post game handshakes two Elyria Catholic players (Zach Rogers & Cory Campbell) sprinted to the fence and disassembled the cups which upset several on the Clearview sideline.

Lorain County Football Preseason Top Coaches

Here are my picks for the top high school football coaches in Lorain County:

1. Mike Elder, Avon – The Eagles have the most talent in Lorain County. Every position on the team has a star player returning. Justin O'Rourke can be every bit of a QB like his older brother Ryan. Cory Furnas can be every bit of dominating LB like his older brother Patrick.
   
   
2. Mike Polevacik, Elyria Catholic – Coach Polo feels he was hired as the new head coach because he wants the team to return to the EC tradition of tough, attitude, hard-nosed football as opposed to the fun-n-gun style under Ben Malbassa. Team will still throw the ball a lot because they have a QB with an arm to do it.
   
   Polevacik will need to find the next Danny Reaser (Jeremy Holley), Zach Rogers (James Baker) and Cory Campbell (Joe Dempsey). He will have to deal with the sanctions the program received by the Ohio High School Athletic Association last season for recruiting violations. The Panthers are also moving to the West Shore Conference from the North Coast Conference.

Lorain County Football Preseason Top Players

Top 10 Offensive Players:

• Justin O'Rourke (Sr) – QB, Avon
• Brennan Hosier (Sr) — QB, Amherst
• John Banyasz (Sr) – QB, Columbia
• Joe Dempsey (Sr) – RB / LB, Elyria Catholic
• Dontez Smith (Sr) - RB, Avon Lake
• James Baker (Sr) - WR, Elyria Catholic
• Matt Eckhardt (Sr) - WR, Avon

Lorain County Football Conference Predictions

Patriot Athletic Conference
Stars Division	Overall	Conf.
Buckeye	8-2	6-1
Black River	7-3	6-1
Wellington	3-7	3-4
Keystone	4-6	3-4
Firelands	3-7	2-5
Brookside	3-7	1-6
Patriot Athletic Conference
Stripes Division	Overall	Conf.
Clearview	8-2	7-0
Columbia	9-1	6-1
Lutheran West	5-5	4-3
Fairview	3-7	2-5
Brooklyn	2-8	1-6
Oberlin	1-9	0-7
Southwestern Conference	Overall	Conf.
Avon Lake	8-2	7-0
Olmsted Falls	9-1	6-1
Brecksville	5-5	5-2
Amherst	7-3	4-3
North Olmsted	6-4	3-4
Westlake	3-7	2-5
Midpark	2-8	1-6
Berea	1-9	0-7
West Shore Conference	Overall	Conf.
Avon	10-0	6-0
Elyria Catholic	8-2	5-1
Rocky River	8-2	4-2
North Ridgeville	7-3	3-3
Midview	3-7	2-4
Vermilion	3-7	1-5
Bay	1-9	0-6
Other	Overall
Elyria	3-7	3-4
Lorain	2-8	1-6

Lorain County Football Preseason Team Rankings

Here are my pre-season rankings with their predicted final records:

1. Avon 10-0, 6-0 – The Eagles graduated several players from last year's 10-0 team. There's still a lot of talent remaining. Will finish 2011 with 22 regular season wins.
   
   
2. Avon Lake 8-2, 7-0 – Meet the new Shoremen superstars: QB/P Chris Jedlicka, RB Dontez Smith, FB/LB Nick Skuggen, TE/DT Jake Young, OT T.K. Burk, OG/NT Nick Stueber, C/DE Ryan Pivcevich and CB Brett Bass. Avon Lake will make it 13 play-off appearances in 14 years despite moving up to Division 1 in 2011.
   
   
3. Elyria Catholic 8-2, 5-1 – Another team that will re-load after graduating several superstars. They should make an easy transition to a new offense and a new conference. Jeremy Holley replaces record-setting QB Danny Reaser. Panthers fans don't worry. Holley is 6-5 and has an arm every bit as strong as Reaser.

Lorain County High School Football Week 1 Predictions

Football starts tonight. Here are my predictions with the winner listed in bold.

Clearview at Elyria Catholic - I will covering this game for WOBL radio - tune in to 1320 AM or listen online

Avon Lake at Avon
Columbia at Cleveland Central Catholic
Elyria vs. Amherst
Firelands at Lutheran West
Keystone at Monroeville
Midview at Lorain
Oberlin at Lutheran East
Vermilion at Huron
Wellington at Norwayne
Westlake at North Ridgeville
Woodward at Brookside

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Pirates 5, Reds 3

The Big Dig

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Ubaldo is coming to Cleveland

The Cleveland Indians made three trades in the last week.

1. First they acquired Kosuke Fukudome and cash from the Chicago Cubs for minor leaguers Abner Abreu and Carlton Smith. 
2. Then the Tribe picked up Ubaldo Jimenez from the Colorado Rockies for minor leaguers RHP Joseph Gardner, RHP Alex White, LHP Drew Pomeranz and 1B Matt McBride.
3. Finally, they trade IF Orlando Cabrera to the SF Giants for minor league OF Thomas Neal.

No question, Jimenez was the big acquisition of the weekend and the subject of this post.

Why I like this deal: