The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 77

3fie Jjlatoljjfaa Inquirer borts Monday, November 23, 1992 S5 ii NJSIAA Field Hockey State Finals titles Shawnee, Florence capture -eh 'f- -South Jersey 'Highlights Yesterday's heroine I Melissa Bond two key goals as Flor-; nce defeated BeMdere to ln the first state Group 1 hockey championship -in the school's history. 'M Yesterday's heroine II Vile scored two goals to ilead Shawnee past Westfield, 5-0, as the Renegades won fifth straight state Group 4 title in field hockey. Weekend winners Washington Township, Holy Egg Harbor Township, Sterling, Delran, Glassboro, I and St. Joseph all -were big winners in NJSIAA Ifootball playoff games. It's record DeMiro of West Essex scored three goals to lead the Knights past Rancocas Val- I Hey, 6-1, in the state Group 3 Ifield hockey championship game.

The three goals raised tier total to 56 this season, ihe recognized state record. Don't forget funeral services for Pleas-, entville football coach Bob Thomas will be held at noon today at St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Pleasantville. Thomas, 38, died Wednesday.

School officials say the Schalick-Pleasantville Thanksgiving Day game will go on as scheduled, and proceeds will go toward a scholarship In Thomas' name. I is Bond scores two goals, lifts Flashes By Tom Williams INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT EWING TOWNSHIP All season, Florence freshman Melissa Bond has taken a back seat to teammate Diane Carey, the leading scorer in South Jersey field hockey. But yesterday in the NJSIAA Group 1 final at Trenton State College, Bond scored two goals as the Flashes won their first state championship with a 4-0 victory over previously undefeated Belvidere. "I think their defense was focused on Diane and the others," said Bond, who had scored only six goals before yesterday's game. "And I think the artificial turf helped us because we are a fast team." Florence (19-3) took the lead less than 10 minutes after the opening pass-back when Carey, a senior, scored her 43d goal of the season at the end of a furious attack.

Then, in the final three minutes of the first half, Bond knocked home her first goal of the game during a scramble in the circle to make it 2-0. "I saw the ball in front of me, so I shot it toward the goal," she said. "It came right back to me, so I shot it again with a different angle." Florence scored again early in the second half when junior Jamie Davis got her seventh goal of the season. Bond then added her second goal on a hard slapshot from just inside the circle. It came with 16 minutes, 40 seconds left in the game and opened a 4-0 lead for Florence.

"I saw an opening toward the left circle, so I just let it fly," Bond Florence coach Carol Ballay was pleased for her first-year player. "Melissa played the game of her life," she said. "She has come so far. She is an intense player and a real hustler. A fast field like this really works in her favor." Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the Flashes scored almost as many goals against Belvidere (19-1-t); as it had given up in its first 20 games.

The County Seaters, whose. -schedule includes Group 3 and Group 4 schools, had allowed just -five goals. "That's why scoring first was important," Ballay said. "They are a defense-oriented team, and we are explosive on offense. We needed to make them play our game." The victory ended a rewarding sea-I son for the Flashes, who'd lost Tara and Robin Luyber, high-scoring twins, to graduation.

The twins for Trenton State. Nine others also graduated, leav-" ing Diane and Mary Carey who also are twins and junior Lily Bieling as the only returning players; -with experience. "We almost had to start from -scratch," Ballay said. "If you had told me at the beginning of the season; -that we'd be playing here, I have laughed at you." The Flashes won five at the start of the season be- fore dropping a 1-0 decision to Holy After eight more victories, See FLORENCE on S7 ,11 i tW. fa Tha Inquirer ELIZABETH VOflHAUER Essex A-.

-I ft-. i .4 1 M- -f Renegades charge to fifth in row By Jeff Of ford INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT EWING TOWNSHIP The Shaw-nee machine continues to grind out field hockey championships. The Renegades made it five state Group 4 titles in a row yesterday by crushing Westfield, 5-0, at Trenton State College. Senior forward Lori Vile led the Renegades' charge. Vile, the leading goal scorer in school history with 104, netted two goals to push her season total to 41, second best in South Jersey.

"I think we're the best," said Vile, "I think we're the best team in the state. That's obvious. Even though we lost to a North Jersey team (West Essex, 3-0, on Sept. 191, we made a statement today. We had to prove ourselves.

West Essex caught us early in the year, but I think we could beat them right now." By winning its fifth straight title, Shawnee tied the national record for consecutive state titles in field hockey a record that Moorestown also matched, in Group 2, a year ago, according to the National High School Sports Record Book. Stowe, won five straight from 1973 to 1977. The Renegades finished the season with a 21-1-1 record and a 20-game unbeaten streak. Westfield finished at 13-54. "This is definitely one of the best Shawnee teams I've ever played for," Vile said.

"Other teams were stronger in different areas. Other teams had better stick work or more finesse, but this is certainly one of the best." The Renegades got off to a sputter-See SHAWNEE on S7 Rancocas The Red Devils scored first. But West Essex got six straight goals to take the Group 3 crown. By Tom Williams INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT EWING TOWNSHIP Rancocas Valley did something yesterday that no other New Jersey field hockey team had done this season. The Red Devils took the lead against West Essex.

That, as it turned out, was the high point for Rancocas Valley in the NJSIAA Group 3 state championship game. West Essex responded with six straight goals three by all-time scoring leader Diane DeMiro to beat the Devils, 6-1, and win its second straight Group 3 title. Rancocas Valley (17-4-2) went ahead, 1-0, when senior Laura Schoen scored her 11th goal of the season on an assist from Melanie Vasofski. It came less than five minutes after start, and was the first goal Football Notebook A triumphant Melissa Bond (right) receives a happy hug from Mary Carey after scoring her second goal in Florence's 4-0 victory over Belvidere, which gave the Flashes their first Group 1 state championship. i i sV t.

I '4 Valley falls to West HaMwNniMn. www'" By DON McKEE One of the best stayed home The South Jersey football playoffs went off Saturday without the team many consider to be the most talented in the area. While Washington Township was crushing Eastern, 41-12, and Delran was ppsetting Hammonton, 23-19, and while Sterling and Buena were struggling in a rare double-overtime game, Woodrow Wilson was practicing lor the only game the Tigers have left. "iCa a good thing we're playing CamJIen," coach Darrell Wilson said the ether day. "That's the one game the lids are always ready for." Wilson went 7-1 in its first eight games, a record matched by just 11 other teams of the 100 schools (public aad parochial) that participate in the South Jersey playoffs.

Twenty-two of those schools made the playoffs. Wilson sat at home. Worse, from the Tigers' point of view was watching three teams with 6-2 rjcords Join 8-0 Lacey Township in the Group 3 playoffs. Thit, of course, is a product of the power ratings. Ocean City, Absegami and Egg Harbor Township had highfr power ratings and deserved to be invited to the playoffs.

They won the games they needed to win and earned the points. Woodrow Wilson plays a schedule dominated by medium-size schools in the Olympic National, and because of its, league commitment, can't play any non-Olympic opponents. "It'S almost ludicrous," Wilson said. I'We're locked into a conference where we can't go outside and play bigger opponents." Teams with perfect records are invited! to the playoffs, regardless of power ratings. In 1989 and 1991, Wilson went 8-0 and made the postsea- son.

In 1990, when the Tigers were 6-2 at the cutoff date, they were left out. This season, despite one of the top 11 i records among 100 schools, they i were bypassed again, i None of this is aimed at Wilson, obviously. It's the power-rating sys-jtem, and it affects more than one deserving school each year, "It's just not realistic to expect a program, no matter how good, to go 8-0 every year," Wilson said. "Look at Delsea or Toms River East. They're 7-1 1 like we are, and they were sitting home, too." The power ratings have a lot of discrepancies, as has been detailed here in the past.

But one of the biggest is that good teams get hurt when they beat an opponent that has had an unexpectedly bad year. For example, Wilson's only Group 4 opponent this season was Over-See 00N McKEE on S8 ISA For The Inquirar ELIZABETH VOflHAUER Rancocas Valley's Kathy Craig takes a tumble after being tripped by Michelle Vizzuso of West Essex. Vizzuso scored two goals. scored against West Essex in the tournament. "We did what we had to do," said Rancocas Valley coach Kathy Yeager, who led her team to a South Jersey championship for the first time in school history.

"We knew we couldn't let them come out and score right away. But West Essex is a great team and much quicker than we are." The Knights (22-0), who stretched their winning streak to 36 games and their unbeaten streak to 43, tied the game with 13 minutes, 1 second left in the first half when DeMiro scored an unassisted goal. West Essex took the lead when sophomore Michelle Vizzuso knocked the ball into the cage with 10:48 remaining in the half. "All we knew about Rancocas Valley was that they lost to Shawnee, 3-0," said West Essex coach Linda Alimi. West Essex defeated Shawnee, 3-0, on Sept.

19. "I also knew Melanie Vasofski was a good player because I coached her in Junior Olympics. But their entire team played very well. See RANCOCAS on S7 erty Division, which is 30-21. Granted, the Colonial is a small-school league, with no Group 3 or Group 4 schools.

No team in the Colonial could be expected to be able to compete with a Group 4 power such as Washington Township. But as a small-school league, the Colonial takes a back seat to no one. Since the playoffs began, Colonial Conference teams have won 13 titles, the most among South Jersey leagues. Paulsboro has won five Group 1 championships and Woodbury four. Sterling has won three titles, all in Group 3, and Audubon has won once in Group 2.

Cats roar. No playoff update would be complete without mentioning the success of St. Joseph. The Wildcats See NOTEBOOK on S8 When it comes to playoffs, none comes close to matching Colonial The member schools are small in size. They are big on winning playoff games 40 at last count.

Delsea's John Oberg may call it a career BySamCarchidi INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Delsea High's John Oberg, the coach who has won more games than any other in South Jersey football history, says he is "pretty sure" he has coached his last game. Oberg, 59, returned home Friday from Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden after successful heart surgery on Nov. 13. "The doctors don't want me to even think about coaching right now," Oberg said from his Franklin Township home on Saturday. "They told me not to think about it for two months.

I'm pretty sure I'm not coming back, but the doctors tell me I'll be surprised at how good I'll feel in two months. So I'll wait before I decide." Before the season, Oberg told his assistants that this would probably be his last year. The season-ending operation, Oberg said, hasn't changed his thinking. Earlier this season Oberg surpassed former Collingswood coach Howard "Skeets" Irvin, who had 223 career victories, to become South Jersey's winningest coach. Since then, Oberg has spent a total of three weeks in two hospitals.

He is doing light exercises at home. In three weeks, he will begin a three-days-a-week exercise program at Elmer Hospital. During the 5-hour operation, Oberg had three bypasses See OBERG on S8 The Inquirer Top 15 Football RankTeam Rec. LW 1. Wagh'ton Twp.

9-0 1 2. Holy Cross 9-0 2 3. W. Wilson 7-1 3 4. Shawnee 7-2 4 6.

Eastern 7-1-1 6 6. Deptf ord 6-1-1 6 7. Pennsauken 8-2-1 7 8. Sterling 8-0-1 9 9. Paulsboro 8-1 10 10.

Egg Harbor Two. 7-2 11 11. Delran 7-2 12. Ocean City 6-3 12 13. Hammonton 7-1-1 8 14.

Willingboro 6-3 14 16. Delsea 7-1 16 By Marc Narducci INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT It is a league that is often maligned for its supposed suspect competition, but the Colonial Conference once again proved its postseason football excellence over the weekend. The Colonial's two playoff representatives, Paulsboro and Sterling, won. Paulsboro dispatched Penns Grove, 33-0, in Group 1, and Sterling beat Buena, 14-7, in Group 2. When the sectional championships are played on Dec.

5, the Colonial will be the only league in the seven-county South Jersey area with more than one team in the finals. No league has come close to the Colonial's cumulative playoff record of 40-26 since the playoffs began in 1974. Tbje next best record belongs to the Burlington County League Lib I.