Archive for November, 2011

Wednesday night, the amateurs took center stage at St. Lucy’s in Campbell for the Bob Roth Memorial Boxing Tournament.  Jack Loew has put a lot of time and effort into the show as a tribute to Roth.  The card was very entertaining and featured the emergence of Popo Salinas as maybe the next big thing for Youngstown sports notoriety nationally.  In front of a good crowd, there were nine other bouts besides the Salinas Main Event that deserve mention.

In the opening bout, Keith Bebbs of Youngstown squared off against Delorane Gray of Cleveland in a battle of 152-pounders.  Gray caught Bebbs in both the first and second rounds with short hooks that floored Bebbs.  After a standing eight count later in the second, the fight was stopped and Gray was declared the winner via TKO.

The next fight featured a pair of 175-pound fighters. Laquan Brooks of Youngstown and Josh Fisher, who represented Columbus.  Fisher caught Brooks in the second round with a sharp right.  Brooks never full recovered and tried to continue, but after a standing eight count, the referee made a good decision and stopped the one-sided fight from continuing.  Fisher picks up the win with a second round TKO.

Lavell Headley of Youngstown faced Ron Hicks of Cleveland in a 155-pound contest.  Near the end of the first round, Hadley knocked Hicks down, but the bell rang and he did not have time to finish.  Hadley again floored Hicks in the second round, this time he did have clock to work with as he unloaded a barrage of offense until the ref stopped the fight.

In surprisingly one of the best technical fights of the night, Carrie Foil, fighting out of Loew’s Southside Boxing Club lost a three round decision to Christy Lacy of Cleveland (above).  It was classic cat and mouse boxing as Foil was using good footwork to avoid taking too many punches.  Lacy did most of the chasing, and probably landed a few more punches on her way to victory.  Foil used a nice jab, especially in the third round, but the more experienced Lacy hit a few combinations to get the nod.

The most entertaining fight of the night was a 152-pound contest between Kewan Griffin of Youngstown and Anthony Blane of Columbus.  Both fighters emerged from their corners swinging.  Midway through the opening round, a charging Griffin was given a WWE back-body drop (top photo) and Blane had a point deducted.  Griffin was the better fighter in the first round.  However, in the second round, Griffin landed a couple of haymakers, scored a couple of knockdowns, and left no doubt who the winner was.

Vic Toney representing Youngstown, and Russell Scott of Cleveland had a good fight at 165.  Both fighters were pretty technically sound and seemed to have split the first two rounds (that of course through my eyes, and I am not a boxing judge).  Toney used a couple of big flurries in the third and final round to pick up the decision.

In other fights, Ali-Abu Gouman of Youngstown lost a decision to Romeo Rodriguez in a 60-pound, battle of young four-footers. Mike Fisher of Columbus fell to AJ Materna via decision in a 180-pound match.  Lucian Clinkscale of Youngstown challenged Romeo Hernandez of Cleveland.  Hernandez separated himself on his way to a decision victory when he sent Scott to the canvas with a solid body blow that drew an eight count.

Loew saw the show as a tribute to a friend, and a success.  “Bob Roth was the type of guy that bugged the hell out of the sports people about boxing.  He kept it going.  We were good friends, and it is the least I could do for a guy like that.  It was a good crowd.  People might look around tonight and say that it wasn’t as crowded as the Saxon Club in years past, but here we set up 520 chairs and it was quite full, we could only set 300 chairs up at the Saxon Club.”

The Youngstown State University Lady Penguins took the floor at home for the first time this season.  Playing in their fourth game of the year, and coming in with a 2-1 record (33% of last years win total), the Penguins fell to American University of the Patriot League, 48-41.  It was a struggle on offense for the ‘Guins from start to finish.

“It is early in the year and the offense we run takes time”, said Coach Bob Boldon.  “Nobody is more frustrated than me.  The only thing we didn’t miss was a half court shot.  If you are going to compete and win games against good teams, you have to shoot better.”

In the first half, American raced out to an eleven point lead with seven minutes to play.  Youngstown State cut the lead back to five points by intermission and trailed 25-20.  Brandi Brown, the Horizon League Preseason Player of The Year, and Devan Matkin each scored six for the Penguins in the opening stanza.

In the second half, the Penguins reeled off the first five points to make the score 26-25.  The home team surged ahead at the 13:11 mark of the second half, taking a 28-27 lead, their first since it was 2-0 a minute into the game. Tieara Jones got an offensive rebound and battled through three Eagles to get the lead for the Penguins.  At the 10:31 mark, Monica Touvelle hit a three to open a two-point lead for YSU.

The Penguins really struggled on offense, shooting 27.8% from the floor, 18.5% from three, and 50% from the line.

“Defensively, we are getting a little better each game.  Offensively, we seem to be getting worse each game”, noted Boldon.  “We were swapping four players at a time because we are out of shape.  I do like our depth, it gives us the freedom to make more moves, and we will continue to play a lot of people.

With YSU trailing 36-35 and 5:44 left in the game, Heidi Schlegel was fouled on a steal but missed both of the free throws.  To that point in the game, the ‘Guins were just 2-8 from the charity stripe.  Brown hit a shot with 3:40 left in the game to give the Penguins a one point lead.  Lisa Strack went to the line for American and hit both ends of the one-and-one to put the Eagles back in front by a point.

Dobbs connected for three to stretch the Eagles lead to 41-37 with 2:16 left in the contest.  Kenya Middlebrooks got to the line and hit a pair of free throws to cut the Eagles lead to two at 41-39 with 1:34 remaining.  Arron Zimmerman then hit a three-pointer to hoist American into a five point lead with 1:14 left to go.

Brown finished the game with 14 points, one short of the 1,000 point career mark, and 9 rebounds for the Penguins (2-2). Matkin and Middlebrooks finished with six points each.  The Penguins committed 21 turnovers in the loss.

Dobbs gathered 14 points for the Eagles. Stephanie Anya gathered 10 rebounds.  The Eagles had 25 turnovers, but the Penguins only scored 15 points off of those chances.

The Penguins head west to compete in a holiday tournament, which Boldon addressed with mixed emotions.  “It is nice in the sense that Brandi and Macey will get a chance to play in front of their families.  Obviously, I would rather spend the holidays with my family at home, but it is nice to allow their families to see them play.”

Dannie Williams got a taste of media exposure a couple of months ago fighting on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.  Since then Williams has been busy getting ready for his first appearance on HBO Boxing, set for January.  Over the last couple of months, Williams has not only been busy training, but also recently signed a deal with Lou DiBella.  The deal with DiBella will hoist Williams to a higher level, perhaps the highest, in his quest for greater national recognition.

Friday in St. Charles, Missori, Williams scored a second round TKO over John Willoughby with a devastating second round knockout.  With the win, Williams improved to 19-1 with 15 KO’s and is sneaking up the lightweight rankings, now recognized as the ninth best in the weight class by Boxrec.com.

Jack Loew talked briefly about the win Friday.  “Dannie looked really good.  The fight served as a tune-up for the HBO bout scheduled for early next year.  I think the guy he beat, Willoughby, injured his leg while falling to the canvas when he got knocked out.  Dannie is ready for what is next.”

Loew has had a hectic week.  He was with Williams in Missouri Friday, flew home to be in the corner of Juan Salinas and Marco Hall at the Lights Out Promotions card at St. Lucy’s on Saturday, and has the Bob Roth Amateur Show on Wednesday night to prepare for.

Last season, the Youngstown State women lost one senior, Boki Dimitrov.  Not downplaying her accomplishments by any means, but the Lady Penguins retained most of their productive core, and then some.  Last season, Brandi Brown became the first player in Horizon League history to lead the league in scoring and be kept off of the All-Conference First Team.  Two years ago, the Horizon League gave Yar Shayok of Detroit the Horizon League Newcomer of The Year hardware despite Brown having better statistics.

Fast forward to November, 2011.  Brown has been named the conference preseason Player of The Year.  In some sports, when an official blows a call, they sometimes give the team that feels cheated a makeup call, or a call favorable to chide the whining.  Two problems with all of that.  One.  Brown and Boldon have not whined about any of it. Two.  Brown deserves the recognition, it was the league voting failures of the past that make me nervous about what they base these choices on.

In another brainy move, the voters picked this year’s Penguins team to finish tenth (out of ten) in the preseason league poll.  So now we have the best player – who didn’t make the first team last season, playing for the predicted worst team despite the torrid run at season’s end in February.  Who votes?  Can I get a name? A number?  Anything?

“Obviously, they think that she [Brown] is the best player in the conference,” said Coach Boldon.  “Either they think that I can’t coach or that her teammates can’t play.  It will take care of itself in January and February, we have to keep working to get better today.  We played two scrimmages and shot well, Brandi was not the top scorer in either of them.  She is not selfish, she understands the game, and wants the team to succeed.  Others can score just because Brandi is on the floor.”

“This team has higher aspirations than last years team”, noted Boldon.  “We know we still have a ways to go before we can get to the goals we have set for this year.  We are going to try to win every game we play.  Last season, we played that way toward the end of the year.  Before that, we got content by a win here or there.”

Brown was more politically correct with her answers to these questions.

“It is disappointing to see that they predicted we would finish last”, said Brown. “It just fuels us and gives us motivation to work harder.  Last year we won six games, we know what it takes to win now.  There is nothing other than winning that we want.  Moral victories do not show in the standings.  I believe in my teammates and know that we all want to win.”

“Regardless of whatever accolades people decide to give me, the team comes first.  It is nice and I am humbled to be picked by the conference, but make no mistake about it, this team wants to win games.”

Durrell Richardson had been out of boxing for 25 months.  He was working at the Olive Garden when something got him thinking about a return to the sport of boxing.  Although it took over two years, he notched a win to go to 13-3.  The win did not come easy against Michael Walker, a cagy veteran who fought Kelly Pavlik in amateur tournaments years ago.

It took Richardson about half of the first round to lose the ring rust.  He stunned Walker in both the second and third rounds en rout to a four round unanimous decision.  The judges scored the fight 40-36, 39-37, and 39-37.

“The hardest thing for me was keeping my weight down”, said Richardson.  “Even with the weight loss, I felt good tonight.  My jab was working for me and he never really hurt me.  Give him [Walker] credit, he came to fight, and I am glad it was like that.”

Under the watchful eye of Sam Calderone, Richardson says he will stay active and is looking for more.

Jake Giuriceo came into his Universal Boxing Organization Championship Fight against Bryne Green in top shape.  When the ten round fight ended, Giuriceo was still fresh and full of energy.  The Bull has the conditioning regimen of a champion, now he has a belt to go with it.  In a unanimous decision, Giuriceo garnered his first piece of hardware and can now be referred to as a champion in boxing circles.

“I knew we had to go ten rounds tonight,”said Giuriceo.  “Frankie [Duarte] told me ‘you have ten rounds to work this kid‘.  I came on stronger and stronger with each round.  I felt like my left hand was going to work tonight.  It is amazing to be a champion, I don’t know where I would be.  I can’t thank God enough for the people he has put in my life, the way he has orchestrated my team, it is really amazing.”

The Welterweight bout started off with a typical first round of two fighters trying to dictate the pace.  Both Giuriceo and Green established they could jab.  In the second and third round, it almost seemed like a contest of who could control the pace.  Green was effectively counterpunching Giuriceo, but The Bull was throwing, and landing, jabs with good accuracy in piling up at least two of the first three rounds.

In the middle rounds, Giuriceo started working the body and using uppercuts to stop Green from covering up his face with both gloves.  As the fight progressed, it became obvious that Giuriceo was not tiring, not in the least.  To start the fourth round, I would estimate that Giuriceo threw at least 30 punches in the first minute.  Constant motion and deception mixed in between every punch.

The ninth and tenth rounds were new territory in Giuriceo’s career.  Stamina will never be a problem for The Bull.  As this fight went on, somehow his energy level seemed to continue rising with each passing round.  The tenth round was Giuriceo’s best of the fight.  A fair estimation was about a 3:1 ratio of punches thrown in favor of Giuriceo.

After the fight, Giuriceo was handed the belt that his 14 wins have earned him.  The jubilant, newly crowned champion was ecstatic and did a little in-ring announcing of his future plans.

“I am going to take some time off and marry my fiance, Jackie Mazias.  We are going to get married on May 20, and I am going to be a very happy man.  There are rumors that I might be on an ESPN show early next year, but I don’t like to spread rumors.”

Giuriceo told me after the fight that his wedding reception would be at St. Lucy’s, the same venue that this fight took place in.  The wedding itself will take place at Giuriceo’s church, Metro Assembly.

“I might wear the belt to the wedding.”

“I talked in the locker room before the fight about the sparring I had in California”, said Giuriceo.  “I worked with Ponce de Leon, John John Molina, and many other great fighters.  There was no way I was going to come here tonight and lose to this kid.  I was hoping for an easier night, couldn’t finish maybe the way I wanted to.  I felt excellent during every round, I felt like I won every round.  I even think the scoring was a little off, except for the one judge who had me losing only one round.”

The official scoring for the fight was 99-91, 96-94, and 97-93, all for Jake Giuriceo.

“I feel like I landed some great shots tonight.  I can hear the noises as I punch, the grunts and groans.  I just have to learn to be more accurate.  My opponent tonight was tough, he just upset an undefeated fighter in his very last fight.  He came here to win this belt tonight. If I had to grade my performance, I would say I get a B+, the only reason it isn’t an ‘A’ is because I thought I could have stayed closer to him longer, making it more of a Giuriceo type fight. I let him off a little and I shouldn’t have.”

Joe Corvino, the multi-tasking leader, has something in Giuriceo that few find.  A pure marketability that this sport needs right now.  The handlers, Giuriceo, and Corvino will all be sure to strike while the iron is hot.  Keith Burnside and Duarte will continue to physically shape him.  His bride-to-be will help keep his emotions in check.  God will continue to be the battery that propels him.

For Jake Giuriceo, UBO Champion, the iron has never been hotter.

Jack Loew was mystified when Juan Salinas lost his first professional fight at the Covelli Centre in August.  Loew did not make excuses knowing that an 18-year old kid might have growing pains going from the ranks of amateur to pro.  Saturday, Salinas, now 1-1, erased all doubts against David Burns in knockout fashion.

“Last fight, I was too anxious and too excited”, said Salinas.  “This time I was a little more patient and studied my opponent.  I saw openings and took them, I would hit him in the body and later was using an uppercut after the body shots.  This bout will give me some experience, I’m still getting used to fighting without headgear on.”

Seconds, and I mean, just a few seconds, after the bell rang to start the fight, Salinas floored Burns with a left hook.  The rest of the first round, Burns was off-balance and wildly chasing Salinas around.  Salinas got some good rights off and scored several big shots by the end of the round.

“The kid is only 18 and still has a lot to learn”, remarked Loew.  “He made a young fighter’s mistake in the second when he abandoned boxing and just started slugging.  As a heavyweight, you become free game when you do that, one punch can end the fight at anytime.”

In the second round, Salinas took a couple of shots early and all boxing was thrown out the window.  The two winless fighters threw all they had at each other, no jabs, all haymakers in what shaped into a war.  By the end of the second round, Jack Loew’s fighter was woozy, but Burns was gassed as well.

In the third round,  the fighters slowed a little and the ref gave Burns a standing eight count about two minutes into a round of straight punishment from Salinas.  The fight was stopped less than thirty seconds later, 2:18 into the round, and Salians evened his pro record at 1-1 with a win.

Marco Hall entered his fight 1-0 with 1 KO.  Roberto Harris was testing the waters of pro boxing for the first time.  Harris may want to seek career alternatives after the shots he caught from Hall in a first round knockout.

“Jack [Loew] has me going in the right direction”, said Hall after the fight.  “I have the luxury of being the main sparring partner for Dannie Williams, so I feel like I am always learning something.  We have pretty good chemistry and work well together.”

In the first round, Hall established his jab and worked from the center of the ring out.  Hall knocked Harris down just over a minute of the first round, connecting with a good right.  About thirty seconds later, Harris wildly lunged toward Hall and paid the price.

Harris could not answer the count and the ref put a halt to the fight at the  mark of the first round.

With the win, Hall improved to 2-0 as a professional with two knockouts.  Under the watchful eye of Jack Loew, look for bigger things in the career of Marco Hall.

Somewhere around 3 p.m., Missouri State scored their second touchdown of the third quarter to cut Youngstown State‘s lead to 27-24.  At the same time, Northern Iowa had just kicked a field goal to force overtime at the end of regulation against Illinois State.  YSU, meanwhile, was trying to take care of business, knowing that if they could not beat Missouri State, something they had not been able to do for the past several seasons, the outcome of any other games would not matter.  The Penguins seemed to have control of the game until they gave up some big plays in the last minute, to fall, 38-34, to Missouri State.

“We got two first downs, but we needed three”, said Kurt Hess.  “This is rough, it was an emotional game.  It hurts, but I hope that we can learn from it and that it will make the team better.  I don’t think it was a successful season because the goal was to live up to a standard of making the playoffs and winning championships, and we failed to do that.  Pain is pain.  Last year we got used to losing like this every week .  This year we got on a roll and played with more confidence, it is different, but again, pain is pain.”

Early on, the Penguins marched 80 yards in 11 plays to grab a 7-0 lead.  Linebacker-turned-TE, Will Shaw caught a pass from Kurt Hess for a ten-yard score.  The game opening drive took 6:29 and the Penguins established the fact that they were ready to play, no flat start this week.

Trevor Wooden and Missouri State seemed up to the challenge as they retaliated with a 61 yard drive that tok eight plays.  Wooden, who was a force to be reckoned with all day, started his havoc through the air finding Cadarrius Dotson for a 16-yard strike to tie the contest.  The Penguins struck back quick as Hess found Shaw again, this time on a 52-yard hookup with a post pattern.  At the end of the first quarter, Youngstown State led 14-7.

After the Bears got a 29-yard field goal from Austin Wittmer, the ‘Guins went back to work.  A drive that lasted six plays and went 54 yards was punctuated by a Hess-to-Christian Bryan score on an 18 yard play.  With the score, the Penguins went ahead 20-10.  After an interception by Jeremy Edwards set YSU up in Southern Missouri territory again.  The opportunistic Penguins took advantage of the situation and punched another score in just before halftime.  Hess threw his fourth touchdown of the half, this time finding Jelani Berassa for a twelve-yard completion to make it 27-10.

In the second half, Missouri State proved they would not go away without a fight.  Wooden took the game over from his quarterback position and kept running for positive yards, first downs, and eventually two touchdowns (45, 3) to pull the Bears back into the game at 27-24.

At 3:20 p.m., Hess threw his fifth touchdown of the game, a school record for touchdowns in a game, finding Kevin Watts for a five-yard touchdown.  Hess also set a record for touchdowns in a season with 26.  He joined Mark Brungard and Trenton Lykes as the only quarterbacks to throw for more than 2,000 yards in a season, twice. It also marked the 13th time in 22 career starts that Hess had thrown for over 200 yards in a game.  Heckler note:  Sophomore Captain?  Answer:  All day…

At 3:31 p.m., Northern Iowa defeated Illinois State, 23-20 in 2 OT, meaning with a win, Youngstown State had better odds of making the postseason FCS Playoffs.  However, at 3:33 p.m., Missouri State scored a touchdown to shrink the Penguins lead to 34-31 with 6:28 left in the game.

With the Penguins taking over the next possession at their own 31, something Eric Wolford had wanted to see happen all year sort of took place.  The offense set out to finish the game by running the ball, chewing the clock, and ending things.  After two first downs, the Penguins were forced to punt.  Missouri State went to block the punt, narrowly missing, but the return set them up on their own 40.  In two plays, the Bears got to YSU’s 36 with 1:32 to go in the game.  A second-and-one, and a third-and-one, both failed to produce a first down.  On fourth down, Wooden snuck around left end for the first down.

After an incompletion, with :25 left in the game, Wooden found Robert Fields at the two yard line with :18 remaining for a 30-yard completion.  With ten seconds left in the game, Wooden found Dotson on a corner fade, and the Bears stunned everyone with their fourth touchdown of the second half to take a 41-37 lead with ten seconds left.  YSU got the ball back and ran two plays but were unable to score and ultimately fell, thus ending their playoff hopes.

“It was the worst loss I have ever experienced in my football career”, said DL Andrew Johnson.  “We did not take them lightly, and they didn’t do anything different in the second half.  We should have won, and we should be in the playoffs right now.  It was not a successful season because we did not accomplish our goals.”

Eric Wolford (above), in his second season with the Penguins, had plenty to say after the game.

“We did not deserve to win this game today.  We committed several foolish penalties and our kickoff and punt coverages were atrocious.”

“It’s tough for the seniors to go out like this”, said Wolford.  “A lot of them [the seniors] really didn’t even play that much, but they were always supporting whoever was playing. We have grown to some extent.  We need more consistency.  The games we have lost, we are losing by what – three, four points.  We are in the games and are competitive, now we have to be able to handle the pressure at crunch time.”

Give Wolford and these players credit.  Some wrote them off five weeks ago when they sat at 2-3.  To pretty much control your own destiny after defeating the #1 ranked team says a lot about a couple of things Wolford has stressed – character and dealing with adversity.  Congratulations Penguins on a very exciting season.  Good luck seniors in whatever path life may take you.

The above picture would not say much if you just looked at it. The person shooting is Kendrick Perry, a Youngstown State standout.  He is something to see, always gives me something to write about and makes me say ‘wow’ at least once a game.

In a 53-49 win on Friday night, Perry put up subpar numbers.  He was 2-13 from the field, 0-5 from three-point land, and made 6-10 free throws, but missed three in overtime.

Back to the picture. This was taken a half hour after the game.  Perry wheeled the rebounding machine out and shot free throws for about an hour.  The gym was pretty well empty and I was so inspired by his dedication to do more, again, that I had to post the picture tonight.  Most players were happy to get the win, had their box of pizza, and were headed back to the dorms.  The last thing on Perry’s mind was pizza.

Perry might still be at the Beeghly Center, maybe he stopped to eat some of his pizza, but I would bet until he makes 100 or 1,000 or whatever number he has in his mind, he isn’t going to leave.  I’m thinking about driving back, now two hours after the game ended to bring the guy a Gatorade. You will not find many kids playing college sports with this kind of work ethic.

About a half hour into the unscheduled shooting practice, YSU Coach Jerry Slocum slowly walked, trying to mask a proud smile, toward Perry to talk with him (above).  Slocum has bragged about the sophomore’s work ethic in the past, but to me, seeing was believing.  After about a five minute chat, Slocum headed out, Perry put the earbuds back in and started shooting free throws.  I left about twenty minutes after that, even waved to Perry.  It was surreal to me that a sophomore in college would want to get better this much after his team won a game.

In an interview conducted earlier this year, Slocum marveled at some of the things that Perry has done to get better.

“I went to breakfast early one Saturday, and wanted to stop by my office before I worked out”, recalled Slocum.  “Nobody knew I was coming, but when I opened the door of the gym and heard a ball bouncing, I was in awe to see KP shooting, doing whatever he could to make himself a better player, without being told to.  Here is a kid who elected to wake up early on a Saturday morning and shoot without being told.  That is the attitude of a winner.”