LOCAL
L AWRENCE J OURNAL -W ORLD
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
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Lions soccer foiled on Senior Night, 1-0 By Jesse Newell jnewell@ljworld.com
Coming into Tuesday night’s game, Lawrence High coach Mike Murphy believed his players had more strength and size in the box than Shawnee Mission Northwest. Unfortunately for the Lions, that edge failed to produce a goal in a 1-0 loss to the Cougars on a chilly night at LHS. “We just couldn’t take advantage of our set pieces,” Murphy said. “We had a number of opportunities, whether it was restarts or corner kicks. We just couldn’t quite put one in.” In an unusual game that featured double-digit yellow cards and postgame jersey-popping in front of the LHS student section by a Shawnee Mission Northwest player afterward, LHS found it difficult to produce good scoring chances against a stingy Cougars defense. The main issue? LHS could advance the ball on the perimeter but had issues getting it back toward the net. “Every time we’d get the ball over there and tried to get that cross,” Murphy said, “they were really disciplined about just keeping their feet and saying, ‘You want to hang out over here? Great. We’re just not going to let you put it into the box.’
LAWRENCE HIGH SENIOR FORWARD HUNTER KELLEY PUSHES THE BALL UPFIELD between Shawnee Mission Northwest players Sam Nobrega (14) and Von Schnorf (1) during the first half on Tuesday at LHS. The Lions lost, 1-0. For more photos from the game, go online to LJWorld.com/highschool. That’s what we want to do, and they did a nice job of preventing us from doing that.” Northwest scored its only goal in the 19th minute as, off a deflection, Collin Jones made his way behind the defense and finished his shot with the outside of his right foot. “I know it’s a good team, but one goal shouldn’t beat us,” Murphy said. “We should be able to get a goal to keep that close and maybe send it into overtime to see what we can do.” LHS’s defense stood strong most of the night,
BRIEFLY LHS volleyball 0-3 at Hayden TOPEKA — Lawrence High’s volleyball team went 0-3 in a quadrangular Tuesday at Topeka Hayden. The Lions fell to Hayden, 25-19, 25-20, Washburn Rural, 25-22, 25-9, and Manhattan, 25-19, 25-20.
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With one round of chalk talk already in the books, KU’s second-year coach seemed pleased with the new format. “(Monday) was probably the most refreshing day I’ve had in quite some time,” Weis said. “Because there was a much greater exchange of offensive ideas than there’s been since I’ve been here.” As for what he thought of his staff’s first attempt at cobbling together the game plan for this week’s match-up with No. 18 Oklahoma, Weis reverted to his jokester self. “The ideas were good,” he said. “Now, of course I shot a lot of them down. I can’t make ‘em feel that good. But I’d say the foundation of what we’re doing (this week) came from (those guys). ... I have to make sure that I let them do their job, and not sit there and say, ‘No, no, no, no.’ That’s the toughest part for me, but I think it’s the only way for us to get better.” As Weis steps back from the coordination of KU’s offense, he plans to balance out the move by stepping up during dayto-day preparations. “I’m gonna get much more involved in the coaching of the skill positions, which I think has been lacking,” he said. “I’m not pushing any coaches aside, I’m just getting more involved in all the skill positions and letting Ron and Jeff worry about the nuts and bolts.” That means Weis will spend more time in drills with players during practice and more time in meeting rooms with the various offensive positions, all of which he coached in the NFL at one time or another. “(That’s) a good thing for me,” he said. “It’s not
For LHS, Marlee Bird had 23 assists and 14 digs, Kyleigh Severa had 20 assists, Caitlin Broadwell had 18 kills and 15 digs, and Keeli Billings had eight kills, Jess Lemus had 26 digs, and Marly Carmona had 13 digs. The Lions (12-16) will play Saturday at Emporia. a good thing for them. Because there’s different levels of hard coaching and mine is cranked up to the full gear.” Weis has faith in both Powlus and Blasko because of what they have proven during their time working with him. “I’ve always believed that our offense runs through the quarterback,” Weis said. “And no one knows what our quarterbacks can and can’t do any better than Ron.” Of Blasko, he added: “(At Florida) he was with me 24/7. I never could get rid of the guy. I worked from early to late, and he was there with me every second. He was like a sponge. He’s the guy who knew how I think better than anybody.” While Weis’ move heaps more responsibility on the shoulders of his assistants, neither seemed anything other than excited about the opportunity to get more involved. “For me, I always have that same motivation to get it right,” Blasko said. “It’s obviously a great opportunity to have this responsibility but, at the end of the day, I want to do everything I can to help this program move in the right direction.” Added Powlus: “We’re all in this together and we’re all doing anything we can to make progress. And I don’t think there’s any (better) example than coach Weis doing this. Clearly there’s no ego involved. This is all about how do we create some success, how do we make progress, how do we move forward? And I think it’s commendable. It’s impressive.”
Cozart listed Freshman quarterback Montell Cozart’s name appeared on the depth chart for the first time this season, listed as a secondstring option with Michael Cummings behind Jake Heaps.
helped by a starting lineup that featured nine seniors on the Lions’ final home game of the year (senior Ian Gabel was out with injury). Hunter Kelley, Donovan Barr, Amos Rel, Jack Clark and Vincent Barker were among those seniors that started both halves. “They’ve been working hard and earning some playing time, so we got them some tonight, which we always try to do on Senior Night,” Murphy said. “I thought those guys played really well.” Murphy also left happy with his team’s fight against Northwest (10-4).
“When we’re into the game, we can be a really strong competitor,” Kelley said, “and we have a chance at doing some good things.” LHS was outshot by Northwest, 11-5. “We had plenty of opportunities on restarts,” Murphy said. “That’s just something we’re going to keep working on in practice, and hopefully, we can take advantage of that when we get in the later stages of the season and into the playoffs.” The Lions (5-7-1) will play at Shawnee Mission South on Thursday.
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
LAWRENCE HIGH SENIOR FORWARD CALE BERTRAND GETS A HEAD ABOVE Shawnee Mission Northwest defender Patrick Shreve during the first half on Tuesday at LHS.
KU men’s golf places ninth in Indiana J-W Staff Reports
CARMEL, IND. — Kansas University freshman Chase Hanna carded his second straight 74 on Tuesday in the final round of the Crooked Stick Intercollegiate. Hanna finished tied for 17th place as the Jayhawks placed ninth Many have speculated that Cozart was headed toward a red-shirt season, but with more than half of the year remaining and the KU offense struggling, Weis said he saw no reason to eliminate Cozart from the list of possible solutions. “If a kid can be Cozart involved for half the season, sometimes it makes him that much more prepared to play the next season,” Weis said. “I would not put him on depth chart if he wasn’t a legitimate candidate to play this week. Right from the fall I told you that I’m really high on Montell, and I’m really high on Montell.”
Injury update Injured Jayhawks Ben Heeney (knee), Tony Pierson (concussion), Andrew Turzilli (ankle) Randall Dent (unknown) and Tedarian Johnson (unknown) all were listed as day-to-day on KU’s latest depth chart, and Weis said the fact that they appeared at all indicated they had a chance to play this week. “I wouldn’t bet on that,” Weis said. “But, with every one of those guys, they’re not as bad as I thought they were or they’re not as good as they thought they were.” The news on Pierson seemed to be the best. Weis said the junior running back, who leads KU in receiving yards and receptions, had passed his concussion test but still was dealing with headaches. “He could be not symptomatic tomorrow and he could play this week,” Weis said. “If they were gonna be out for an extended period of time, I wouldn’t have ‘em on there.”
in the 14-team, three-day tournament. “We started out pretty well on the first couple of holes,” KU coach Jamie Bermel said. “Then there was a spot where there were a bunch of bees and players were getting stung. It was kind of an odd scenario. Once
again there were a couple bad swings with a couple bad decisions and we are 15 over par. But then we came back on the second nine. They responded and played pretty well.” Kansas sophomores Ben Welle and Jackson Foth, and senior Ryley Haas all carded third-round
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Miller and freshman Emma Barberena went low for digs, while senior Emilee Kern’s passes set up kills for Morgan Knapp, Barberena, Miller, sophomore Allie Knapp and freshman Naomi Hickman. Another obstacle for Free State, coach Nancy Hopkins said, is the team’s youth, as most of the roster has been forced to adjust to not just the varsity level, but playing against talented programs. “We haven’t lost to teams that aren’t good,” Hopkins said. But many of the younger players, she added,
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The good news for KU is a source close to Wiggins’ family told Bleacher Report that his mom, Marita Payne-Wiggins, “has shut all the agents down” and won’t allow them to pitch their services. O Pokes’ coach pokes fun at Wiggins: The Oklahoman said OSU coach Travis Ford was “having some fun” when commenting on the highly hyped Wiggins this week. “Kansas is still the favorite (in Big 12),” Ford said. “Wiggins is, from what I understand, the best player to ever play. I’ve seen him play and he’s really good. They’re still the No. 1 team and should be. They’ve got tons of talent, they’ve got depth, they’ve got the best player to ever play at Kansas and that’s a pretty good deal.” O Oubre tweets prospects: Rivals.com’s No. 12-ranked player in the Class of 2014, Kelly Oubre, who recently
75s. Welle and Foth shot a three-round 233, placing them both in a tie for 48th. Haas’ 75 put him at 236 and a tie for 58th. Junior Logan Philley posted a final-round 79, bringing his score to 236 and placing him in a tie for 58th. Hanna led the way with a 7-over 223.
have yet to reach a point where they aren’t satisfied with only playing well. She wants to see them develop a killer instinct. “That’s something you can’t coach,” Hopkins said. “They either have that habit or they don’t.” After FSHS failed to show much fight in the first match, Miller said they had flashes of the fire with which they need to play against SHHS. “A lot of time we were
giving up on balls,” the senior said. “We didn’t know if we could get to it and when we tried we surprised ourselves.” As the Firebirds continue to adjust, Morgan Knapp said they might as well do so against stiff competition. “I think it makes us better,” she said. “It gives us experience and shows us what other teams are out there, and we strive to be those teams.” Once Hopkins can get the whole team to read the plays their opponents are running, she’ll start to feel better. “It’ll come,” the coach said. “But sometimes it’s frustrating that it’s not coming fast enough.” Free State plays at Bishop Miege on Thursday.
committed to KU, is hoping No. 1-ranked Jahlil Okafor and No. 5 Tyus Jones ultimately join him as Jayhawks next season. He Tweeted “Bucket Team let’s get it,” at the duo on Oct. 10. Okafor and Jones will be making official visits to KU this weekend. They also have Duke, Baylor and Kentucky on their lists. O Vaughn postpones BU trip: No. 7 Rashad Vaughn, a 6-5 senior teammate of Oubre at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada, is postponing a visit to Baylor this weekend, SNY. tv reports. Vaughn will make his first official visit to Iowa State on Nov. 17. He’ll visit UNLV on Nov. 25. He’s also planning trips to KU, Arizona and North Carolina with Minnesota still a possibility. O Withey mania: New Orleans Pelicans rookie center Jeff Withey has received some positive press since Sunday’s performance against Atlanta in which he scored six points with six rebounds and a block in 10 minutes. The New Orleans Times-
Picayune says he outperformed starting center Greg Stiemsma and backup center/forward Arinze Onuaku, who combined to score four points. “When I got on the floor I made the most of it and played like I know how,” former KU pivot Withey told the Times-Picayune. “He’s still learning how to play in our system,” coach Monty Williams told the paper. “He wants to go help (defense) all the time. That can get you in trouble, especially if you come help from the wrong spot. But I liked his activity and I wished he could have finished that one dunk (he missed) when Brian (Roberts) missed a shot. Like most guys, he’s going to be up and down. He’s got to keep working and he does that.” O Rush not ready to go yet: Former KU wing Brandon Rush of the Utah Jazz will have his surgically-repaired knee reevaluated on Oct. 26, the Deseret News reports. He was cleared for contact in September but has not yet been cleared for 5-on-5 scrimmaging.
that it’s not coming fast enough.”
— Free State volleyball coach Nancy Hopkins