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Heritage Media January 27, 2011

River Rats rejoice

GENERAL
ADMISSION

Huron boys and girls

MIKE LARSON basketball teams defeat
Pioneer in rivalry games
Can By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
said. “We lost this game last
season, and I thought our

River
Last season, the Pioneer
boys’ basketball team came
into the Green House at
team responded well.”
Conversely, Pioneer head
coach Rex Stanczak said his
team couldn’t have played

Rats be
Huron and defeated the River
Rats on their own court.
On Friday night, Huron
made sure there wouldn’t be
much worse on defense.
“Our defense just didn’t show
up in the third quarter,”
Stanczak said. “Huron played

beat?
a repeat performance of the well and ran the offense we
2010 affair. knew that they would. But
Huron hosted cross-town we missed a lot of switches
rival Pioneer, and the River and we missed some slips and
By Mike Larson Rats took it to the Pioneers, (Huron) took advantage.”
A2 Journal winning 60-44. With the win, Huron

I
“Last improves to 8-1
t’s hard for me to pinpoint year we let on the season,
the exact moment that I up and they “Last year we let up while Pioneer
realized the Huron basket- came in here falls to 7-2.
ball team was unstoppable. and beat and they came in Huron’s
us,” Huron Dante Williams
It might have been
last year during the Class A senior Kyle here and beat us. was the game’s
Baker said. high scorer
quarterfinals against Saginaw
Arthur Hill when, trailing the “We weren’t We weren’t going to with 14 points,
going to let while Baker
Lumberjacks by double digits
with less than five minutes to that happen let that happen added 10. Other
again.” River Rat scor-
go, Huron came back and won
the game 63-58. In the first again.” ers were Mike
It might have been ear- half, the KYLE BAKER Lewis and A.J.
lier this season when the team game was Mathew with
close as both Huron senior nine points,
defeated Detroit Cass Tech and
then followed the victory up teams played Andre Bond
with a win over Dayton (Ohio) well. and Matt Hastings with six,
Dunbar (last year’s Division II In fact, as the half ended, Jeff Hugan with four and
state champion). it looked as if Pioneer was Jesse Buchsbaum with two.
One thing is certain though, going to take the momentum. Pioneer was led by
the Pioneer basketball fans In the final seconds of the Jeremiah Strode who scored
seemed to realize that Huron second quarter, Pioneer’s 10 points and James Kelly
was unstoppable on Friday Darien Hill slammed down a with nine.
when the River Rats defeated huge dunk to make the score “It’s a big win for us,”
the Pioneers 60-44. 27-24 in favor of Huron. Lewis said. “We knew we
The reaction of the Pioneer However, when the game needed this one, and we
fans seemed to pinpoint the started again after the break, got it. I thought we did a
realization to a possession in it was Huron who took over. great job of playing like a
the third quarter. The River Rats went on team and getting everyone
After trailing Huron by just a 22-5 run in the quarter to involved. Overall, I was just
three points at the half, it looked take a 49-29 lead as the fourth really happy with the way we
as if the two teams were pretty quarter started. played.”
equal. Huron never looked back Both teams will be back in
However, the Pioneer crowd after that, cruising to a big action and on the road tomor-
was silenced in the third quar- win. row with SEC showdowns as
ter. “We came out and did a Huron will travel Saline and
The particular possession lot of good things and I was Pioneer will go to Bedford.
that seemed to kill the Pioneer happy with the effort,” Huron Mike Larson can be Photo by Jonathan Knight/A2 JOURNAL

fans had Huron’s Andre Bond head coach Waleed Samaha reached by email at Huron’s A.J. Mathew goes up for a shot while Pioneer’s Jimmy Holman tries to make a block.
Mlarson@A2Journal.com. On Friday the two rival teams met at Huron, and the host team won, 60-44.
bring the ball up the floor and

Huron girls’ use depth to outlast Pioneer

pass it to Mike Lewis. Lewis
swung the ball around the
perimeter to teammate Matt
Hastings in the corner.
Hastings spotted up, and let
go of a high, arching shot that
splashed silently through the
net.
Huron fans roared, Pioneer
fans looked around at one
another, seemingly dumb-
founded.
Their mouths were quiet, but
their faces said it all.
When are they going to miss?
They can’t keep this up forever,
right?
But we beat them here last
year!
Hastings’ three-pointer was
part of a 22-5 run the River Rats
had in the third quarter of the
game.
Huron’s dominance isn’t new.
This story isn’t groundbreak-
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Going into Friday night’s game against Pioneer, the
Huron River Rats girls’ basketball team had been less
than impressive.
“We have to play better,” Huron coach Steve
Vinson said after the team’s game against Chelsea on
Tuesday. “We have to do a better job. We are learning,
but if we want to be successful in this league, we have
to focus more.”
On Friday, the River Rats did plenty of focusing.
They also did plenty of scoring as the team defended
its home floor against rival Ann Arbor Pioneer.
The River Rats defeated the Pioneers, one of the
better teams in the Southeastern Conference Red,
winning 63-50 at the Riverdome.
The game started out as many expected it to, with
Pioneer’s Kamilah Carter taking control.
The senior guard scored six quick points in the
first few possessions to give Pioneer an early edge.
However, the River Rats would not be contained.
Huron used a strong defense, as well as an offensive
prowess that has not been seen from the team so far
this season.
Huron had 16 assists against just nine turnovers,
something Vinson was very happy with.
“That’s the way you take care of the ball,” he said.
“When you play like that, you give yourself the oppor-
tunity to beat anyone.”
Plagued by injury, Pioneer was relegated to playing
with a short bench, as the team only had 10 players
available.
Pioneer coach Crystal Westfield said her team defi-
nitely felt the effects.
“It hurts us when we can’t go deep, so we got tired,”
Westfield said.
The game was tight into the second quarter, but
Huron soon took control.
Huron senior Kelcy Barott scored eight consecutive
points to make the score go from 16-16 to 24-16 in a
heartbeat.
The senior finished the game with 17 points and
seven rebounds.
By halftime, Huron held a 35-29 lead and the River
Rats held the Pioneers to just 21 points the rest of the
way.
Carter was the leading scorer in the game with
20 points, while Pioneer teammate Maya Richmond
added 15 points. Megan Schectman scored nine and
Janese Honeycutt added seven.
For Huron, Devin Tally scored 13 points, Bianca
Williams added 10 and Christina Allen scored five
points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
The two teams will meet again at Pioneer on Feb.
25.
Mike Larson can be reached by email at
Mlarson@A2Journal.com.

Revenge is sweet
ing.
But, like me and the Pioneer
fans, a lot of people are starting
to take notice of the fact that

for Saline skaters

when the Huron basketball
team shoots well, they cannot
be beaten.
“As important as defense
is, and we stress defense and
rebounding in every single
minute of every practice, you
still got to put that ball through
the hoop,” Huron coach Waleed
Samaha said. “When the ball
goes through the hoop for you,
you get a little more bounce and
a little more energy. There’s a
psychology behind that as well.”
Samaha might be focusing
on psychology, but here is some
simple math: Huron+shooting
well=wins.
That’s it. That is the recipe
for success for the River Rats.
Sure, Huron needs to keep
playing the kind of defense that
has made them a household
PLEASE SEE LARSON/2-B
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
The last time the Saline and
Pioneer hockey teams met, they
had to take the game outside.
The game was played in
December at the Big House
as part of the University of
Michigan’s Big Chill at the Big
House event.
In that particular game, the
Pioneers took down their rival
3-2.
On Saturday though, Saline
got revenge.
The Hornets had a rematch
against the Pioneers, and this
Photo by Jonathan Knight/A2 JOURNAL
time, the game was played
Saline’s Payton Carson closes in on Pioneer goalie Spencer Peck while Saline’s Mike Savage within the confines of the Ann
trails. Saline defeated Pioneer 3-2 on Saturday at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.
Arbor Ice Cube.
Saline won the game 3-2
to take the Southeastern
Conference victory.
The win was a dramatic one
for the Hornets, as the two
teams were tied for most of the
game.
With the score knotted at
2-2 early in the third period,
the Saline skaters got a leg up
on Pioneer when DJ Aben put
the puck past Pioneer goalie
Spencer Peck with about 14
minutes left in the game.
James Olson and Seth Giles
got assists.
The goal proved to be the
game-winner, as Pioneer was
PLEASE SEE REVENGE/2-B
Page 2-B 
Shining from the
Huron’s Mike Lewis avoids the spotlight while becoming
one of the team’s most consistent scoring options
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
I
t’s tough to stand out on
the Huron boys’ basketball
team.
The way the team plays
doesn’t really lend itself to
singling players out.
The River Rats’ defense
is the team’s hallmark, and
Huron is one of the few high
school teams out there that
is able to play effective team
defense.
That means that every
single player has to be play-
ing hard and playing well. It
involves an incredible amount
of skill, and even more trust
to make this kind of defense
successful. And Huron can
do it.
Of course that means that
every player on the Huron
team that steps out on to the
floor must be capable of play-
ing at a high level, and the
defense, when played well, is
entertaining to watch.
But it doesn’t allow anyone
to stand out.
On offense the story is a
little different, but not much.
The little bit of spotlight
that shines on individual
River Rats normally falls on
two players, seniors Dante
Williams and A.J. Mathew.
And the spotlight is well
deserved.
Mathew and Williams are
the leaders of the Huron team,
in most statistical categories
and in the locker room.
The pair makes up the face
of the Huron basketball pro-
gram and both will be playing
Division 1 basketball next
season in college.
In other words, for a team
that prides itself on solidar-
ity, Williams and Mathew are
Bulldogs can’t sink teeth in Huron
By Terry Jacoby
A2 Journal
While last Tuesday night
was the Chelsea boys’ basket-
ball team’s first loss of the
season, it was also confirma-
tion time for the blue and gold.
Despite a 75-61 loss to visiting
Ann Arbor Huron, the Bulldogs
proved they can play with not
only the best in the state, but
the very best in the state.
The visiting River Rats (7-1)
were coming off Saturday’s
61-52 victory over Kalamazoo
Central in a rematch of last
year’s Class A championship
Huron hockey nabs first
first victory of season
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
It took 12 tries, but the Ann
Arbor Huron hockey team
finally got its first win last
Wednesday when the team took get on the board in the first.
down Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.
And, true to form, the River
Rats made
sure to get
their first win “It’s a huge win for
of the season
with some us. We’ve been close
drama.
After now for several
finishing
regulation weeks and now we
tied at 1-1, the
teams entered can start getting our
overtime all
knotted up. confidence back.”
But the
BILL DEGROOT
overtime ses-
sion didn’t Huron hockey coach
last long.
Just 31 seconds into the
extra frame, Huron junior Nick now for several weeks, and now
Sorscher found the puck on the
end of his stick.
The defenseman slapped it
and found the twine.
“The goalie never really saw
it,” Huron coach Bill DeGroot
Thursday, January 27, 2011 • HERITAGE MEDIA/A2 JOURNAL
shadows
two great choices to put at the
forefront of the program.
But, with any truly success-
ful team, it’s often the people
in the shadows that can push
a squad to greatness.
Mike Lewis is one of those
guys.
Lewis, a junior on the
Huron team, unlike team-
mates Williams and Mathew,
didn’t find his name atop any
lists of the best prep basket-
ball players.
However, one list he’s been
pretty high on is the list of
Huron’s top scorers.
In nine games for the River
Rats this season, Lewis has
been one of the top three scor-
ers seven times.
“I’ll tell you, Mike’s doing
a great job of feeling his way
through the offense and about
finding his way through the
offense as well,” Huron coach
Waleed Samaha said. “The
guys on this team do such a
great job of sharing the ball
that it could be anybody on
any given night. Mike’s been
the recipient of it a couple
times. We’ve got a pretty bal-
anced scoring team and that’s
the way I like it.”
Through nine games,
Lewis is averaging 11.8 points
per game, and has scored in
double digits in all but three
contests.
The junior had a bit of a
coming out party on Jan. 18
when the River Rats took on
Chelsea.
Lewis scored 32 points to
help defeat the Bulldogs and
keep the River Rats unde-
feated in the Southeastern
Conference.
The scoring outburst not
only led all scorers in the
PLEASE SEE SHADOWS/3-B
game (won by Central) dur-
ing the Mr. Basketball Martin
Luther King Jr. Classic.
Huron’s up-tempo style, speed
and quickness were at a dif-
ferent speed than Chelsea has
seen this season, which brings
us back to confirming what
the Bulldogs discovered about
themselves Tuesday night.
Chelsea senior Charlie
McCalla came strolling out of
the locker room after the loss,
not with his head down, but
with a smile and a little skip in
his step.
“We knew it was going to
be fast-paced and it was, but I
said. “Nick just put the puck on
the net, and found a way to get
it done.”
Notre Dame Prep opened the
scoring in the second period
after neither team was able to
However, Huron evened up
the score late in the second
period when
Aaron Tisak
took a pass from
Henry Upton
and scored. Rob
Keedy also got
an assist.
Neither team
was able to get
anything going
in the third
period, and the
squads entered
overtime tied
at 1-1.
“It’s a huge
win for us,”
DeGroot said. “We’ve been close
we can start getting our confi-
dence back.”
Huron goalie Gabe Ruel
made 28 saves in the win. Photo by Jonathan Knight/A2 JOURNAL
Mike Larson can be reached Pioneer’s Joe Chronis does battle with Saline’s Colin Cederna on Saturday at the Ann Arbor Ice
by email at Mlarson@A2journal. Cube. Saline won the game 3-2, avenging a loss to PIoneer back in December.
com.
Photo by Burrill Strong/A2 JOURNAL
Huron’s Mike Lews shoots during the River Rats recent game
against Chelsea. Lewis is quietly becoming one of the best
players in the area.
thought we played with them
(Tuesday),” McCalla said. “We
got within four points (in the
fourth quarter) and maybe we
ran out of gas a little. I know
I’m tired. But we proved we can
play with them.
“Now that we know we can
play with the best, we feel we
can play with anyone else in
the state. They are a great
team, and I don’t feel bad los-
ing to a team that talented that
played really well.”
Chelsea coach Robin
Raymond has seen a lot of
PLEASE SEE TEETH/3-B
Huron girls
handle Chelsea
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Whenever teams from the
Southeastern Conference get
together, it is almost surely to
be a physical game.
However, things got downright
ugly Tuesday night when the
Chelsea Bulldogs traveled to
Ann Arbor Huron.
The River Rats heard cheers
from their fans in the waning
seconds as they pulled out a
58-54 win, but for much of the
game, all that could be heard
was whistles.
Both teams combined for more
than 40 fouls, and in the first
half, the teams shot a total of 26 sophomore Bianca Williams,
free throws.
“It was a rough game,” Huron
head coach Steve Vinson said.
“It got ugly out there.”
Despite the physical nature
of the game, Vinson said he
was happy with the way his
team played, as the River Rats
rebounded after a loss on Friday like that more often. We need to
to Bedford.
“We had lots of energy and we
played hard,” he said.
Pioneer girls
shut out Canton
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Playing on the road didn’t
faze the Pioneer girls’ hockey
team last Tuesday when the
squad traveled to Canton.
The Pioneers took on
Plymouth-Canton-Salem
Unified at the Arctic Edge
Arena.
The Ann Arbor team took
advantage of a three-goal sec-
ond period and coasted to a 4-0
win.
Rachel Freeman scored two
goals and added an assist while
finishing the game with a plus-
4 rating.
The Pioneers got on the
board when Claire Kelley
scored the game’s opening goal
LARSON
FROM PAGE 1-B
name among prep basketball
geeks.
And the team can still win
games if it doesn’t shoot well,
but against quality opponents,
the kind of opponents they will
play in March, Huron will need
to keep shooting the lights out.
The River Rats have only one
loss so far this season, and that
came against Romulus.
And while Romulus played
well in that game, Huron missed and chemistry to have the
shot after shot after shot.
It’s true. The team could have game they play, against any and
built and open pit barbeque
with all of the bricks.
There are a lot of teams out
there that have a good chance
to advance in the state tourna-
ment if all of the chips fall into Rats from winning a state cham-
place.
Huron isn’t one of them.
There are teams out there
that could have everything fall
into place, the players could
Huron’s Andre Bond
Huron came out strong in the
first quarter, building a 13-5 lead
with just about two minutes
remaining in the quarter.
In the second quarter, Chelsea
implemented a zone defense to
throw off the River Rats, and it
worked to a certain extent.
Chelsea started to whittle
down the Huron lead, and after
six quick points from junior
Megan Hall, the Bulldogs found
themselves within seven points,
23-16.
By the half, Chelsea trailed by
just five points.
After the break, the River Rats
jumped back out to a big lead.
Riding on the shoulders of
the River Rats made a big push.
Williams scored six points in 28
seconds and teammate Devin
Talley added a quick field goal
as Huron took a 35-22 lead to
open the quarter.
“That was a good spurt,”
Vinson said. “We need to play
find ways to extend those kinds
PLEASE SEE HANDLE/3-B
in the first period. The goal
turned out to be the game-win-
ner.
Kelley also had an assist in
the game.
Emy Guttman had a nice
night for the Pioneers, netting
three points in the contest as
she had a goal and two assists.
Other point getters for
Pioneer were Sammie Silvers
and Beth Johnson, who each
had assists.
Sydney Supica played her
way to her first shuotout of the
season as she made 23 saves in
net.
With the win, Pioneer
improved to 7-4-0.
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2Journal.
com.
play the best game of their
lives, and they would still lose.
Huron isn’t like that.
Huron is special.
If Huron consistently plays
its best game, I don’t believe
there is a team in this state that
can beat them.
Bold prediction?
Perhaps.
Does this mean I think they
should crown Huron state
champions now?
Absolutely not.
I just think that Huron is in
the rare and enviable position
of having the talent, discipline
chance to win every single
all comers.
I firmly believe that the River
Rats can be unstoppable. In fact,
I think there is only one team
that can keep the Huron River
pionship later on this year.
Interestingly enough, that
team is Ann Arbor Huron.
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2Journal.
com.
REVENGE
FROM PAGE 1-B
never able to notch an equalizer.
“They put some great pres-
sure on us at the end,” Saline
coach Drew Denzin said of
Pioneer. “They play tough. It
always goes down to the wire.”
The two teams skated to a 0-0
tie in the first period, but Saline
drew first blood in the second
period when Payton Carlson
split the pipes.
The Hornets took a 2-0 lead
when Olson notched power
play goal, however, the lead was
short-lived.
With about a minute left
in the period, Pioneer’s Joe
Chronis scored to make it 2-1.
A few minutes later, at the
start of the third, Pioneer tied
the game up when Anthony
Moran found the net.
However, Aben’s goal proved
to be too much for the Pioneers.
Neil Flavin made 14 saves for
Saline, while Peck stopped shots
for Pioneer.
“They have a tough team and
this is a tough loss,” Chronis
said. “We played hard and I
thought we gave ourselves a
chance to win.”
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2journal.
com.