Big Macs battle Baldwin on Senior Night

By Carson Fox, senior

                On the brisk, autumn evening Friday of October 21, the C-M football team took the field for its last regular season home game of the season against the Baldwin Highlanders.  Unfortunately, due to some mistakes and penalties, the Highlanders ended the Big Macs’ chance at a WPIAL playoff berth with a 29-12 victory.

                Coming into the contest, C-M looked even on paper with the Highlanders, who came into the game with an (0-3) conference record.  Led by running back, Dorian Brown, who came into the game as the WPIAL’s 18^th leading rusher, it was C-M’s own, Kenyadda Brown, who looked to match his counterpart.  In the first quarter, it was a fumbled snap to punter Jonah Hladycz, that gave Baldwin life.  After a beautiful 45 yard punt on his first attempt, C-M false started, which forced a re-kick.  The penalty caused the Big Macs to lose close to 50 yards in field possession, which set up a TD run by Brown.

                The offense regrouped in the second quarter and was fueled by runs by Brown, fullback Zack Soyring, Colin Chupinka and Jules Gdovic.  Brown sealed the deal with a short yardage touchdown run and the Big Macs were right back in it.  They failed the two point conversion attempt and were down only one point at the time.  Disaster struck twice in the 2^nd quarter, as Hladycz was not able to cleanly catch a high snap from long snapper, Brian Cumpston.  But momentum was restored to the Blue and Gold after Brown, fumbled in C-M territory and the Macs recovered.  After not being able to create any holes on offense, C-M had to punt yet again.  This time, much to the fans’ chagrin, Baldwin took over after what was speculated as a muffed punt.  Five plays later, the Highlanders scored another touchdown on the ground and walked into the locker room with a 14-6 lead.             
                 Much of the same smash mouth, power football continued in the second half, as Brown and fullback Dominick Barca, Jr. led the way for Baldwin.  Only attempting one pass in the first half, QB Matt Maletta looked to lead his offense in the 4^th quarter, gaining some morale for the evening.  With time winding down in the 4^th and time winding down, Maletta completed a touchdown pass to Cooper Shroeder, cutting into the lead 29-12, which was also the final score.  Dorian Brown was fortunate enough to go over 1,000 yards rushing for the season and established himself as one of the elite running backs in the WPIAL.

            Senior fall sport athletes and band members were recognized at half-time as well as before in the game for their accolades during their high school careers.  Fans were decked out in pink attire in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and donations were collected at Memorial Stadium.  The Big Macs travel to Peters Township next week to take on the Indians in the regular season’s final match up.

EQT Energy electrifies C-M at Media Day

By Carson Fox, senior

                On Thursday October 20, EQT Energy Company sponsored a media day press conference in the high school gymnasium in preparation for the EQT Classic basketball tournament, which will be held December 9^th-11^th.

                Eight teams will be represented in the tournament: four teams from Washington County, two teams from Greene County and two teams from Eastern Kentucky.  Because EQT Energy has locations in all three counties, they felt the teams are the perfect fit to be representatives of their tournament.  Canon-McMillan will host the tournament and will be accompanied by other local schools: Trinity, Washington and Burgettstown.  The representative teams from Greene County include Waynesburg and West Greene.  Pikeville, last year’s host team, as well as Allen Central will be the representative teams from Kentucky. 

                The school pep band, cheerleaders and Canon Crazies, who showed their thanks for EQT choosing our school as the host, entertained Media members, as well as C-M administration.  Coaches introduced themselves as well as representative players and spoke briefly about the strengths of their team. for the season in addition to numerous thanks for the invitation to the prestigious tournament.  Bart Williams, Pikeville head coach, mentioned that “[his] team is going to bring a hard-working team up here to play.  Coach Calipari (University of Kentucky head coach) created opportunities for Kentucky basketball and we’re here to measure what kind of team we'll have for our upcoming season.” 

            A 30 second advertisement sponsoring the game, which will be shown on local television stations as the tournament approaches, was shown before everyone in the audience and can be seen at http://www.eqtenergyclassic.com/.  The website has everything one would need for information about the tournament and is “billed as the ‘Backyard Bluegrass Battle,’” according to the website.  Broadcaster and 93.7 The Fan’s own, Paul Alexander, will be doing the play-by-play for the championship game live.  A luncheon was served after the festivities in the atrium and ended around 1 o clock in the afternoon.