The 1957 Midvale Blue Devils, who turned into "Giant Killers" as tournament play got under way and swept through the Sectional, District and Regional events, will now make their bid for their 1st Class A State title. FRONT: Manager Bill Kerschbaumer - Lonnie Fulp - John Beans - Tom Krocker - Lonnie Wolfe - Dave Belknap and Manager Larry Gibbs. BACK: Head Coach Ralph (Pete) Hilliard - Dick (Dandy) Leggett - John Colombo - Gary Haney - Bill Housel - Don Patterson - Dave De Mattio and Jerry Benedum.
CANTON - The Mighty Midvale Blue Devils need to win only 2 more games for their 1st Class A State Basketball Championship! No one is more aware of this than 3rd-Year Head Coach Ralph (Pete) Hilliard, the members of those rampaging Blue Devils and residents of that proud community.
Evidence of this fact is apparent today and was more evident yesterday. The fans are still celebrating their team's stupendous 61-60 victory over the Savannah Sailors on Saturday night which earned them one of the 4 berths in the State Tournament scheduled for next Friday and Saturday afternoon and gave them the Northeastern Regional Basketball Championship. Coach Hilliard's cagers, the "Cinderella" team from Tuscarawas County, won Saturday night's game in a story book finish that will probably have basketball fans all over the State talking for years to come. Midvale pulled the game out of the fire with hardly any time showing on the clock.
Once again it was 5-11 Senior forward Dick (Dandy) Leggett! Saturday night he repeated an almost unbelievable fete. The little red-head snagged a jump ball tip from teammate 6-0 Senior guard John Colombo with only 3 seconds remaining in the contest. He wheeled, took one dribble and swished the net from 5 feet out. The buzzer was blowing and the official timer's gun had ended the game just as the ball left Leggett's hand. The referees ruled the shot good and the majority of the 2,774 fans exploded onto the floor and swarmed over the players attempting to grab, touch and congratulate those spectacular Diablos.
Friday night Leggett rode to the showers on the shoulders of his teammates after he canned a jumper as the buzzer ended the game to give the Devils a 64-62 upset victory over the 3rd rated Vienna Mustangs. Saturday night fans attempted to carry Leggett off the floor on their shoulders, but were unable to as the crowd swamped the entire team.
Next Friday afternoon Midvale will seek to continue making Ohio basketball history. Entering the State Tournament with a 20-9 record, they will open the gala event at 1:30 Friday afternoon when they square off against a powerful Ayersville quintet which has copped 27 victories as against only one setback. If they win, the Blue Devils will meet the winner of the Bethel Tigers (27-1)-Gratis (26-1) tilt which is slated for 3:00 the same afternoon. The Championship game is slated for Saturday afternoon.
Defiance District Champs, Ayersville gained its berth in the State finals as it waltzed past Holmes Liberty (22-2) to the tune of 94-71 to wrap up the Lima Regional Championship. Bethel, which won the Marietta District title, whipped New Boston (23-1), the only unbeaten Class A team in the Regionals, by a 74-64 count and copped the Athens Regional laurels, Gratis, the Dayton District Champs, edged favored Lockland Wayne (20-6) in a thriller 47-46 for the Troy Regional Crown.
Supt. Joseph Zack, who attended the drawing at the Seneca Hotel yesterday in Columbus with Head Coach Hilliard, announced today that 1,200 reserved seat tickets will go on sale at the high school. All residents of Midvale will have 1st choice to buy the ducats. The tickets will be good for the Midvale-Ayersville game only and will cost $1.50 each.
Thus, the county's Consolation and Northeastern District winners will attempt to iron out final flaws in their now smooth-working ball club this week. Midvale, along with the 3 other Class A teams and 4 double A quintets, each get a chance to practice on the St. John floor Thursday afternoon.
Should the Blue Devils of Midvale win their 1st game at the tournament it will be the furthest any Midvale combine has ever gotten. They have made the trip to the State Tournament 3 times when there were 16 teams in the event. In 1937 they made the trip when M.R. Helwick, Superintendent of Strasburg Schools, was coach and then again in 1941 under the tutorship of Clayton Wolf, now principal of Uhrichsville High School and also in 1940. The 1937 team which included Frankie Baumholtz, now playing Major League Baseball and the 1941 team lost out in the semi-finals. The 1940 team lost their 1st game.
The Regional Trophy, awarded to Co-Captains Leggett and Colombo, by Ed Masonbrink, Tournament Director, after the game on Saturday night was the 1st one for the high school since there were no Regionals at the time when they made the trip to the State Tournament on the 2 previous occasions.
The Midvale Blue Devils (11-1) (20-9) whose shooting from the field and free throw line wasn't up to par. In attempting to stage a comeback in the 2nd half, the Blue Devils took 40 shots and made only 13. Overall, they hit on 25 of 73 action shots for 34.2 percent, way below their usual output. The Savannah Sailors (25-4) hit over 50 percent in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and ended the contest with 42.3 percent on 22 field goals in 52 tries.
At the free throw line Midvale canned 11 of 21 attempts, 3 of those 10 misses came in crucial moments in the final canto. The Sailors, on the other hand, tallied 16 of 24 charity tosses and percentage wise outdid the Diablos in both departments. But, going against all expectations, the battling Devils overcame the superior height and actually won the game on the boards and with defense. Junior 6-2 center Russ Hobart, tallest man on the squad, did a tremendous job against the rangier Boatmen. In the final quarter Russ snagged 4 rebounds which eventually led to baskets for the Blue and Gold of Midvale. The contest was tied up 7 times, twice in the 1st quarter, 3 times in the 3rd and 2 times in the final canto. The lead, surprisingly, changed hands only 5 times, three of those in the initial quarter.
It was the Midvale Blue Devils game in the 1st half. Senior 5-9 guard John Beans, who did an outstanding job on defense and as playmaker, started things off by stealing the ball and driving in for a lay up to give the winners a 2-0 edge. Forward Larry Whitesel tied it up with a pair of free throws and added another one to give the Sailor men the edge. Leggett tied it up at 5:53 and 5-10 Senior forward Lonnie Wolfe put the Blue Devils ahead with 2 more charity tosses at 5:11 of the 1st quarter. The rest of the period it wasn't even close as Midvale romped ahead to post a 16-7 lead, holding the Sailors to only one action shot.
The Diablos continued to command in the 2nd period. Although the Boatmen hit on 7 of 13 action flings and tallied 5 free throws the Devils kept pace as the 2 teams matched buckets. At intermission the Blue and Gold held a 34-26 lead. The nearest the Sailor men could get was 7 points in that frame. Colombo led the winners in the 1st two quarters with 13 points, while the rest of the scoring was well distributed. Colombo and Hobart did a fine job on high-scoring center Lew Aulger at 6-3 and held him to only 8 points, all in the 2nd period. As the 3rd period started the bottom fell out of things for the Midvale Blue Devils.
The Boatmen got the tip and center Dave Helvie potted a layup to make it 34-28. After Colombo tallied forward Bill Fast and Aulger hit on consecutive fielders to whittle the score to a 36-32 count. The Blue Devils pushed the score back up to 40-34, but Whitesel tallied a fielder and Chuck Ritchey hit on a pair of free throws to make it 40-38 with only 3:15 to go in the third. Fast then tied it up for the 3rd time in the game with 2:31 to go. Leggett hit a jumper, but Aulger matched it. Colombo and Helvie also matched shots and then with only a few seconds left Helvie drove in for a layup to give Savannah a 46-44 lead, their 1st since the early minutes of the 1st quarter. The buzzer sounded a few seconds later before the winners could get a shot off.
Aulger hit for 3 straight buckets as the final period got under way and the Sailormen had a 52-44 lead as Midvale failed to find the range. Colombo potted the Diablos' 1st fielder in the 4th with 6 minutes left to start the payoff drive. He followed with another and Leggett came through with a jump shot to make it 52-50 with 5:00 to go. Hobart, battling for the ball furiously, finally came up with it and slipped in a layup to knot the count at 52-52. Helvie put the losers ahead again with a pair of free throw flings. But, Colombo found the range again and hit a set from the corner to knot the count at 54-54. Then the Savannah Sailors began to stall.
Brother to Lew, LeoAulger finally put the Sailors ahead again with 3:24 to go...56-54. Ritchey fouled Colombo with 2:14 to go and he hit on one of 2 tries, but Helvie scored on a jumper to make it 58-55. Krocker potted a short set with only 1:06 remaining to whittle the score to a 58-57 count. The seconds ticked off and with only 40 remaining in the game Beans fouled Helvie. He hit both shots and the Devils once again were behind by 3 points.
Wolfe, in the contest for Hobart, picked up a loose oval after the 2 teams had battled for it under the Blue and Gold's bucket. He leaped and parted the net with less than 30 seconds to go and the score read 60-59. Another foul sent Aulger to the free throw line. He missed! The stage was set for Leggett's spine-tingling basket. The Midvale Blue Devils brought the ball down the court and after 5 attempts at the basket the ball got loose and Colombo tied up Ritchey with only 3 seconds left. Colombo leaped, hit the ball to Leggett and bang! The Blue Devils were on their way to the State Tournament as he scored at the buzzer.
Colombo topped Midvale's scoring with 24 markers, 7 important ones in the final canto. Leggett, who got 27 the night before, tallied 15, while Beans had 8. Lew Aulger was high man for the losers with 20, while Helvie had 16 and Fast 12. Fast fouled out of the contest midway in the final stanza which hurt the Boatmen as he was one of their best shots.
MIDVALE BLUE DEVILS - 61
Dick (Dandy) Leggett 6-3-15
John Colombo 9-6-24
Russ hobart 2-0-4
Lonnie Wolfe 1-2-4
John Beans 4-0-8
Tom Krocker 3-0-6
SAVANNAH SAILORS - 60
Lew Aulger 9-2-20
Bill Fast 4-4-12
Larry Whitesel 2-3-7
Dave Holvie 6-4-16
Chuck Ritchey 0-3-3
Leo Aulger 1-0-2
Carr 0-0-0
MIDVALE ....16-34-44-61
SAVANNAH 7-26-46-60
Monday, March 18, 1957
Jim De Mello, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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