Winter sports get under way

By Bill Mullaly

The winter sports reflect the outside weather as the Hudson High School athletic season kicked off last week with the wrestling team getting onto the mat last Thursday and Saturday. The girl’s basketball team opened up on Friday. The teams got started just as the cold, windy, snowy and icy weather developed for the weekend. Yes, it’s safe to say winter is here and it’s also a sure bet to say that Hudson has some red-hot teams. The wrestlers had their traditional Hudson Booster Club Invitational on Saturday and the Tigers won the event easily. Two nights before they were in action on the road over by the Metro Detroit area and the Tigers got a split in the two season-opening matches. The girl’s hoop team is going to have an outstanding season and they sent notice to area teams last Friday as Hudson pounded a hapless Hillsdale team 72-27. Here is a look at how the first week of the winter sports season went for the Hudson teams that opened up action.

Wrestlers Win Booster

Hudson won all five of its matches at the annual Hudson Booster Club tournament that is always held the first Saturday in December. The Tigers are the second ranked team in the state in Division 4 and they looked just as good as their ranking on Saturday. Hudson beat Jonesville in the finals winning 60-15. “We wrestled tough,” said veteran Tiger skipper Scott “Scooter” Marry. “We have some seasoned kids this year and it should pay off for us. We looked good and we had a good day and it’s always nice to win your own tournament.”

There were eight teams at the event and Hudson won its three pool matches taking care of Morenci 67-2, disposing of Milan 55-12 and then defeating East Jackson 57-12. Four of the eight teams moved to the semifinals where Hudson beat Williamston 57-13 to get to the finals where they easily dispatched Jonesville. Seven Tigers went undefeated on the day as half the squad had perfect records. Zeb Hilyard at 112, Taylor Smith at 130, Derrik Marry at 135, Eric Wolfe at 140, Caleb Ely at 152, Kyle Hillard at 171 and Gabe Elliott at 189 all finished at 5-0.

The Tigers usually always fare well in the Hudson Booster Meet and this year was no exception. Two nights earlier the Tigers were in the Rochester area taking on Division 1 power Davison and the Tigers fell 49-19. “It was a tough match and all of their best kids were matched against are best kids and the kids from Davison won the matches,” said Marry, who was hoping some of his best wrestlers would not have faced the other teams best. “Our ranked kids faced theirs and that is how it went. It was a good experience for them also but to win the match we would have needed our ranked kids to have gone against some of their unranked kids but that didn’t happen.”

The Tigers also faced Highland Park and won that match 44-36. The lone Tiger to win both matches on the night was junior Kyle Benschoter at 160 pounds who was 2-0. The Tigers as a team are now 6-1 and are ranked second in the state behind Hesperia. This Saturday at Jackson is the annual 17-team JAWS (Jackson Area Wrestling Showdown) Meet and the Tigers will be one of the teams to watch and could face archrival Addison in an early season showdown. “The JAWS meet is big and we hope to show what Hudson wrestling is all about,” said coach Marry.

Lady Tigers win big

Poor Hillsdale! They were the first and they won’t be the last to face the barrage of scorers that Hudson has this season. The Tigers jumped ahead of Hillsdale 22-3 after one period of play and they rolled to the easy win to begin play this winter as girl’s basketball in Michigan has moved to the winter for the first time. This was not much of a game as expected with Hudson scoring early and often against an over-matched Hillsdale team. The score ballooned to 37-12 at halftime and it was 53-21 after three periods of play. Hudson used a 19-6 edge in the last quarter to take the win to move to 1-0 on the season. Four Hudson players hit for double digits scoring as junior Aubrey Laughlin led the way with 20 points. Another junior Rachel Pawson scored 18. Senior Sheila Komarynski added 11 points and classmate Kellee Wonders scored 10. Komarynski led in rebounding with 12, while Wonders and Laughlin both had 10 boards. Three Lady Tigers hit for double double efforts in scoring and rebounding. Junior Mykahla Frayer also was close to double digits as she scored nine points in the game. Sophomore Ashley Boies scored four points to round out the Hudson scoring. Pawson led the way with three 3-point shot and Frayer added one long ball. Hudson does have something to work on as they were a dismal three of ten at the foul line. Pawson added five assists from her point guard spot and she chipped in with five steals as did Komarynski with five thefts. Wonders and Komarynski both blocked a pair of shots. “I thought this was a good first game overall effort for the girls,” said Tiger head coach Tom Romanowski. “Our conditioning was fine and the girls ran the floor very well. We have some high expectations for this team and we are going to work extremely hard to reach those goals.”

The boys don’t start their games until this week as they were in action two nights ago on Tuesday at Adrian-Madison. This Friday they play at Hillsdale and then the big one is Saturday. The girls have just one game this week and will play at 6:00 against Pittsford on Saturday and then the boys will play at 7:30 against Pittsford that same night. Those games against the Wildcats will be at home in the Tiger gymnasium. Get on out of the warm house into the cold air and then into a real hot gym to watch the Tiger teams this winter.

Middle School football team ties Erie Mason

Thompson Field was the site of the Erie Mason and Hudson Clash on October 10, 2007. Erie took the kickoff and ran their first play to the right. The Erie ball carrier ran 65 yards before a touchdown saving tackle by James Herron. The defense stopped the Eagles and took possession on our own seven yard line. We fumbled at the 20 and Erie took over. The Eagles ran around the left end for a 20 yard TD run. The extra point run was no good.

Hudson's next possession started off well as Alex Leathers ran right, then left and and Alex Messer to Luke Sparaponi pass took us to the Eagle 25. Luke had another 10 yard run behind Justin Boies and Josh Crippin blocking. We lost the ball on downs and the seventh grade defense went out against the eighth grade Eagle second team. John Dunning, Keith Waltz and Zack Reiger made nice plays on the defensive side of the ball and we got the ball back at their 35. As the clock was running down hte Erie Mason defensive end made a nice play on a screen pass and intercepted it and went 70 yards for a touchdown. The extra point pass was no good, halftime score 12-0.

The second half went back and forth until the seventh grade offense went against the Eagles second defense. Adam Laughlin ran behind Dunning, Reiger and Brent Briskey and took the ball down to the Eagle 20. The Eighth grade now took over and Alex Leathers ran behind Cody Cleveland and Gabe Lee for a touchdown. The run for two was no good for a 12-6 score.

Justin Boies and Alex Leather combined for aquarterback sack and James Herron did likewise, putting the Eagles back on their own 25. After a fine defensive stop by Kameron Bellfy and Devon MArry, the Tigers took over at our own 45. Bellfy, Sparapani, Leahter and Keene took the Tigers in to score as Bellfy scored to tie the score. The extra point failed. The Tigers had a couple more chances after a fumble recovery by Leather at Erie's 42, but could not capitalize. Our record is now 1-2-1. We have improved and hope to continue to work hard and end the season on a couple of wins.

Lady Tiger JVs open with win

The Hudson IV Basketball season started on a good note. As we traveled to Hillsdale Friday night and beat the Hornets 51-23 in the season opener for both teams.

Casey Brasher got the Tigers going with a put back, then hit a three after a steal and it was 5-0 before Hillsdale knew what hit them. Our Pressure defense was too much for the Hornets all night, we forced turnover after turnover leading to easy baskets and built a 12 point first half lead.

Early in the 2nd half Hillsdale cut the lead to 8 and the Lady Tigers once again turned on the defensive pressure and went on a 21-2 run and cruised to the victory.

Sarah Luma led the scoring attach with 14 points while Courtney Walter chipped in with 11. Rachel Koser was our workhorse on the boards getting 7 rebounds. Boyoung Kim and Casey Brasher both had very nice games Casey had 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 9 points. While Boyoung finished the game with 5 assists and 3 steals to go along with her 9 points.

Our next game is Saturday at 3 :00 against the Pittsford Wildcats come on out and cheer us on.

-- Coach Sprow
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