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No game Friday, but the team still wants you to join them in celebration

10/20/2024

With one game left in the regular schedule, Titusville was ready to make a statement before heading into the District 10 Class 3A post season. Their opponent was to be Fairview, a team with a similar record and also headed to the playoffs.

Both are class 3A schools and have a strong potential of facing each other the first week of the playoffs. So, citing some banged up players and it not being a region game the Fairview Tigers decided not to play the game even though it is Titusville's senior night.

Rocket coach Mike Reynolds was trying to find a replacement, but as of Sunday afternoon he hadn't and plan B was already being hatched to honor their seniors. "I didn't see this coming," said Reynolds who was looking forward to coaching this senior class's last regular season game.

"Next year we won't schedule senior night in the last game," Reynolds said. "It's frustrating."

Reynolds said Sunday that they will plan to have a senior night celebration with the band and cheerleaders hoping the community will come out to support the team and give thanks to the talented senior class.
There will be more details to come, but as of now they are planning a 6 p.m. start.

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Column: What's in a name? They deserve us getting it right that's what

10/11/2024

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Adam, Alex… what’s in a name right? Well… identity for one and an individual deserving of individual respect and recognition.

I grew up knowing when I was in trouble because my mother would holler out Robert… Russell… Richard. I wasn’t in trouble often so I think it shocked my mother that it was me and not my older brothers, who she yelled at a fair amount of time for the stupid stuff they did. It's a common thing for the poor younger kids living in the shadow of the family members, both good and bad, that came before. It is hard to rise to your own name.

But Adam Reynolds is not his older brother Alex and the only thing he did wrong a couple weeks ago was not listen to his father (or worse he didn’t listen to his coach) when he fielded a short on-side kick instead of staying away from it because it would be a penalty on the other team if it didn't go ten. Adam, not Alex as reported by this reporter, took an onside kick that hadn’t gone ten yards and took it to the house. It worked out and because it did he deserves to get his name right in print.

The family was very kind and used my snafu as a chance for family fun and humor. I appreciate that, but still seek to be and do better. The real test will come in the swimming season when they both are in the same pool, and I was told possibly in the same race.

If I could be given a pass on misnaming a freshman footballer wearing a helmet, I certainly cannot be forgiven when I misspelled a Rocket gridiron legend a few weeks back. My stumbley two-finger typing and hasty read through of my story missed that I named assistant coach John Wiley, John Wylie.

Wiley is a well respected former head coach with more wins than an entire football team can count on all its fingers and toes combined. His name is everywhere in the record books and hundreds of articles. Heck, I’ve even mentioned him before in stories where I did get it right. And yet there I was writing about a play he called for in a game and lo and behold I found a way to mess it up.

If I had spelled his name Wily, in that story, I could at least make a case that it was because of his craftiness in finding plays to call that are outside the box.... but that's not what I did.

Mr. Wiley is a very nice man, he deserves the respect, as does everyone, to get his name right in the paper.
He was very kind to me when he pointed it out with a funny story about family lineage.

We make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, heck, I’m sure I’ll be reading this today printed in the News-Journal and shake my head because of something I got wrong in this column about getting things wrong, but it still bothers me. I've spelled Jaxon Covell Jackson Covel on more than one occasion and auto-correct insist Kameron Mong doesn't know how to spell his own name - and I haven't always caught it.

Every true newspaper person I know is bothered when a mistake, no matter how small, no matter whose fault it (sometimes we get rosters with names incorrectly spelled) ends up in print.

But that right there is the biggest reason we need to save print, it holds us accountable and hopefully… makes us better.

Here’s to getting things right and getting better. My apologies for when I don’t.

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Rockets humbled, but still a strong contender for playoff bid

10/6/2024

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Riding the winning high came to a bit of an end Friday as the Titusville Rockets fell to Hickory 56-21.

"We will be better because of tonight's game," said Rocket head coach Mike Reynolds. "There were things we started doing that we thought, 'we can do this.' We were playing against a team that is vying for a state championship."
In recent weeks the strategy for the Rockets has been to score first and set the tone.

Unfortunately Hickory won the toss Friday and elected to receive the first kickoff.

And they, like the Rockets the previous four weeks, took advantage by scoring quickly.

It only took the Hornet's three plays to go 66-yards. They then snuffed the Rockets on their first possession forcing a punt that they then returned to the Rockets' 16-yardline. It didn't take long for them to go up 14-0.
On the Rocket’s first possession they tried three straight quarterback keepers, but the second possession looked more like Rocket ball with moving the ball around to different players.

A big fourth and a half yard conversion by Jaxon Covell kapt the eventual scoring drive alive.

Then a stunning bit of football happened.

McDonald was in the pocket and flushed out by a surging Hornet's swarm. He somehow escaped and then escaped again and even a third time before finding an opening to fire a bullet to Kameron Mong who was wide open in the endzone.

The Rockets seemed to be back in business, but on the next possession, Hickory’s quarterback Zander Telesz broke loose for an 88-yard run to go up 21-7.

Titusville again drove, but turned the ball over on downs. Three-minutes later Hickory was again in the end zone.

The Rockets again showed some mettle driving from their own 25 for another score.

Again McDonald scrambled around seemingly going to be dropped for a loss when he found some breathing room to rear back to give it everything he had to send one about 50-yards into the endzone to JJ Miller.

At this point, they were only down two scores with less than a minute in the half. But on the drive Titusville's all-time rushing leader came out after a helmet to helmet collision.

Hickory wasn’t ready to go into the locker room. Morrison ran the kickoff back for another touchdown.

With 34 seconds left Titusville tried to pass and move the ball, but Jadon Phillips intercepted, taking it back to the Rocket five.

Telesz then hit Phillips in the endzone to put the Hornets up 42-14 at the half.

In the second half both Covell and Aiden Yoder came out sans helmet and pads.

Without key players a comeback wasn’t likely.

Titusville scored once more on a four-yard McDonald run.

McDonald passed for 194 yards and ran for another 67 to lead the Rockets. "It was a tough night tonight, but I'm proud of the fight. We'll go back and talk about the things we didn't do well and we will be better because of tonight's game.

The Rockets are now 5-2 on the year and 2-1 in the region. They hit the road to face Slippery Rock next week.

This will likely be a must win against the 2-5 Slippery Rock Rockets because Titusville's final two games are against top ranked squads in Sharon and Fairview.

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No game Friday, but the team still wants you to join them in celebration

Column: What's in a name? They deserve us getting it right that's what

Rockets humbled, but still a strong contender for playoff bid

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