Anthony Wayne Boys Basketball Team Knocks Off Wildcats, 55-46
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Junior Mark Donnal scored 21 points and sophomore Matt Fox tallied 18 to lead host Anthony Wayne to a 55-46 Northern Lakes League basketball victory over Northview last Friday.
Donnal added a game-high nine rebounds, four blocks and a pair of assists. Junior Grant Fiock chipped in 10 points and sophomore Jake Reid scored three points and grabbed five boards.
Junior Conner Hartnett led the Wildcats with 19 points, including 14 in the second half, and 6-foot-7 senior James Racicot posted 14 points and eight rebounds while doing a solid job of defending and battling the 6-9 Donnal in the paint at both ends of the floor.
The Wildcats, in fact, pulled a feat not yet accomplished against the Generals this season, outrebounding AW 24-21 with a 10-7 advantage on the offensive glass.
Northview’s strong effort didn’t stop the Generals from leading the entire game, once they took a 7-5 advantage midway through the opening quarter on a Fox steal that he turned into a spinning layup.
Fox came out with his shooting touch on target, scoring seven points in the opening stanza to guide AW to a 13-5 lead.
Donnal had just two points in the first quarter but got to work down low in the second for six points as the Generals emerged from a relatively low-scoring stanza with a 21-12 halftime lead.
The Wildcats then broke out of the first-half scoring drought induced by the solid Generals zone defense and overall height advantage. Northview scored 13 points in the third quarter with Hartnett and Racicot evenly distributing the leadership load with six points apiece in the period.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Donnal and Fox stayed hot, with the former adding six of his points and the latter five, and Fiock chipping in four. The trio’s efforts helped AW add some cushion to its lead, which was 36-25 at quarter’s end.
After Hartnett opened the final quarter with a layup, Donnal replied emphatically with a putback dunk at the other end. Donnal’s slam ignited a 13-6 run that gave the Generals a 49-33 lead with 4:00 left to play.
Hartnett and Racicot stayed on top of things trying to rally the Wildcats, but another solid free-throw shooting performance by the Generals down the stretch helped seal the victory.
Anthony Wayne finished 11-of-15 at the stripe, including 10-of-14 in the fourth quarter alone. The Wildcats were just 3-of-4 at the line.
The Generals committed only two turnovers in the first half and eight overall, while the Wildcats turned the ball over 12 times.
Northview shot 3-of-11 from beyond the arc and AW finished 2-of-8 from long range.
Junior Jeff Czerniakowski added six points for the Wildcats.
The win kept the Generals’ slim hopes of a share of the NLL title alive. AW improved to 10-4 (7-3 in the NLL), while league-leading Napoleon (10-1 NLL) routed Maumee the same evening to maintain a two-game advantage over AW and Perrysburg in the league title chase.

AW Hockey Team Smacks Down Rival Perrysburg, 7-0
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Junior Cal Johnson registered a hat trick and junior goalie Chris Podbilniak earned a shutout with 15 saves as host Anthony Wayne blanked Perrysburg 7-0 in a Northwest Hockey Confer-ence White Division contest.
Senior Aaron Podbilniak scored twice, classmate Michael Kaptur delivered a goal and a pair of assists and junior Robbie Brubaker had a goal and an assist for the Generals.
AW might have scored more and possibly induced a 10-goal mercy ending if not for the fine effort of Yellow Jackets netminder Cam Studer. Studer turned away 36 of the 43 shots AW fired between the pipes.
Studer didn’t stop three of Johnson’s tries, however, as Johnson notched his first goal just 1:33 into the opening period when he cleaned up a loose puck on the left-side far crease, with Kaptur getting the assist.
Kaptur reaped positive results with his teamwork a little more than 11 minutes later when he fired a 30-foot wrist shot just over the outstretched leg of Studer into the net at 12:40.
AW led just 2-0 after the opening period with Studer turning away 15 Generals scoring attempts.
Johnson again lit the lamp early in the second, however, this time one-timing a short-range shot at the top of the crease on a drop pass from behind the goal by Brubaker at 2:24.
The hat-trick evening was then wrapped up by Johnson, who put the puck in the net from the near-side right corner at 10:22, making the score 4-0.
About 20 ticks later, the Generals picked up one of their two power-play opportunities in the game and made it count. Aaron Podbilniak fired home a one-timer on a nice setup by freshman Brandon Zielinski at the 12:24 mark of the second period. Junior Chad Bialecki also got an assist credited on the goal.
The Generals maintained the 5-0 advantage at the end of the second stanza.
Brubaker got in on the fun as he culminated a flurry of Generals scoring attempts over a 15-second span early in the third by flicking the puck past Studer on the backdoor post at 3:02. Junior Chris Miller picked up the assist.
Podbilniak wrapped up the scoring end of things for Anthony Wayne by weaving through the Jackets defense and scoring on a fine effort with 4:28 left to play. Kaptur garnered the assist.
The Jackets were hardly quiet on the attack. Forwards Matt Studer and Patrick Sarni actively created opportunities on and off all game long, but Chris Podbilniak had the answers every time he needed them, particularly in the closing three minutes when he made a pair of huge stops to preserve his shutout performance.
With the win, the Generals improved to 5-3 in the NHC mark and lead the White’s National Division standings. Bedford leads the American with an 8-1 mark. Overall, Anthony Wayne is 11-8.