Wesclin's 2010 football debut was a good one, as the Warriors won the turnover battle and broke off a number of big plays in opening up a 41-0 halftime lead over Metro East Lutheran at Edwardsville before cruising to a 41-6 victory.

It was the 'cruise' part that slightly bothered head coach Brandon Murphy. "I saw some things I liked, but I also saw some things I didn't like," Murphy said. "I thought we were flat coming out for the second half because of the big lead. I would have liked to see our guys fight a little harder to win the second half."

Murphy said Wesclin's punt and punt return teams acquitted themselves exceptionally well, and the defense played aggressively. "Coach (Keith) McGlasson has done a good job preparing our defense. He's very detail-oriented and he's a great motivator," Murphy said.

Murphy also noted that Wesclin didn't turn the ball over in the game, and was whistled for just five penalties. "For a first game, that's not bad at all," he said.

The Warriors recovered an MEL fumble on the opening kickoff return, and while they didn't cash in immediately, Wesclin penned the Knights deep on the subsequent possession and Justin Lovelace's long punt return set up a one-yard Ryan Hayes touchdown run with 5:39 left in the first quarter.

Just over a minute later, Wesclin linebacker Keith Haselhorst scooped up another Metro East fumble and returned it 45 yards to paydirt.

Nate Schreiber closed out the first quarter scoring on a 47-yard catch-and-run of a Josh Campbell pass.

Schreiber struck again on Wesclin's first drive of the second frame when he shook loose on a 64-yard run. Josh Campbell scored from 17 yards out with about five minutes left in the half, and Justin Lovelace took a Keith Haselhorst pass 36 yards for a touchdown to finish Wesclin's scoring for the night.

Schreiber picked up 99 yards on the ground and another 61 as a receiver. Wesclin piled up 219 yards on the ground all total, including Josh Campbell's 61 and Justin Lovelace's 37 rush yards. Campbell completed four passes for 70 yards.

The Warriors forced three turnovers on the game, including fumbles recovered by Dakota Chiarella and Clayton Mattson along with Haselhorst, who also intercepted a pass.

Justin Lovelace, Roger Farmer, and Dustin Grosinske all had sacks in the game.

Jake Campbell had nine tackles, including five solo stops, to lead Wesclin defensively, while Chris Watkins and Keith Haselhorst had seven tackles each. Jake Neely and Ryan Hayes each had three solo tackles.

The competition will stiffen for Wesclin this Friday, when they travel to Red Bud for a conference match-up against a team many consider the Cahokia favorite. "They're big and they have good athletes who come ready to play," Murphy said.

Brent Rakers of New Baden has qualified for a third consecutive year for the world armwrestling championships, which will be in the United States this year, in Mesquite, Nevada, just north of Las Vegas.

Rakers, a light-heavyweight puller, won the triple crown of American armwrestling the past two years, but opted this season to concentrate on the Unified National Armwrestling Championships, which is the qualifying tournament to represent Team USA in the world competition.

"This year I decided to concentrate on the Unifieds. With the other tournaments, sometimes you spend more than you win to attend them, and since I've been doing it for a while now, I focused on training and getting my table time in other ways."

The first year he qualified, Rakers declined the invitation to the world competition, which was in the decidedly unglamorous location of Bulgaria. Last year, he traveled to Italy for his first look at the best pullers in the world.

"I didn't do as well last year as I wanted to," Rakers said, "but this year I expect to be in the top three. Last year was really my first chance to compete against the best international pullers, and I think that's helped me prepare for this year's competition."

The world championships in Nevada will be in early December. This is the first year a United States location has been host to the competition since 2001, when the event was in Springfield, Illinois.

After getting their season off to a good start with a 4-0 victory over Wood River, Wesclin's soccer team hit a couple of speed bumps in the Metro Cup tournament, losing three straight.

Bryndan Lightfoot, Marcellus Ottensmeier, Chase Smith, and Josh West all scored goals in Wesclin's win over Wood River, and Jason Bliven, Nick Faulkner, and Tyler Feist had assists.

The Warriors opened the Metro Cup with a 4-0 blanking by Civic Memorial, then lost a pair of close ones, 4-3 to Anna Jonesboro and 3-2 to host Metro East Lutheran.

Josh West had a goal and a helper against A-J, while Chase Smith and Ryan Sleeper also scored. Tyler Feist and Marcellus Ottensmeier both had assists.

Wesclin took an early 1-0 lead against Metro East Lutheran on a Josh West header, and Chase Smith added a goal in the second half to go with an assist. The Warriors lost in overtime.

Trenton had all the pieces in place for a series-clinching victory in the Clinton County Baseball League championship Sunday. Old-timers from Trenton's prior title clubs were on hand, the Storm had a one-game lead over Aviston in the best-of-three series, and carried a 4-0 lead into the sixth inning of Sunday's contest.

But it wasn't enough, as Aviston, urged on by their wagon-riding, balloon-waving fans, staged a late-game comeback and won a 6-5 thriller to send the series to a rubber match this coming Sunday, when the scene shifts back to Aviston.

A first-inning home run by Jared Davis and a three-run rally in the fifth gave the Storm what seemed a safe lead, but Aviston plated two in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take a 5-4 lead. Jim Ritzheimer's two-out rbi single pushed Todd Harpstrite across with the tying run in the eighth, but CCBL legend Scott Thomas drove in the game-winner for Aviston in the top of the ninth.

Mike Scott and Chad Klein each had a pair of hits and rbi for Trenton, and Ben Campbell had two hits.

For Aviston, Adam Davinroy had four hits, and Thomas, Jared Fisher, Andy Kuehn, DJ Urscheler, and Patrick Thole had two hits each.

Wesclin's volleyball team won their opening match of 2010 last week when they took down Sparta in straight sets.

The Lady Warriors are competing this week in the Marissa Tournament before opening at home on Tuesday against Highland.

Against Sparta, Erica Johnson had six kills and Danie Mueller five, while Rachael Conley and Stephanie Wallace had eight and seven assists respectively. Christine Kalmer had nine digs for Wesclin.