Strasburg's bid to annex its third straight county league championship will receive a stiff challenge Tuesday night when Coach Doc Newlon's Tigers invade the territory of the Baltic Eagles. The contest is expected to attract most of the league attention, but all of the four other tilts on tap will be counted on to furnish plenty of fireworks in their own right. Sugarcreek-Shanesville, still very much in the running for league honors, moves to Dundee while the Gnadenhutten at Tuscarawas contest is sure to be a hard-fought grudge battle. Midvale's Blue Devils will be at Mineral City and the Port Washington at Stone Creek fracas will also draw its share of the spotlight. Bolivar will be idle.*
STRASBURG'S highly-regarded 1953-54 squad had two stiff battles with Baltic last year, once in the regular season and again in the sectional tourney, and the rivalry has reached a peak reserved only for the traditional tilts. The Eagles, regarded as one of the teams Strasburg would have to beat to repeat as champion when the 1954-55 season opened, has lost but two games in nine outings thus far. Both were one-point defeats suffered at the hands of Midvale in a league encounter, and Big Prairie-Lakeville. Baltic clipped Gnadenhutten's Indians Friday night and Saturday whipped Millersburg's Spartans to prove its right to claim the honor of one area's top Class B clubs. Strasburg, virtually untested thus far this season, except for a hard-fought tilt with Tuscarawas, will go into Baltic a strong favorite because of its strong bench and veteran starting machine.
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TUSKY WILL be seeking revenge against the invading Gnadenhutten Indians for it was this same Tribe that pinned the Broncos' ears back 62-48 in what was Coach George Trombitas' debut in the county basketball coaching circles. This time the Broncos will be playing on their own friendly floor against a Gnaden team that has dropped two straight verdicts. Port's Purple Riders, who have but one victory in County League play, started off the season with a 66-64 victory over Stone Creek and the Panthers will be out to make amends on their own floor.
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MINERAL CITY'S scrappy Tigers will be playing but the third game on their home floor this year and currently one victory and one defeat there. Midvale is undefeated in four league outings and shares the top spot with Strasburg. Sugarcreek-Shanesville, beaten only by Midvale in the league, will be looking for its fourth loop triumph, while Dundee, holding only a win over Bolivar in the circuit action, will be out to break a five game losing streak.
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Monday, December 20, 1954
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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