Oracles end season with sectional loss
By Todd Swank

Despite having struggled during the regular season, the past two Oracle teams have managed to win first round games at home in the sectional tourney. This year the streak came to an end when the Oracle football team traveled to the Northwestern Tigers' field and came away on the wrong end of a 29-19 score.

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The Oracles went back to punt on the initial possession of the game when a low snap prevented Michael Myers from kicking the ball. He picked up the ball and was tackled for a six-yard loss. N'western scored three plays later to take advantage of the turnover. Myers blocked the extra point to keep the score at 6-0.

Another Delphi punt and the Tigers started a drive at their 30 and moved the ball to the Delphi 23 and a first down. Three consecutive incomplete passes made it fourth down. N'western Coach Dan Robinson elected to go for it and QB Cameron Cossell's pass to the goal line where Myers intercepted the ball.

After a long discussion the referees decided that Myers came down inside the one-yard line. The Oracles had the ball just inside the one when the defensive line for N'western broke through and headed for QB Shane Evans in the end zone. He tried to throw the ball away, but was called for intentional grounding. By rule, this resulted in a safety to make the score 8-0 and Delphi had to kick the ball away.

N'Western had the ball after the kick when, on first down, a loose ball was recovered by Delphi's Erik Jones. Delphi moved to the Tiger 20-yard line before the drive stalled and a fourth and one failed.

N'western, again on first down, fumbled. Evans picked up the ball and ran untouched into the end zone for the score. A two-point conversion came up short and the first quarter ended 8-6 Northwestern.

Early in the second the Tigers forced a punt and took the ball over at the Oracle 43. Ten plays later the score was 15-6. Cossell went 4 for 5 on the drive. After the kickoff, the Oracles looked like they might get back into the game as they took the ball from their 20 out to just past midfield. Two incompletions and a sack stopped the drive. Myers punted to the 11-yard line where the Tigers started. Three running plays moved the ball to the Tiger 48, when Cossell hit a receiver in stride for a 52-yard touchdown pass. The score made it 22-6 heading into the locker room.

The second half began with N'western intercepting a pass at the Delphi 23. A defensive pass interference foul on fourth down against Delphi kept the Tiger drive alive. They took advantage of the mistake and scored to extend their lead to 29-6.

Delphi couldn't punch the ball in for a score until the final period. Joe Little recovered a Tiger fumble, this time at the 7. A Matt Lewis run and Myers kick narrowed the score to 29-13 with 3:14 left in the game.

A short time later another Tiger fumble gave the ball back to the Oracles at their own 45. Four consecutive penalties on N'western moved the ball to the Tiger 35. Eventually Evans ran 19 yards to set up a 9-yard Evans to Myers touchdown pass with 0:26 showing on the clock. A failed two point conversion made the final score 29-19.

Leading rushers were Cory Smith with 58 yards. Lewis had 49 and Josh Penn added 18. Evans completed 7 of 21 passes

for 71 yards with 1 touchdown and two interceptions. Receiving were Myers with three catches for 60 yards and a touchdown; Lewis with one for 0 yards; Cory Smith with 1 for 8 yards; Kyle Stonebraker with 1 for 11 yards; and Kory Banes with1 for 10 yards.

The Oracles' final record was 2 wins and 8 losses.

Even though this team didn't win more games, they are much improved over Coach Gasser's first team last year. With a few

breaks and a few less turnovers at crucial times this team could have won more games. They were in position to win several times, but couldn't get over the hump. Lack of numbers also hurt. Without exception, every team that Delphi faced had many more players % on the sidelines. This made the Delphi players play more downs than their opponents and, though no fault of their own, they seemed to tire near the end of contests.