Local Sports

Lehigh Valley girls soccer scholar athletes from the TIMES NEWS area proudly display their plaques at the annual banquet on May 20 which recognizes outstanding achievement in soccer and academia. Area girls honored were, front row, from left. Tiana Genetti, Weatherly; Samantha Corcoran, Northern Lehigh; Chelsea Smelas, Jim Thorpe and Shyanne Kleintop, Lehighton. Second row, Rachel Kester, Northwestern; Lauren Heckelman, Pleasant Valley and Morgan Myers, Palmerton. The winner of the annual girls soccer scholar athlete award was Casey O'Donnell of Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg.

It's hard to imagine that four weeks into the 2012 season at Mahoning Valley Speedway and multi-time Modified track champion John Bennett of Lehighton is nowhere near the top five in points, a place he has solidified over the past five years. More to the fact is he's not even in the top ten as his results have been uncharacteristic of his amazing ability of getting around the demanding paved quarter mile.

Saturday night Bennett was back in true form as he shook all the hard luck that had beleaguered him and scored a decisive victory.

May 23, 1972 Woody Peters drills a two-run homer and Dave Buhay stars on the mound to help Slatington gain a 7-2 Lehigh Valley League win over Stroudsburg. The Peters blast comes in the first inning and gives Buhay a lead he would never lose. The Bulldogs' pitcher tosses a complete game, scattering seven hits while striking out 13. Rick Gruber collects a pair of hits, one of them a two-run double, while Bill Snyder scores two runs.

MINERSVILLE – For the first three innings of Tuesday's District 11 Class A quarterfinal game between Marian and Minersville, the Big Blue Machine looked rusty, broken and out of sync.

Something just wasn't right.

Minersville needed a quick fix.

They got it over the final three innings, as the Big Blue Machine functioned like a well-oiled machine, en route to a 13-4 victory over the Fillies.