Bison Preseason All-American

Hey All,

Bethany College senior linebacker Kyle Arrington (Jackson Twp., Ohio/Jackson) was named First Team South Preseason All-American and senior wide receiver Ed Holmes (Virginia Beach, Va./Landstown) was selected Honorable Mention South by the Collegiate Development Football League (CDFL), which is the sponsor for the D3 Senior Classic.

This is the second straight season the Bison have sported Preseason All-Americans on the roster, as running back Eric Walker, who completed his career as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns, was selected prior to last season.

Arrington, a 6-2, 220-pound inside linebacker for the Bison, is a three-time Honorable Mention All-PAC selection. He led the Bison in tackles for the third straight year in 2011 with 86, which was good enough for third in the league. For his career, he has 256 career stops, which places him ninth all-time at BC with still a season to go.

With Arrington spearheading the Bethany defense, the unit ranked first in the conference in total defense (281.1 yards per game) and pass defense (128.4) and allowed just 19.3 points per game after recording two shutouts during the season against Thiel (20-0) and King’s (48-0). It was the first time BC blanked two foes in the same season since 2000.

A pre-med major, Kyle is the son of Pamela & Tony Arrington of Jackson Twp., Ohio.

The 5-9, 175-pound wideout Holmes was recognized with Honorable Mention All-PAC status after last season, a year in which he led Bethany and ranked fifth in the league with 47 receptions for 577 yards and four touchdowns. He also shared time as a kickoff returner and added a fifth touchdown on the season by taking one back 82 yards for a score at Saint Vincent.

Entering his final year in Green and White, Holmes has amassed 96 catches for 1,104 yards and six touchdowns. With just four more receptions, Holmes will become only the eighth player in Bison history to catch 100 career passes.

A sports communication major, Ed is the son of Lakeeta and Robert Lewis of Virginia Beach, Va. Who I'm sure can't be happier with their son's accomplishments.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up do date with everything sports.

Back to Back Champions

Hey All,

 A big day in D3 Hoops for a small school in the back woods of West Virginia. Bethany College a school known more for it's academics, rather than it's athletics, flexed its muscles last night at Hummel Field House. The Men's Basketball team did what they have done all season long, Win. Last night was the biggest game for the Bison as they played in the PAC Championship game, and Bethany College hosted this event being the #1 seed in the PAC, and #25 in the Nation this season.

The Bison were taking on Thomas More and were looking to repeat as Champions. They did just that in a hard fought victory last night, Feb. 25 2012. The Bison were lead by junior  Reece Mabery who scored 16 points and sophmore Leslie Addy who had 15 points in last night game. This was a hard fought victory for the Bison as Thomas More wouldn't go away without a fight.

The first half was highlighted by a stifling Bison defense, which limited Thomas More to just 19 percent shooting (5-26). The Saints’ Phil Feinberg hit a lay-up with 10:22 left in the half and it would be the final field goal of the opening stanza for the visitors. Leading 17-15 with 5:22 to go in the period, Bethany rolled off a 13-2 surge to build a 30-17 lead going into halftime. Addy, who buried a three for the final points before the break, dropped in 10 before halftime. In addition to holding TMC to just 17 points, the Green and White converted eight turnovers into 11 points on their end.

The opening points of the second half was a lay-up by Thomas More’s Colt Stafford, but another trey by Addy highlighted a 9-0 run that took Bethany’s lead to 39-19 with 16:32 to play. Just when it looked like BC was in position to put the game away, the Saints heated up from the outside and Bethany went cold. Three-pointers by Todd Krohman and Daniel Whelan helped the Saints chip into the deficit, but when Bison junior James Barton (Bethel Park, Pa.) hit a lay-up with 10:09 to go, it was still a 45-31 BC lead. However, that proved to be the final field goal of the contest for Bethany, who would have to win it with defense and free throw shooting. Thomas More climbed back into the game with a 14-3 run to chop the Bison lead to 48-45 with 5:19 to play. A couple missed free throws helped keep the Saints in it and when Ryan Hamm cashed in a three-pointer with 38 seconds left, BC held the slimmest of leads at 52-51.Bethany would finally secure the victory and their sixth PAC Tournament championship in 11 years by hitting clutch foul shots. Addy stepped up first by swishing a pair with 37 seconds left. Mabery then made a steal on the other end, one of his five thefts on the night, and was fouled. He buried both of those attempts and two more with five seconds to play following a TMC bucket to provide the winning margin. Once the final buzzer sounded, the raucous student section stormed the court to join the celebration with the record-setting Bison.

The difference makers were: Addy stepped up by setting a new career-high with 15 points, while Barton rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10. Senior British Alexander recorded nine points and seven boards before fouling out and junior Nick Wilcox scored eight points and matched his career-high with 13 rebounds.

With the win, the Bison repeat as PAC champions and win their 14th conference crown, the most in PAC history. Now with a 25-3 overall, BC has broken the single-season school record for victories previously set in 2004-05. Thomas More finishes the season with a 20-8 record. The victory and conference title also gives Bethany the PAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It will be the program’s eighth overall trip to the Big Dance and second in a row after last year’s loss in the opening round to Manchester. The NCAA Tournament pairings and locations will be announced Monday at noon.

I will be informing you with whatever happens with the Bison and their run for now a NCAA title. I will also be updating you via Twitter (@michaelbonaven3). So if it's College Hoops you want, then be sure to check back in for updates as they happen.

Until next time reader,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports

Bethany Sports Teams In Action

It was a busy day here at beautiful Bethany College this past Saturday, September 17. The Bethany College Football team had their first home game this past weekend against Washington and Jefferson College (W&J). For the first half football the Bison's looked good. Their running game was there with Matt Grimard, and Eric Walker running their bread and butter play, the read option. The score at the half was just 14-7 in favor of the W&J Presidents. This was a big improvement from years past, for the past 29 years now Bethany have lost to W&J. Everything seemed to be going the Bison's way in this game, until it was 4th and goal from the one yard line. Grimard got under center and tried to sneak it in for the score to take the lead in the game when he fumbled the snap, and the Presidents pounced on the ball. Even though it didn't give them good field position, the Presidents were able to march right down the field when time expired in the first half. Everything seemed to go down hill from there for the Bison's, countless 3 and outs and didn't seem to have an answer for the Presidents passing game. Bethany would only be able to put up one more score in the game, on a trick play. The final score in this game was 31-14 in favor of W&J. I found out later that was made this loss even worse for the Bison's was that W&J had their second team players in for the majority of the second half. Bethany will look to rebound next week when they take on Geneva in a non conference game. That wasn't the only thing going on at Bethany College, both the Men's and Women's soccer teams were in action against Muskingum College on the men's side, and for the women Marietta College. Both of which were great games, let's start on the men's side of things. The Bison's played tough in this game right to the very end. There was some questionable calls by the officials late in this game which lead to the Bison's 4th loss of the season. The men of Bethany tied the game at one after the first half of play. After the half is when things got a little bit dicey with the calls that were being made, the cards that were given out, and the outcome of the game. It all got started with a terrible call on Forward Dustin Miaolo, which lead to a penalty kick for Muskingum. After the shot was made, a red card was given to Goal Keeper Patrick Coleman, which took him out of the game and brought in Anes Bekric who's real position is Defense, not Goal Keeping. more time ticked away as the Bison were now down 2-1 in the second half of this game. They were getting good looks and even better shots, but nothing could find the back of the net. About mid way through the second half Muskingum had a obvious off-sides call, which never got called. Now I am no soccer expert and I don't act like I am, but one of the rules that I know is off-sides. It's when a player on offense gets past the last player on the Defense, and it's not on a break away. Once the players foot touches the ball, the call then should be made. This particular play happened and once the player kicked the ball it hit, now GK Anes, in the hands when he was out of the box, which is also a no no. But this shouldn't have mattered since Muskingum's player was already off-sides, so nothing should have happened. Instead they awarded yet another penalty kick for Muskingum. Once the kick was made, the official then felt the need to give a red card to Anes, and take him out of the game for his action of "illegally touching the ball". Now Bethany was forced to find one of the best players in Jeff Krek, who has never played a day, minute, second, etc. in goal. Krek did okay for his first time not letting any other balls past him. This was the final 3-1 in favor of Muskingum. Now for the Women's soccer team, who faced Marietta College. This was a great game and turned out well for the women of Bethany. The game looked to be getting out of hand after half with a score of 2-0 in favor of Marietta. The women of Bethany would not give up that easily though. They were able to come back and beat Marietta by a score of 3-2. After two amazing shots by two different Bison's players. The third goal that was awarded to the Bison's you can say was the Goal keeper's from Marietta's fault, because it was. The ball slipped though her hands and right into the goal to give the Bison's the lead 3-2 which ended up being your final score. The last thing that happened hear at Bethany College was that of our UNDEFEATED Volleyball team. The women of Bethany College's Volleyball team are having their best year ever. The Bison women have set a new school record for the best start by a volley ball team in history, 12-0. They did however face their toughest task yet in St. Vincent College. They Bison's had to come back and fight all the way to the very end. They lost the first game, lost the second, won the third by a demanding lead, and lost the fourth game which was very close. This brought up game five in the best of five game to determine the winner of the contest. The Bison fought hard and were able to pick up the win and keep their undefeated record alive. Bethany was very busy with 4 of it's sports team playing at home ending with the football team at night. Each team played hard and left everything on the field/court. Though all of them didn't come up victorious, they were still a lot of fun to watch.