The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

éww tw Ono of the happier moments for WLU Hawks Saturday cam. on this play when Mika Gram tforeground) Windsor quarterback Scott Mallondov as Pate Hepburn (arm in air) movaa in to help out. There is at least one copy of my column from last week that was not used to train the new-born puppy. or to wrap the fish and chips In. or to give to Junior to make paper cut-outs According to a reliable source, it is posted in the dressing room of Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. the Non-ranked team in Canadian College football head- ing into this week's preliminary playoff Showdowns. And that is exactly where it should be In case you missed it, last week's column dealt With Hawks inability to establish any consistency on onen- se I even went as far as to cast my doubts about how far Hawks will advance unless they get their collec- tive bums In gear Apparently some players land coaches? and fans"; were not at all pleased with my assertions Not that I expected them to be Even as I peeked out that column last Tuesday, len- nsmned several players. among them friends from my own days at Launer. accusmg me of being a turn- coat. a captain desertmg his ship. the fasrweathertst of friends That I expected You see. nothing hurts like the truth rm not egotistical enough to believe that my to lumn was posted to help supply an Inspirational force for the club in its quest down College Bowl lane More likely it was used as a dartboard But those tossmg the darts were probably the same ones slumped down at the back of the classroom With their hands covering their eyes when game films of Saturday's 23-23 tie With Windsor Lancers were shown And shown And shown again Hawks have leader in Burke For those who talk m those terms, there IS little doubt that tho fourth-place Lancers have the momen tum gonna Into Saturday's dwlsmnal semifinal And thaCs exactly the way iCs 50mg to be until both clubs If you weren't there, Hawks blew a 23-l second, quarter lead and were held to a putrid 33 yards total offence In the second half. where their only first down was garnered on great second effort by fullback Dave Gram on a third and one from the Hawk 35 It was not a pretty sight In fact, It was bloody awful And If I've ieamed anything in my years of sports reporting. it's that the best story always comes from the horse's mouth So while the rest of the Hawks wandered off the field at Seagram last Saturday like zombies. wonder- mg what the hell had happened, I cornered Hawk half- back Bull Burke. the veteran of the backfield and an integral part of the "wisttbone" offence that has been pulled apart like the skeletal structure it is named after hit the field and Hawks attempt to do something about it, I suppose I could sit back and say I told you so. or even kick more literary sand in the face of the Hawk offence. I'm glad I did too Because my admiration for Burke. which tn that point had been limited to the 1107 he gives on the field. grew to include Burke the person as well as Burke the athlete He's no pnma donna He accepts criticism. where justified He skirts no issues He doesn't bitch about his seasotrlortg sore shoulder Or the form-fitting mold covering his broken thumb Or the fact that since he's the best blocking hack others often grab the limelight while he's picking himself off the ground But that's not my style, My words last week were meant as constructive criticism and possible jus- tification for Hawks in-andout performances. miBurke knew exactly why I wanted to talk to him last Saturday V Sure a lot of the criticism of our offence IS jus- tified especially in games like this." said the three- year veteran from Toronto “But we're not as bad as a lot of people thunk .. Rick Campbell), College scene tLtt_t8tttflMtt%t Lttestesust2tiettr 24, Mmr. Chronicle Sports "Line W at: 886-2830 Valid point But that does still not explain how Hawks could roll up over 200 yards offence in the first half and then salvage only 33 m the second Burke hinted the problem lies in the play£alling “For some reason we seem to get away from our original game plan lately We're not a team that can go 90 yards on two or three big plays Our strength lies m our ability to work our way down the field getting five and 10 (yards! a crack pq tundefeated) we are Our Inconsistency just shows that we're young and still have a lot to learn." Fundamental execution is the cornerstone of the wishbone attack It works when every man carries out his assignment Hawks have shown on occasion this year they are capable of doing that. but half a game isn't going to convmce the opposition from here on in Burke's right of course As much as it sounds like the old familiar line of getting back to basics. that's exactly what Hawks have to do, starting Saturday “No. there's no way it's gonna to be an easy road to the College Bowl." said Burke “But we'll get there and it's going to be well worth " when we do .. lhopé soiurkey And you will, and It wtll If everyone of your mates follows your blocking On the field, And off. A As the lithe running back pointed out, the Hawks of- fence is the youngest fielded by WLU in years. and therefore is bound to be error-prone. “Can you imagine our team last year going Into a game without a (Jim) Reid or a (Phil) Colwell? Yet we played this whole year without them and I think our offence deserves credit for getting us to where and an unideettified tackle: smothered (Photo by Mickey Lablanc) P333