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Playoff Time Is Here; Daytona Issue Abuzz

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Kevin Carver

East Rutherford’s boys basketball team made it to the conference finals again and for the second year in a row, lost on road.

It was third time this season falling to Shelby in a heartbreaker after going up by 16 points in the first quarter of the most recent one. The second quarter was tough to watch as Shelby was unbelievably able to get back in the game, trailing just 24-18 at half. Shelby stole the win in the final minutes to eke out a 49-46 result. Last year, East lost to Freedom at R-S Central in the SMAC finals.

There isn’t much time to move on from the loss. Shelby and East Rutherford likely met at Shelby on Wednesday in the second round of the playoffs. It’s a shame that they have to meet again that early, but maybe a fourth time is the charm for the Cavs. 

Should they win Monday (Madison) and Wednesday (Shelby), they likely have to travel to West Caldwell or East Burke.

Meanwhile, East Rutherford’s girls seem to be peaking at the right time, upsetting R-S Central 74-48 in the conference semis last week behind 45 points from Rachel Camp.

If they make it past Monday (Owen) and Wednesday (predicting Pisgah), they likely would have to travel to Mountain Heritage or Bandys for a third round game on Friday.

Across town, R-S Central boys had to travel Franklin, then to Hunter Huss if they get to Wednesday. If they find a way past a tough No.1 seed Huss, it’s probably back to Freedom to face the Pats for a third time this season.

Lately, R-S Central girls hoops teams have found postseason success. This season’s task maybe more daunting than the previous couple of playoff trips.

If R-S Central’s girls survive the first two rounds ( at Foard and No.1 seed Hickory), they may have to play at Patton again in the third round of the playoffs on Friday.

Neither Thomas Jefferson or Chase hoops teams were able to make the playoff this season.

As for the 2013 Daytona 500, nobody wanted to show their cards, which led to single file action most of the way.

Still, two accidents broke up the event at lap 33 and 138. Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart in the first one. Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards were victims in the second. Somehow, Keselowski bandaged his car up and remarkably finished fourth. Later, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch were also caught off guard simultaneously by mechanical trouble.

When it came down to it, Jimmie Johnson led a train that made the move by going low with less than 20 laps to go. He then held off a hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin in the final yards to win his second Daytona 500.

Whether you like her or not, Danica Patrick did a solid job by leading five laps and finished eighth. I do wonder where it would have left her had she jumped in front of Johnson’s car as she seen the train coming down the line. Guess we will never know.

On Saturday, it was an freighting scene at Daytona. Thirty-three fans were injured when pieces of Kyle Larson’s car came apart and into the stands. Thankfully, nobody was killed in the Nationwide race. NASCAR says they will look into a better way to keep that from happening. 

Here is what I can’t understand. Cars are going 200 mph and fans who sit in the stands are at slight risk every time they attend. So, it’s not shocking that debris got into the stands, but a whole A-arm assembly is shocking and that should never happen. NASCAR is very lucky and I am grateful that the engine got entangled in the fence, otherwise, we‘d be talking about multiple deaths. 

We have seen fans injured at Talladega and on the backstretch at Daytona before from flying debris. The cars are fairly safe considering the roll cage did its job and kept Larson from injury. Fan safety should be a bigger priority, but I don’t think it will ever be completely fixed. The risk factor, especially at restrictor plate tracks will probably always be there unfortunately.

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