SportsSPORTS EDITOR: DAVID BOSSICK 843-1122 x312 |dbossick@ludingtondailynews.com www.ludingtondailynews.com LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013 B1

Lions’ Fauria a hit with end zone dances

ALLEN PARK (AP) — Joseph Fauria’s choreo-graphed end zone dances have earned him fans all over the Internet and even in Hollywood.

That’s not what im-presses the Detroit Lions most. They are fondest of how the tall tight end can stretch a defense.

The NFL’s other 31 front offices might be wondering why he wasn’t worth draft-

ing earlier this year.

The 6-foot-7 Fauria had three catches in Sun-day’s 31-17 win at Cleveland — all for

touchdowns. His second, a 23-yarder from quarterback Matthew Stafford, gave De-troit the lead for good early in the fourth quarter.

The three touchdown catches are the most for a Lions tight end since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.

“If he starts to get more attention, somebody has to get less,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said Mon-day. “Generally, that’s Calvin (Johnson) for us. Not many defenses want to do that.

“I think there is, in the red zone particularly, an-other dynamic there that can force defenses to be spread thin a little bit.”

Johnson, who set the NFL single-season record for yards receiving in 2012, returned Sunday after missing a game with a knee injury and had three catches for 25 yards. Con-tinued production from Fauria could make the Li-ons, who already have ex-plosive playmakers in run-ning back Reggie Bush and Johnson, harder to defend.

Fauria, whose uncle, Christian, played tight end for four teams during a 13-year NFL career, has just seven receptions for 66 yards this season. Five of them have been for touch-downs. He’s scored in each game he’s been targeted.

GOOD SPORT |SOMEONE TO KNOW IN SPORTS

TUESDAY, OCT. 15BOYS SOCCER: Division 3

district hosted by Luding-ton — Shelby at Mason County Central, 4:30 p.m.; Pine River at Ludington, 5 p.m.; Big Rapids at Man-istee, 5 p.m.

COED CROSS COUNTRY: Ludington at Lakes 8 Con-ference Championship at Fruitport, 3:45 p.m.; Mason County Central, Hart, Shelby at WMC jamboree at Whitehall, 4:30 p.m.

VOLLEYBALL: Pentwater at Brethren, 6 p.m.; Grant at Ludington, 7 p.m.; Whitehall at Mason County Central, 7 p.m.; Muskegon Heights at Manistee, 7 p.m.; Hart at Montague, 7 p.m.; Manistee Catholic at Onekama, 7:30 p.m.

JV VOLLEYBALL: Muskegon Heights at Manistee, 5:30 p.m.; Hart at Montague, 5:30 p.m.; Grant at Lud-ington, 6 p.m.; Manistee Catholic at Onekama, 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16BOYS SOCCER: Division 4

district at Big Rapids Cross-roads — Walkerville vs. Big Rapids Crossroads, 5 p.m.; Hart vs. Montague, 7 p.m.

COED CROSS COUNTRY: Manistee, Shelby, Pentwa-ter at Cardinal Classic at Mason County Eastern

PREP SCHEDULE |FROM AREA SCHOOLS

SCOREBOARD ___________ B2CLASSIFIEDS __________ B4-6PUZZLES ______________ B5WEATHER _____________ B8

INSIDE |TODAY’S LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS

Joseph Fauria

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BY NOAH TRISTERAP BASEBALL WRITER

DETROIT (AP) — The last time Justin Verlander took the mound, his team’s season was on the line.

The stakes won’t be quite that high for his next start, but the De-troit Tigers could certainly use an-other brilliant performance from their star right-hander after blow-ing a chance to take control of the AL championship series.

Detroit wasted a five-run lead Sunday night in Game 2, allowing the Boston Red Sox to even the se-ries with a 6-5 victory. David Or-tiz’s tying grand slam in the eighth

inning snapped the Red Sox out of a hitting funk, and if Boston goes on to win the pennant, there may be little doubt about the turning point in this series.

Verlander’s job is to steady the defending AL champion Tigers.

“Obviously that was a tough one,” Verlander said. “At the same time you know this series is going to be a dogfight. Nobody is going to walk over anybody.”

The Tigers looked like they were ready to roll through the series af-ter they won the opener and took a 5-0 lead in Game 2. Anibal Sanchez held Boston hitless for six innings on Saturday, and Max Scherzer al-

lowed a run and two hits in seven innings Sunday.

Boston trailed 5-1 in the eighth in Game 2 before a remarkable rally against four relievers. Ortiz tied it with a two-out grand slam off clos-er Joaquin Benoit.

“I made a mistake that I take full responsibility for,” Tigers man-ager Jim Leyland said. “I should have just reminded him that we didn’t want Ortiz to really beat us. He tried to make a great pitch. He tried to get it low and away out of the strike zone, but he didn’t get it there.”

SEE ALCS, B3

BaseballTigers turn to Verlander after Game 2 collapse

THE DETROIT Tigers get their turn to host the American League Champion-ship Series for three games starting with today’s 4 p.m. first pitch at Comerica Park in Detroit.

JUSTIN VERLANDER will take the mound for the Tigers. for the first time this postseason at home after going 2-0 in both of his starts against the Oakland A’s in Oakland. Boston will throw John Lackey. TV: Fox.

RECAPTURE THE FLAG |TIGERS DEFEND A.L. CHAMPIONSHIP

Pro hockeyWings win

matineeBY KEN POWTAKASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON (AP) — Jonas Gustavsson didn’t have a lot of time to plan for his first action of the season.

Gustavsson didn’t find out until nearly game time that Detroit’s No. 1 goaltender Jimmy Howard was going to be sidelined with a catching hand injury. Then the back-up stopped 28 shots and led the Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Monday afternoon.

“Maybe 15, 20 minutes be-fore the game started,” Gus-tavsson said, sitting at his locker taking his equipment off in a nearly empty dress-ing room following the win. “It felt good. I was excited to play. It’s always fun to go out and have your first game, especially when we have a chance to win.”

And the Red Wings (4-2) had to hang on right until the last second to get their second straight victory.

Milan Lucic’s 100th ca-reer goal sliced it to 3-2 with 1:20 to play. With Bruins net-

minder Tuukka Rask pulled for an extra skater, Boston had the puck in Detroit’s zone for nearly all of the fi-nal 80 seconds.

Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary scored second-peri-od goals for the Wings. Hen-rik Zetterberg had the other score.

Loui Eriksson had Boston’s other goal. The Bruins had a two-man power-play advan-tage for nearly two minutes early in the third period, but couldn’t mount a comeback.

“It looks like we’re feeling the pressure of not scoring goals,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “Our goal-scor-ing confidence is not where we need it to be and we’ve got to get that straightened out.”

Gustavsson bobbled a few shots in the opening period, but improved as the game went on. He made a pair of stops on Jarome Iginla’s shots from the left point when the Bruins had the two-man edge for 1:54 early in the third period.

“That’s how it is usually in a game,” Gustavsson said. “When you get your first shots on you, you grow into the game. I felt pretty good. The guys helped me a lot to feel good.”

SEE WINGS, B3

THE DETROIT Red Wings return to Joe Louis Arena for a game against the Colum-bus Blue Jackets. The game time has been changed to 8 p.m. because of playoff baseball, also in De-troit. TV: Fox Sports Detroit.

WHO’S NEXT? |ON TO THE NEXT GAME

WITHIN HIS GRASP

JEFF KIESSEL | DAILY NEWSMason County Eastern’s Travis McCormick smothers a shot on goal by Montague Monday afternoon in a MHSAA Division 4 district quarterfinal match in Custer. The Cardinals dropped the match, 3-1.

Wildcats score two goals in second half to win

BY THE DAILY NEWS

CUSTER — Cliff Lawson scored the lone goal for Mason County Eastern on Monday as the Cardinals lost 3-1 to the Montague Wildcats in the opening round of play in the MHSAA division 4 soccer district tournament.

Jonathon Stewart assisted on the Law-son goal for Eastern.

Cardinal goalkeeper Travis McCormick made 11 saves.

The game was tied 1-1 at the half.Montague, now 10-6-2, will advance to

district semifinal play and take on Hart on Wednesday.

Eastern wrapped the season at 1-8 with its sole victory coming against Reed City, Sept. 30, with a team that came together late as boys joined with the club once the academic year began after Labor Day.

Prep soccer

Montague drops MCE

JEFF KIESSEL | DAILY NEWSMason County Eastern’s Chris Buswinka

fends off a Montague player during Mon-day’s district quarterfinal in Custer.

BY ANDY ROBERTSSHORELINE MEDIA

BIG RAPIDS — Sometimes 80 minutes of soccer comes down to a bounce here or a bounce there. The Pentwater Falcons certainly felt that way after dropping a 2-1 decision Mon-day in a pre-district game at Big Rapids Crossroads, ending their season.

The game-winning goal came just a couple of minutes into the second half, when a Cou-gars shot bounced off the top of the goal frame and found its way back to Tallak Brekke, who fired it past Pentwater’s Alex Wagner. Sam Wagner tried to lead a furious rally in the final 10 minutes, repeatedly exhort-ing his tired teammates, but the Falcons were never able to break through Crossroads’ de-fense.

“Sam will do that all 80 min-utes,” Pentwater coach Vic Gowell said. “Even though he’s a junior, he played this game

like a senior, for the seniors. When some of them were walk-ing, he was lighting a fire under them. That’s just the way Sam is.

“Unfortunately, the last three or four times down, he was the only one down there. He can’t do it all himself. We weren’t hungry enough.”

It was Wagner who put the Falcons on the board first with 14 minutes left in the first half, getting control of a loose ball and firing it past the Cougars’ keeper Joe Balanda into the net. The goal seemed to ignite the Falcons, and they played dom-inant soccer for the next few minutes.

However, the Cougars with-stood the surge, and with 6:21 left in the half, David Hunt tied the game with a rebound shot after Alex Wagner had saved the previous shot but had had the ball bounce away from him.

SEE FALCONS, B3

Crossroads ekes past Pentwater

ANDY ROBERTS | SHORELINE MEDIAPentwater’s Jacob Emick (left) keeps the pressure on Big Rapids Crossroads’ Michael Hermes during Mon-day’s Division 4 district quarterfinal in Big Rapids. The Falcons played well, but lost to the Cougars 2-1.