CamEdwards
08-25-2003, 10:17 PM
And they did it against the #1 team in the state, no less!
Here's the link (http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/6608146.htm) .... and here's the story.
It got oohs and aahs at Harding. It was stunned silence at South Side. At Northrop, the next opponent on the schedule, the student body was chanting "We want Elmhurst, we want Elmhurst."
Elmhurst's 27-23 win over Class 4A No. 1 Bishop Dwenger resonated around Fort Wayne on a hot and sticky Friday night.
People were known to be leaving games early to get over to Zollner Stadium to see the end of the Trojans' first win in seven years and the end of the state-record 64-game losing streak.
The talk of the town was certainly on Elmhurst, which isn't usually the case on a high school football Friday.
"I actually got emotional about it," said Fort Wayne Community Schools board president Steve Corona, who didn't find out about the win until reading it in Saturday morning's newspaper. "The whole thought about it and what it meant to the coach (Roosevelt Norfleet) and the players. I am interested in seeing how many people show up for the next game. It could be a big crowd.
"I was in church and I heard another person talking about calling her son who played on the last winning Elmhurst team. She couldn't wait to tell him."
The crowd at Zollner Stadium in the first game since the home side was renovated was small to start, at least on the Elmhurst side. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around and the Saints mounted a rally from a 20-7 deficit to get within 27-23, there were barely any parking spots available.
"More and more kept coming," Elmhurst principal Laura Taliaferro said. "By the third and fourth quarters, it was full. They wanted to see the upset and the breaking of the 64-game losing streak unfold. People who follow these things wanted to be there."
Even the SAC coaching fraternity took notice of the scores that were being updated at games across the city. Some were known to ask whether the score was right.
It was hard to believe Elmhurst was triumphing against the Saints, the 2002 4A state football runners-up.
"I didn't hear it until at the end of our game," Northrop coach Matt Stinson said. "To be quite honest, I didn't know what to think. I am not surprised. I thought they would break the streak this year. But I didn't envision it would be against Dwenger in the first week (of the season)."
The phone has been ringing off the hook for most of Saturday at the home of Norfleet and his cousin, James Hardy. The Indiana University basketball recruit caught four touchdowns passes from sophomore Mickey Owens in the Trojans' win.
"We have gotten a lot of calls from people you wouldn't even expect," Hardy said. "Everybody is happy we made it and finally broke the streak. They have called and offered me and Roosevelt congratulations."
It's all been unexpected, but not unappreciated for a school that has taken its athletic lumps over the past decade. But a trip to the Class 3A state basketball championship game in the spring and now a streak-breaking upset of the top-ranked Saints is going a long way to change that.
"The outlook is different," said Taliaferro, who spent 23 years at North Side before coming to Elmhurst in 2002. "People were thinking, 'Oh, poor Elmhurst.' That is not so, it is a great place. We are hoping to take off in the athletic world, but it is about learning and being well-prepared after life. We are excited about the whole ball of wax."
That's awesome. My high school football team sucked, but we never lost 64 in a row.
Here's the link (http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/6608146.htm) .... and here's the story.
It got oohs and aahs at Harding. It was stunned silence at South Side. At Northrop, the next opponent on the schedule, the student body was chanting "We want Elmhurst, we want Elmhurst."
Elmhurst's 27-23 win over Class 4A No. 1 Bishop Dwenger resonated around Fort Wayne on a hot and sticky Friday night.
People were known to be leaving games early to get over to Zollner Stadium to see the end of the Trojans' first win in seven years and the end of the state-record 64-game losing streak.
The talk of the town was certainly on Elmhurst, which isn't usually the case on a high school football Friday.
"I actually got emotional about it," said Fort Wayne Community Schools board president Steve Corona, who didn't find out about the win until reading it in Saturday morning's newspaper. "The whole thought about it and what it meant to the coach (Roosevelt Norfleet) and the players. I am interested in seeing how many people show up for the next game. It could be a big crowd.
"I was in church and I heard another person talking about calling her son who played on the last winning Elmhurst team. She couldn't wait to tell him."
The crowd at Zollner Stadium in the first game since the home side was renovated was small to start, at least on the Elmhurst side. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around and the Saints mounted a rally from a 20-7 deficit to get within 27-23, there were barely any parking spots available.
"More and more kept coming," Elmhurst principal Laura Taliaferro said. "By the third and fourth quarters, it was full. They wanted to see the upset and the breaking of the 64-game losing streak unfold. People who follow these things wanted to be there."
Even the SAC coaching fraternity took notice of the scores that were being updated at games across the city. Some were known to ask whether the score was right.
It was hard to believe Elmhurst was triumphing against the Saints, the 2002 4A state football runners-up.
"I didn't hear it until at the end of our game," Northrop coach Matt Stinson said. "To be quite honest, I didn't know what to think. I am not surprised. I thought they would break the streak this year. But I didn't envision it would be against Dwenger in the first week (of the season)."
The phone has been ringing off the hook for most of Saturday at the home of Norfleet and his cousin, James Hardy. The Indiana University basketball recruit caught four touchdowns passes from sophomore Mickey Owens in the Trojans' win.
"We have gotten a lot of calls from people you wouldn't even expect," Hardy said. "Everybody is happy we made it and finally broke the streak. They have called and offered me and Roosevelt congratulations."
It's all been unexpected, but not unappreciated for a school that has taken its athletic lumps over the past decade. But a trip to the Class 3A state basketball championship game in the spring and now a streak-breaking upset of the top-ranked Saints is going a long way to change that.
"The outlook is different," said Taliaferro, who spent 23 years at North Side before coming to Elmhurst in 2002. "People were thinking, 'Oh, poor Elmhurst.' That is not so, it is a great place. We are hoping to take off in the athletic world, but it is about learning and being well-prepared after life. We are excited about the whole ball of wax."
That's awesome. My high school football team sucked, but we never lost 64 in a row.