Vanguards

As quick as Oxford's basketball players are, they still can't outrun a well-thrown pass. After Sun Valley changed its style of attack against Oxford's full-court press to less dribbling and sharper passing, the Vanguards scored 50 points in the second half and charged to an 81-67 victory over the Hornets in the District 1 Class AAA third-place game Saturday night at Coatesville High School. Both teams will advance to the PIAA playoffs. Oxford (20-7), the district's fourth seed, has the unenviable task of facing District 3 champion York Catholic on Friday.

For two years, coach Joe Walsh tried to rebuild the Sun Valley football program. For two years, in which Sun Valley went 5-15, the effort - on the surface - seemed fruitless. But someone must have noted progress. And when they were installed as preseason favorites in the Del-Val League American Conference before the season, the Vanguards had reached uncharted territory. "I was nervous. Talking in the locker room before the game, I was shaking," senior quarterback Chris Chelo said.

If Sun Valley quarterback Chris Chelo had his wish, he would buy each of his offensive linemen a Rolex watch, or snakeskin boots or a color television set. But the Vanguards' junior quarterback isn't Randall Cunningham or Eric Dickerson, so, after Friday night's 25-14 victory over Interboro, his blockers had to settle for pizza. "All of the credit goes to the line tonight," Chelo said after leading the Vanguards over the visiting Buccaneers. "They did a great job of giving me the time to throw, and they opened huge holes for the running game.

Teams usually schedule nonleague games near the end of the season, hoping that they can use a strange opponent as a tune-up for the playoffs. That's why John Waller, coach of The Christian Academy, was none too concerned after his team lost, 63-43, Thursday to Sun Valley. The Crusaders will host Phil-Mont Christian for the Keystone Conference title tomorrow night, the same Phil-Mont Christian that snapped TCA's undefeated league record with a 10-point win Tuesday. After Tuesday, TCA rounds out the season with the league playoff tournament this weekend and the Delco Christian tournament next weekend.

You couldn't blame Sun Valley forward Jeff Brower if he asked for a set of keys to the Interboro gymnasium. The guy seems to own the place anyway. After scoring 38 points and grabbing 18 rebounds against the Bucs Dec. 29 in the finals of the Chester Pike Kiwanis Tournament at Interboro, Brower and his teammates came back Tuesday night to open the Del-Val season. He had 26 points and 14 rebounds in the Vanguards' 83-75 victory over Interboro. All those points make sense to the 6-foot, 2-inch senior - who also had his best football game of the year against Interboro, when he caught two 65-yard touchdown passes.

The Sun Valley Vanguards won't be particularly deep this year, but coach Joe Corabi is confident that if his team stays healthy, experience will make it a force in the American Division of the Del-Val League. The Vanguards will be building their offense around senior tight end Scott Donald, who averaged more than 15 yards per catch last season and is a legitimate Division I college prospect, according to Corabi. Other keys to the offense will be senior quarterback Bob Seefeldt and senior center Tom McClain.

After six games and in the position of trying to stave off an early exit from the Del-Val League race, Sun Valley coach Bob Hofheinz decided to do some creative tinkering with his regular lineup.. The Vanguards, two-time defending league champs, were struggling with a 2-4 league record at the time. So Hofheinz brought up two sophomores from the junior varsity - Jamie Bullen and Joe Gormley. Bullen came up to play third base, and Gormley took shortstop. In addition, Hofheinz moved junior Mike Hennessy from second base to left field, junior Brian Fiumara from shortstop to second, and senior Chris Chelo from third to right field.

Sun Valley had a bad week in practice, coach Joe Walsh conceded. Then the Vanguards went out Friday night and gave up an interception on their opening possession and let visiting Penn Wood drive down and score the game's first touchdown. In the second quarter, one of the team's mainstays, 265-pound tackle Brian Bienkowski, went down with a knee injury, and star running back Jeff Farris, who has scored 15 touchdowns this season, fumbled going into the end zone. Sun Valley, which has specialized in ball control, had only one sustained scoring drive, and that was just 49 yards long.

A strange thing happened after the first football practice at Sun Valley this summer. Of the 60 players who came out for the first day, only 48 returned for the second. "These kids weren't used to working," new coach Ron Withelder Sr. said. "I'm a stickler on being in shape. I ran them real hard. " Withelder believes in discipline and hard work, something he learned from his days as a star receiver at Ridley and Delaware, where he became an all- Middle Atlantic Conference end and still holds records.

Sun Valley coach Joe Walsh told his players at halftime Friday night to start taking control of their game against Del-Val American opponent Unionville. So at the outset of the third quarter, Unionville drove 80 yards to take a 6-point lead, held Sun Valley to minus 1 yard on its first possession and blocked a Vanguards' punt to set up another possible score. What a way to start. Still, Sun Valley went on to a 7-6 victory. "The way the season has gone for us, maybe we needed a little fortune to go our way," Walsh said.