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Comets eager to back David Dawson with Futures League batting

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ACT Comets captain David Dawson is in good form ahead of the Futures League match against Western Australia. Photo: Rohan Thomson

The ACT Comets' batting order is desperate to take the pressure off captain David Dawson and get among the runs to open their account in the Futures League.

The Comets will be searching for an improved performance from their top six when they take on Western Australia in a four-day game starting on Monday at Fremantle.

Dawson was a shining light in the side's 40-run loss to Queensland in its first game of the season, the former Tasmania and NSW first-class player showing all his class with knocks of 143 not out and 86.

Comets batsman Dean Solway is keen to make amends after being dismissed cheaply in both innings, but has regained form in the Gallop Cup with Queanbeyan, scoring an unbeaten 45 in an eight-wicket win against Tuggeranong on Saturday.

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Solway said it was up to the entire batting line-up to carry their weight and not just rely on Dawson to shoulder the bulk of the scoring.

"We're all pretty keen to turn it around, especially the batsmen, it was pretty much just Dawso that got us a good total in the last game and a few of the bowlers," Solway said.

"Our batsmen are pretty keen to turn it around and score the bulk of the runs for us.

"We just need a few more to put their hand up to bat around him."

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Comets eager to back David Dawson with Futures League batting

Comets defeat eerily familiar

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WHITEHALL The Crestwood field hockey history is so full of success that even in the most ominous of circumstances, coach Patsy Moratori was able to reach into the past and find hope from a positive precedent.

They know theyve done it before, Moratori said of scoring a last-minute goal when needed in the state tournament. They did it against Selinsgrove two years ago in the quarterfinal game.

I think they knew it was possible. They didnt give up.

But unlike that last-minute score to produce a 1-0 victory on the way to Crestwoods most recent state championship in 2012, there was no dramatic goal for the Comets as the clock ran down Saturday afternoon.

Instead, the season came to a painfully familiar conclusion.

Just as they did last year, the Comets arrived in Whitehall for the PIAA Class 2A state title game with an unbeaten record.

Crestwood held a slight advantage in play during a scoreless first half and took a 1-0 lead early in the second half, only to have the lead get away as the midway point in the second half approached.

Then a late goal by Villa Maria, another team with a lengthy string of state playoff success, put Crestwood behind too late to recover while suffering its only loss of the season, 2-1, in the final game.

Villa Maria Academy spoiled Crestwoods bid for an unbeaten state championship season just as Wyoming Seminary did one year ago with a 2-1 victory.

I really didnt think about last year and what we did, Moratori said. I thought that we played hard and unfortunately it was the same ending.

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Comets defeat eerily familiar

Comets come back and defeat the Milwaukee Wave 9-7 in Home Opener

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November 15, 2014 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) Missouri Comets The Missouri Comets earned their third consecutive victory after defeating longtime rivals Milwaukee Wave and are still undefeated in the 2014/15 MASL season. With two goals and two assists in the game, Leo Gibson was named Man of the Match and stands strong in the top of the league with 15 points (10 goals and 5 assists).

A sold out crowd at the Independence Events Center saw the reigning MISL Champions come back from a two-goal lead in the third quarter before the Comets notched three goals in less than two minutes.

The Milwaukee Wave took and early 3-0 lead in the first quarter with goals from Marcelo Fontana, JC Banks and Marcio Leite, however, Milan Ivanovic and Max Touloute helped the Comets shorten the lead to end the quarter with a 3-2 score.

After the first fifteen minutes, the visitors continued to put pressure on Danny Waltman's goal and five minutes into the second quarter Tenzin Rampa tallied his first of the night followed by another goal by Banks to get regain a three-goal lead before Andre Braithwaite found the back of the net with and incredible strike from the right side of the box ending the half with a 5-3 score.

Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski's team came out motivated from the break and scored three goals to make it 6-5 early in the third quarter before Anthony Arico tied the match. Two minutes before the end of the quarter, Perez notched his first of the night to end the quarter 7-6 in favor of the Comets.

Five minutes into the last quarter, Ian Bennett tied the game one more time for Milwaukee, but another goal from Perez and a beautiful finish from Gibson helped the Comets get a 9-7 win.

Next up, the Comets will host the Wichita B-52s at the Independence Events Center next Saturday, November 22nd at 7 p.m.

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Comets come back and defeat the Milwaukee Wave 9-7 in Home Opener

Comets: Facts About The Dirty Snowballs of Space

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A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust. They are often compared to dirty snowballs, though recent research has led some scientists to call them snowy dirtballs. Comets contain dust, ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane and more. Astronomers think comets are leftovers from the gas, dust, ice and rocks that initially formed the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

Some researchers think comets might have originally brought some of the water and organic molecules to Earth that now make up life here. To research this hypothesis, the Rosetta mission, which landed a probe on a comet on Nov. 12, 2014, is studying its nucleus and environment, observing how it changes as it approaches the sun.

Comets orbit the sun, but most are believed to inhabit in an area known as the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Occasionally a comet streaks through the inner solar system; some do so regularly, some only once every few centuries. Many people have never seen a comet, but those who have won't easily forget the celestial show.

The solid nucleus or core of a comet consists mostly of ice and dust coated with dark organic material, according to NASA, with the ice composed mainly of frozen water but perhaps other frozen substances as well, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. The nucleus may have a small rocky core. As a comet gets closer to the sun, the ice on the surface of the nucleus begins turning into gas, forming a cloud known as the coma. Radiation from the sun pushes dust particles away from the coma, forming a dust tail, while charged particles from the sun convert some of the comet's gases into ions, forming an ion tail. Since comet tails are shaped by sunlight and the solar wind, they always point away from the sun. At first glance, comets and asteroids may appear very similar. The difference lies in the presence of the coma and tail. Sometimes, a comet may be misidentifiedas an asteroid before follow-up observations reveal the presence of either or both of these features.

The nuclei of most comets are thought to measure 10 miles (16 kilometers) or less. Some comets have comas that can reach nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) wide, and some have tails reaching 100 million miles (160 million km) long.

We can see a number of comets with the naked eye when they pass close to the sun because their comas and tails reflect sunlight or even glow because of energy they absorb from the sun. However, most comets are too small or too faint to be seen without a telescope.

Comets leave a trail of debris behind them that can lead to meteor showers on Earth. For instance, the Perseid meteor showeroccurs every year between August 9 and 13 when Earth passes through the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet.

Astronomers classify comets based on the durations of their orbits around the sun. Short-period comets need roughly 200 years or less to complete one orbit, long-period comets take more than 200 years, and single-apparition comets are not bound to the sun, on orbits that take them out of the solar system, according to NASA. Recently, scientists have also discovered comets in the main asteroid belt these main-belt comets might be a key source of water for the inner terrestrial planets.

Scientists think short-period comets, also known as periodic comets, originate from a disk-shaped band of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune's orbit, with gravitational interactions with the outer planets dragging these bodies inward, where they become active comets. Long-period comets are thought to come from the nearly spherical Oort Cloud even further out, which get slung inward by the gravitational pull of passing stars.

Some comets, called sun-grazers, smash right into the sun or get so close that they break up and evaporate.

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Comets: Facts About The Dirty Snowballs of Space

Winning legacy links Comets

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WRIGHT TWP. A day after booking their third straight trip to the finals of the PIAA Class 2A Field Hockey Championship, the Comets were at practice.

The fairly warm Wednesday afternoon had quite a few players in shorts and T-shirts. An unusual sight for the second week of November, not that it would have mattered anyway.

If theres one thread that connects every Crestwood field hockey player over generations, its this simple statement were here.

Clear conditions, wet conditions, windy conditions, the Comets will be at practice. Just like Casey Coles mom, Danielle. Like Hannah Ackers mom Doreen and older sister, Chandler. Like Elizabeth Dessoyes older sister, Anna, and just like head coach Patsy Moratori and her coaching staff of Justine Yeager and Amy Daniel.

Its a philosophy started by long-time head coach Elvetta Gemski and continued by Moratori in her first year at the helm.

We told them at the beginning of the season, Girls, were good because were here every day. So if its raining were here, Moratori said. Dont think because its raining youre going home. Were here.

In an area rich with field hockey talent, Crestwood has made its case as one of the top programs in the state with five PIAA titles.

That success has been whispered in the ears of young girls growing up in the area for years. Whether they play field hockey or not, everyone knows Crestwood equals field hockey.

We all heard of Crestwood field hockey, but I never really played (until seventh grade), senior goalkeeper Dallas Kendra said. I thought Id continue the legacy after joining the team.

For some, the red and white is passed down from mother to daughter or sister to sister. For others, its a chance to uphold tradition.

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Winning legacy links Comets

Football: Comets turned tough loss into state title in 1994

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By Ty Reynolds & Patrick Mason sports@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5555

The tale of the 1994 Newman Comets football team is one of redemption. Its also a tale of two senior classes achieving a goal that had slipped through their fingers a year before.

To understand the journey to the Comets 14-0 season and second state championship in program history, you must first understand where that group of seniors was coming from. And to do that, we must delve into November 1993, when Newman fell just short of the pinnacle.

The 1993 1A state title game in Normal has gone down in infamy as the Ice Bowl, a game so cold the astroturf froze over and the Comets, wearing their basketball-style turf shoes, slipped and slid all day in a 49-9 loss at the hands of Calhoun, which was wearing cleats.

It was kind of Shoe Gate, said Matt Selmi, an offensive and defensive tackle on the 1994 team.

We were pretty tight with the seniors in 1993, and seeing how they had to go out losing that game we made a vow to each other that we were going to get back there the next year and win it for them, and for us.

Everyone took it hard that year, and we could only think about getting back there the next year, running back Ryan Fowler added. I didnt like the what-if factor of that game, and I remember telling the seniors ahead of us that wed do anything and everything to get back there and redeem what happened.

Almost as one, the Comets coming back for the next season adopted that unspoken chip on their shoulder, and the journey back to Normal the next November began almost immediately after they left Hancock Stadium that cold day in 1993.

There are many stories surrounding that 1994 dream season. Most revolve around center/linebacker Matt Hoffmiller, who teammates call the glue that held things together.

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Football: Comets turned tough loss into state title in 1994

Rosetta probe may hold clues to life on Earth…but scientists cannot get to them

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We have activated the drill. Its started to drill. Then we lost contact again because the orbiter is below the horizon again, said Dr Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager.

We are not sure whether the batteries will still have enough energy to transmit the data when we get in contact later this evening. Around midnight we should know.

Philae appears to be stuck under a cliff

The comet is a remnant from the early solar system and may hold clues about how life on Earth began.

Many scientists believe that comets were the driving force behind life on Earth, bringing water and amino acids to the planet during the bombardment phase around four billion years ago.

If the scientists do not manage to re-establish the link with the probe, there is a faint possibility that the solar panels will begin working again when the comets orbit brings it closer to the Sun.

We can only hope that as we approach the Sun, maybe in August, if we dont have dust or a huge coma blocking the Sun, then perhaps there would be a chance we could come back and at least see how the lander is doing, said Valentina Lommats of the German Space Agency.

So cross your fingers but perhaps we will hear something from the lander again. It looks a bit bad. But we can always hope.

Crucially, the team has still not located the lander. On Thursday the team said they believed Philae had bounced twice before settling in a crater to the East of the original landing site. However scans of the area by the OSIRIS camera on board Rosetta failed to locate the probe. Rosetta has now began scanning areas to the East of the landing site.

The original landing site. Scientists now think the probe is somewhere to the west of the mark

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Rosetta probe may hold clues to life on Earth...but scientists cannot get to them

Shinkaruk's Two-Goals Power Comets past Wolves

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November 14, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets The Utica Comets slipped passed the Chicago Wolves Friday night with a 4-3 win, for their eleventh on the season, in front of a sold-out crowd at The Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Hunter Shinkaruk (2-0-1), Brandon DeFazio (1-1-0), and Cal O'Reilly (0-2-2) all led the way with two points apiece for the Comets. Jacob Markstrom saved 29 shots out of the 32 taken by the Wolves, and now has collected a win in seven of his eight starts.

After returning from his two-game stint with the Vancouver Canucks, DeFazio quickly reminded Utica what he could offer.

Just 32 seconds into the first period, the right-winger found the Comets first goal of the night on a penalty shot that was awarded to him just after getting hooked down on a breakaway by a Chicago defensemen.

DeFazio picked up speed as he headed towards the blue-line for his one-on-one with Matt Climie. As he approached the hashmarks, DeFazio reached into his bag of tricks. He put on the brakes, skated to Climie's right, and reached back one-handed to tuck the puck under Climie's left pad to give the Comets an early 1-0 lead and his fifth goal on the season.

Chicago returned the favor in the opening of the second period. At 1:36 Chris Butler received a pass along the boards to the left point from Colin Fraser. Pat Cannone tipped a Butler slapshot over the glove of Markstrom for the 1-1 equalizer.

Not too long after Chicago's goal, Shinkaruk found the back of the net during some confusion in front of Climie's crease. With a couple of chop's Shinkaruk tipped it up over the left shoulder of the veteran goaltender at 9:29 to make it a 2-1 lead for the Comets. O'Reilly and DeFazio both received assists on the play.

It only took two minutes and 26 seconds for the Comets to extend their lead. Brendan Gaunce raced down the left wing to take a quick shot on Climie's right side. What resulted was a flying re-bound and a swat out of the air by O'Reilly. After a swing and a miss for O'Reilly, Alexandre Grenier snuck it past Climie on his glove side. O'Reilly was credited with the secondary assist.

From there the Wolves mounted a comeback and tied the game at 3.

Chicago's first goal came just 5:05 into the third period. Brent Sopel fed the puck to Rob Bordson who gave it to Petteri Lindbohm for the shot on Markstrom. The puck beat Markstrom glove side to close the gap and make it a 3-2 game.

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Shinkaruk's Two-Goals Power Comets past Wolves

Comets headed back to SHSAA 9 man football champio

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The MUCC Comets football team is heading to familiar territory, the SHSAA provincial 9-man football championship. Also familiar is the opponent, the Warman Wolverines. Warman is going to be ready to play us. I think they have been looking forward to playing us again since 2012 and this is an opportunity for them to do that, said Comets head coach Dave Rogers. When the teams met in the Ice Bowl of 2012, the field was literally covered in ice and the Comets wore broomball shoes in the game. They defeated the Wolverines 53-26, claiming the provincial championship. Rogers said the Comets need to be ready to go despite the weather, which is forecasted to be a mix of sun and clouds with a high of -10 degrees, but it should feel like -18 with a 20 kilometre per hour wind. The provincial final is a week later than usual so the weather could play a role in the game a little bit more than usual. We need to be prepared to execute in what could be a pretty cold day although it couldnt be as cold as 2012, Rogers recalled. What will be different from the last time these teams met is the venue. In 2012 the game was played in Melfort, this year it will be at Warman High School. Rogers expect the Wolverines to be a well prepared and well coached team, having advanced to the provincial final. They execute really well on offense. There is another Misskey, he is their quarterback he is a good athlete. They have a few good receivers, they like to throw the ball. They play that spread like we saw a few years ago, he said. They are good. They had five kids play on the U18 program. We know they have some great athletes. However he expects the Comets to also be ready for the contest. Rogers said the players are taking the post season games very seriously working hard in practices and preparations. I give a lot of credit to our kids for the way they are preparing throughout the playoffs. They take the time to be well prepared and work hard in practice and those are the things that are paying dividends for us as we are moving forward throughout the playoffs. The Wolverines advanced tot he provincial final by defeating the Melville Cobras 58-0 in one semi-final game on Saturday, November 8. The Comets advanced to the provincial final by defeating the Delisle Rebels 48-14 in the other semi-final game. In that game Rogers said the offense played well with the exception of a few hiccups, but the defense, again controlled the game. We had a couple of opportunities early in the game where we would have a receiver open and the ball was just three feet thrown too far. A couple times where we had opportunities to put more points on the board but it was 13-0 at the half and the defense played fantastic the whole game. That is par for the course. He said the Rebels never quit and came out strong in the third quarter with touchdown. Any momentum that the Rebels gained by the big plays that led to their score was taken back on the ensuing kickoff. Really, a play that defined the game for us was Delisle kicked off after going down in four plays and scoring and our kickoff return team returned the ball for a touchdown from about the 20 yard line. About 80 yard return, Rogers said. From there the comets seemed in control. The defense kept playing great. Offense kept grinding the ball. (quarterback) Lee Taylor made some really nice reads and throws. The offensive line blocked very well and we ran the ball quite successfully against them which we hoped to do. The rebels last points came late in the game as the Comets had their junior players competing. Helping the Comets post the win was a large group of fans that made the trip. Rogers said having them there was great to see. I think there were more Comet fans than there were Delisle Rebel fans. Our guys were definitely louder, he recalled. I would imagine that we will see another great contingent of Melfort Comet football fans in Warman.

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Comets headed back to SHSAA 9 man football champio

Three Mind-Blowing Things The Comet Lander Will Investigate Regarding Life In The Universe

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The landing on comet 67P was triumphant, but for scientists, the adventure is just beginning. This jagged and icy world is now located out past the orbit of Mars Mars but by summer will swing close to the sun. Comets are fascinating to space buffs and biologists alike for many reasons. For one thing, they are full of water and some of the organic molecules that make up the building blocks of life. Could they have delivered these ingredients to our planet?

To investigate this and other questions, the European Space Agency launched a craft the Rosetta Mission a decade ago. It reached its goal last August. Yesterday it sent a lander called Philae to the surface. Scientists dont know how long this refrigerator-sized lander will survive. It may be knocked down by high winds or comet-quakes, so it has been set up to do a host of experiments during its first days. Among its assignments drilling into the surface, grabbing some of the comets material and analyzing its composition. Here are three big questions that data from the mission could help scientists answer.

Image credit: European Space Agency

1. What are solar systems made of and how do they form?

Scientists have a pretty good general picture of our solar systems birth, which started some 4.6 billion years ago as the sun started to come together from a cloud of gases. In a swirling skirt of matter surrounding the infant sun, little particles of solid matter slammed together and grew bigger, in a process called accretion. That led to the eventual formation of planets, moons, asteroids and comets. As Villanova University astronomer Ed Guinan explains, comets are chunks that got flung out away from the sun, into the cold fringes of the solar system. Out there, they can hold frozen remnants of the original stuff from which our planet formed. The material that makes up earth and the moon, on the other hand, has been thoroughly cooked.

Scientists can learn a lot about comets through remote sensing, but never before have they been able to get a direct look at a piece of comet ice.

2. How did Earth end up with so much water when our understanding of its formation suggests it was once a hot, molten hell?

The accretion process that led to the birth of our planet would have made the surface hot perhaps even molten, explains astronomer Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas. Its not clear how all that water that makes up our oceans would have survived. One possible explanation comes out of the fact that after the Earth formed, things were still pretty chaotic. Our Earth continued to get bombarded with both asteroids and comets. Evidence for this heavy bombardment can be seen in all those pockmarks on our moon.

So the thinking goes that during this period of pummeling, comets brought at least some of our water to us. But how would we know? One clue, said Stern, comes from the proportion of so-called heavy water. Our ocean water is a mix of ordinary H20 and water in which one of the hydrogen atoms carries extra baggage in the form of a neutron. Tests done by Philae will be able to tell us how much of 67Ps water is of the extra baggage carrying type, and whether or not the proportion of heavy water matches that in our oceans.

3. How did life originate here and is there life elsewhere in the universe? Up until the later part of the 20th century, scientists thought those complicated carbon-containing organic molecules that make up living matter were a special product of our planet Earth, said Stern. It came as a surprise when they started turning up in meteorites (some of which actually stink when broken open), in comets (detected through remote sensing techniques) and even in interstellar space. Comets and asteroids both contain amino acids which are the component parts of the proteins that make up our bodies.

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Three Mind-Blowing Things The Comet Lander Will Investigate Regarding Life In The Universe

Age-old dream fulfilled as humans finally make contact with comet

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Throughout human history, comets have been distant, mysterious heavenly bodies. The hunks of rock and ice streak through the sky, streaming bright tails of gas as the sun warms them.

On Wednesday, humankind finally made contact with one. The Rosetta spacecraft defied all odds and dropped its payload, a comet-sniffing probe named Philae, on a cold, speeding target more than 480 million kilometres from Earth.

Although scientists aren't yet sure that the probe will be able to anchor itself securely, for now its systems are operational and responsive. This comes as the climax of a decade-long mission.

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A first for space exploration and the climax of a decade-long mission as a probe lands successfully on a comet to get samples from what are the remnants of the birth of Earth's solar system.

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Age-old dream fulfilled as humans finally make contact with comet

Comets Sign Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams, Brendan Allen Re-Signs

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November 12, 2014 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) Missouri Comets INDEPENDENCE, MO (November 12, 2014) - The Missouri Comets have announced the re-signing of goalkeeper Brendan Allen along with the signing of midfielders Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams. All three players agreed to a one-year deal. Per league and team policies, additional contract details were not disclosed.

Allen, a Kansas City, Missouri native, signed with the Comets for the 2013/14 season after graduating from Baker University. In his senior year with the Wildcats, Allen played nine games and turned in three clean sheets. Last season with the Comets, he played 29:01 minutes in two games recording seven saves and .636 percentage.

Williams will be playing his first professional season after graduating from Park University where he was a starting freshman and the team captain during his junior and senior years. In his final year with the Pirates, the Trinidad and Tobago native was named AMC First Team All Conference after recording nine assists and six goals.

"I am truly blessed to be given an opportunity to be a part of such a hardworking, well coached and skillful team," Williams said. "With that being said, I plan on working very hard to add to what's already a very strong team."

Kelly, also a Kansas City, Missouri native, graduated from Marquette University after playing at Maple Woods Community College during his freshman year prior to transferring to transferring to Avila University for his sophomore campaign, where he led the team in points.

"I've been watching the comets my whole life and it's really special to be part of such a storied club," Kelly said. "I am looking forward to contributing and being a part of this championship team, staff, and management."

The Comets will host the Milwaukee Wave this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the home opener at the Independence Events Center after back-to-back wins against Dallas and Chicago on the road.

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Comets Sign Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams, Brendan Allen Re-Signs


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