Spartans swept by Whitehall in conference...
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013 | LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS SPORTS | B3 www.ludingtondailynews.com FROM PAGE B1 LUDINGTON BOYS: 1-Matthew Ritter 16:38. 3-Lucas Schwass 17:17. 5-Ben Jensen 17:29. 7-Chris Snow 17:30. 17-Jarod Cobb 18:05. 26-Randy Johnson 18:50. 28-Luke Riley 18:57. The Ludington girls fin- ished second in the meet and second on the season to the powerful Spring Lake Lakers. Oriole freshman Lauren Biggs earned first-team all- conference honors by tak- ing second place in 19:39. Senior Kayleigh Shillinger placed ninth in 20:45 and took home second-team all- conference honors. Makenna Schwass (18th place), Naomi Billings (19th place) and Asia Patterson (20th place) all earned all- conference honorable men- tion. “The girls ran great,” said Lipa. “We knew that Spring Lake would be very tough.” Spring Lake had six girls finish in the top 10. GIRLS LAKES 8 CHAMPI- ONSHIP TEAM RESULTS: 1-Spring Lake 27. 2-Lud- ington 59. 3-Fremont 68. 4-Howard City Tri-County 112. 5-Orchard View 114. 6-Grant 151. LUDINGTON GIRLS: 2-Lau- ren Biggs 19:39. 9-Kayleigh Shillinger 20:45. 18-Makenna Schwass 22:00. 19-Naomi Bill- ings 22:01. 20-Asia Patterson 22:19. 28-Corrine Anderson 22:45. 38-Emily Edel 24:43. INDIVIDUAL WINNER: Carlyn Arteaga, Spring Lake, 19:26. FROM PAGE B1 “Grant did not outplay us (Tuesday). We beat our- selves,” Stone said. Ludington head coach Scott Stone, still recover- ing from his motorcyle acc- cident, sat with the team on the bench giving some en- couragement and instruc- tion while assisting his wife from his seat. Ludington needed to win the match with Grant to open the door for the first ever league title in Orioles school history. Instead, Ludington will need to win the league tournament out- right and hope Grant falters along the way. The in-sea- son games count for half of the points necessary to win a league title. The other half is determined at that tour- nament. Ludington individual sta- tistics: ERIN THOMSEN: 9-10 serves, 3 points; 31-36 sets, 7 assists; 5 digs. MADDA PUNG: 13-14 serve receive; 5 digs. ANNAH PRYS: 8-10 serves, 3 points, 2 aces. 20-27 attacks, 5 kills; 12 digs; 14-25 serve receive. BRANDY THOMAS: 15-17 at- tacks, 10 kills. ALI PLAMONDON: 8-8 serves, 2 points; 10-12 attacks, 3 kills; 8-8 sets; 6 digs; 10-17 serve receive. MADDIE BOCKELBANK: 8-13 serves, 2 points; 18-20 attacks, 6 kills; 16 digs; 9-12 serve receive. BRETT BROWN: 6-8 serves; 23- 25 sets, 12 assists; 5 digs. MEGAN BRATSCHI: 11-14 at- tacks, 3 kills; 1 block. LEXI CRAWFORD: 11-12 serves, 2 points; 6-6 attacks, 1 kill; 10- 11 sets, 3 assists. Ludington’s junior varsi- ty team defeated Grant, 25- 20, 25-14, to finish unbeaten in Lakes 8 play this season. No individual statistics were submitted. The freshmen team also won, 25-21, 25-22, to im- prove to 12-11-4. Melissa Morton had three aces and was perfect hitting with four kills. Mary Emma Riley was perfect serving and added three aces and four kills. Ri- ley Carey led the way in kills with five while adding two aces. FROM PAGE B1 “This is the first time we’ve played in the rain this season,” said Ludington coach Tim Bryant. “It was good for us to do that.” Greg Butterfield, Caleb Shillinger, Josh Cooney and David Ritter all scored a goal and recorded an assist for the Orioles. Also scoring goals for Ludington were Malcolm Thompson, Zeb Jones, Paul Probst and Alessandro Fo- glietta. The Orioles had 23 shots on goal while the Bucks got off none. “We wanted to come out and put the pressure on them. And hold it on them,” said Bryant. “That is what we did.” Josh Jensen was in goal for the victorious Orioles. BIG RAPIDS 4, MANISTEE 0 MANISTEE — Trailing only 2-0 to Big Rapids at halftime, the Manistee High boys soc- cer team felt like it was still in the game. But the Chippewas failed to create enough offensive chances for themselves in the second half, and eventu- ally finished with a 4-0 loss to the Cardinals in a district qualifier at Chippewa Field in soggy conditions Tues- day. “One of those goals in the first half was on a penalty kick, so overall we didn’t feel too bad at halftime,” Manistee coach Rudy Guil- len said. “We just had to try to cre- ate more scoring opportu- nities, and that was just a little difficult for us today. I thought (goalkeeper) Con- nor (Fitzgerald) did a pret- ty good job. He came up against a couple of tough shots, quality goals that they scored on. He had some big shoes to fill this season, and overall I thought he did a good job for us.” The Chippewas finished the season with a 7-13 re- cord, but graduates only three seniors (not includ- ing a foreign exchange stu- dent) and should have a sol- id corps of returning players next fall Guillen’s major concern is getting more players to come out to give the team a stronger base around which to build, and create better depth. “Our biggest issue right now is getting enough num- bers out,” the coach said. “It’s been our biggest road- block here the past couple of seasons. It’ll help us not only for when the season starts, but the future.” BY THE DAILY NEWS SCOTTVILLE — The Mason County Central volleyball team finished its West Michigan Confer- ence regular season schedule with a 2-5 record after losing on Tues- day to the Whitehall Vikings 10- 25, 20-25, 12-25. “We played well at times, but we struggled once Whitehall got more than a few points ahead of us,” said Spartan coach Mary Scheffler. On the season, Central is now 8-19-7. Central’s individual statistics: CARLY DAVIS: 2 digs. ABBIE BERRINGER: 10-10 serves, 3 points, 1-1 attack, 57-60 sets, 12 as- sists, 12 digs. KYLIE MOUNT: 3-4 serves, 1 point, 7-9 attacks, 3 kills, 6 digs. ABBY MAVIS: 5-5 serves, 1 point, 1 ace, 1-2 attacks, 3-3 sets, 4 digs. DRIA STRIKER: 10-11 serves, 4 points, 2 aces, 11-12 attacks, 2 kills, 7-7 sets, 3 assists, 4 digs. ASHLEY PYKE: 2-2 serves, 3-5 attacks, 5-5 sets, 10 digs. MADISON GEERS: 5-7 serves, 1 point, 35-36 attacks, 12 kills, 6-6 sets, 1 as- sist, 17 digs. SARAH WINEY: 2 digs. SILJA BACHMANN: 3-4 serves, 1 point, 10-12 attacks, 2 kills, 2-2 sets. MONTAGUE 3, HART 1 MONTAGUE — The Hart Pirates volleyball squad finished its West Michigan Conference schedule with an 0-7 mark on Tuesday after falling 12-25, 25-22, 16-25, 19-25 to the Montague Wildcats. “I was happy with our effort,” said Pirate coach Chris Bosse. “We are making strides at a good time, right before the tournaments.” “Baylee Draper had a great night at the net,” added Bosse. “And Natalie Switaj did a nice job on serve receive.” Hart is now 2-25-2 on the season. Hart’s individual statistics: ANNA HERTZLER: 4 kills, 1 ace, 7 digs. ANNA DRENTH: 2 kills, 1 block, 4 digs. BAYLEE DRAPER: 9 kills, 3 aces, 1 block, 4 digs. HALEY MAST: 2 kills, 5 aces, 4 digs. ISABEL VILLA: 2 digs. JESSICA RIGGS: 4 kills, 4 aces, 17 as- sists, 3 digs. NATALIE SWITAJ: 1 kill, 2 digs. RAVEN SMITH: 1 dig. SYDNEY SCARBROUGH: 4 digs. BRETHREN 3, PENTWATER 1 BRETHREN — Pentwater’s vol- leyball team dropped a 27-25, 20- 25, 18-25, 22-25 decision to Breth- ren Tuesday night in Western Michigan D League play. “Tonight was a tough loss for us in the conference. We couldn’t ever get into a good rhythm to- night. We made too many passing, serving, and hitting errors,” Pent- water coach Kerry Foote said. “We would get down and then make a fight back and then miss a serve. It really didn’t help us tonight. “The girls have some tough competition coming up before dis- tricts and we need to work on get- ting our focus back. They have the ability to play with the best teams in the conference, we just have to bring it all together.” Pentwater fell to 15-6 for the year. Pentwater individual statistics: CHYANNE SMITH: 4 attacks, 2 kills; 14 assists; 23 serves, 4 aces; 5 digs. LINNEA MCDONOUGH: 25 attacks, 9 kills; 10 serves, 2 aces; 10 digs; 26 serve receive. EMILY GEBHART: 28 attacks, 7 kills; 12 serves, 1 aces; 11 digs; 23 serve receive. TAYLOR GEBHART: 11 attacks, 4 kills; 13 serves, 1 ace; 11 digs; 10 serve receive. TAYLOR WILKINSON: 6 attacks, 3 kills; 5 serve; 2 digs; 3 serve receive. ANNA HOFMANN: 4 attacks, 3 kills; 11 serves, 2 aces; 6 digs; 12 serve receive. JILL MILLER: 2 assists; 14 serves, 1 ace; 9 digs; 11 serve receive. Prep volleyball Spartans swept by Whitehall in conference finale ORIOLES: Swept in bid to take lead in Lakes 8 race SOCCER: Ludington faces Shelby next in district semis LHS: Girls cross country team second to Spring Lake SUBMITTED PHOTO The newly minted three-time Lakes 8 Activities Conference champion Ludington boys cross country team pose for a photo af- ter winning their latest crown Tuesday in Fruitport. Members of the team are, from left, coach John Lipa, Luke Schwass, Lucas Catron, Ben Jensen, Chris Snow, Jakob Kuhn, Matt Ritter, Quinn Phelps, Jarod Cobb, Jacob Lesinski, Luke Riley, Randy Johnson, Sean Pollock, Riley Brown, Trenton Dalm and Brendan Pollock. BY SCOTT HELD ASSOCIATED PRESS ALLEN PARK (AP) — The Detroit Lions have 13 take- aways this season — three less than all of last season — and the defense isn’t the only unit pleased with the performance. “It’s huge. Our whole de- fense has been making plays; every facet of it,” quarterback Matthew Staf- ford said Tuesday. “The d- line, the linebackers, the DBs — everybody is getting their hands on footballs and turning them back over to us, and as an offense, you love it.” That’s one of the rea- sons the Lions have already matched last season’s win total. The Lions have 10 inter- ceptions in this season’s first six games, including two by linebacker DeAndre Levy in Sunday’s 31-17 win at Cleveland. Levy is tied for the league lead in inter- ceptions with four — the most by a Lions linebacker since 1989 — and the team shares the league lead with Buffalo and Kansas City. Add three fumble recov- eries and Detroit is in the upper third of the league in total takeaways. Coach Jim Schwartz isn’t surprised by the number of interceptions — especially with a defensive line that includes Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley. “I think a lot of it has to do with the guys up front,” he said. “I think a lot of good things happen when you put pressure on the quar- terback and some of those good things are turnovers. It was an area we lacked in last year and we’ve seen some good things in the first six games. “We still have a long way to go, but when you look at our four wins, when we win the turnover battle, it puts us in good position to win the game.” Detroit has returned an interception and a fumble recovery for touchdowns this season and set the of- fense up with short fields after other takeaways. “Game-changing plays like that, chances to have great field position, is all you can ask for,” Stafford said. Cornerback Rashean Mathis said the Lions take the field hoping for at least three more takeaways than the opposing defense. He’s glad to be part of a unit that’s done its part so far. “It always feels good to get our hands on a ball as a defensive unit,” he said. “If we can top that total or double that total, it’s go- ing to be a plus for us at the end of the year.” The fast start has prompted talk of a postsea- son berth, but several play- ers deflected such buzz with the old “one-game- at-a-time” mantra. Still, Mathis said Detroit expect- ed to be in contention when it broke camp. “That was our expecta- tion at 0-0,” he said. “We knew we had the capability, we knew we had the talent — it’s just a matter of how we execute.” The Lions, who played four of their first six games away from home, welcome Cincinnati on Sunday and play host to Dallas on Oct. 27 before taking their bye week. NOTES: The Lions signed tight end Dorin Dickerson and released receiver Patrick Edwards on Tuesday. Dicker- son caught nine passes in 11 games for Buffalo last season but was released before the end of training camp. Edwards had five catches in three games this season. . Mathis, who did not finish the Cleveland game due to a groin injury, said he feels fine. Pro football Lions feasting on turnovers to reach 4-2 TONY DEJAK | AP PHOTO Detroit Lions outside linebacker DeAndre Levy catches an in- terception as Cleveland Browns running back Chris Ogbonnaya defends Sunday in Cleveland. Suh faces potential discipline DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is facing potential discipline from the NFL. The league is reviewing Suh’s play against Cleveland. Suh led with his helmet when he hit Browns quar- terback Brandon Weeden after he threw a pass in Sunday’s game. The hit that wasn’t penalized was shown on a video posted on NFL.com on Tuesday as vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said, “Why don’t we look at it some more?” in the league’s officiating command center. Suh was fined $100,000 for an illegal block on Min- nesota Vikings center John Sullivan during an in- terception return in Week 1. He lost an appeal last week. GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers wide re- ceiver Randall Cobb is out for at least six weeks with a knee injury. The team placed Cobb on injured reserve/designated for return on Tuesday. The designation requires a play- er to miss at least six games. Cobb was hurt during the 19-17 win Sunday over the Ravens. The hobbled Packers also placed backup offensive lineman Greg Van Roten on injured reserve. He had a foot injury. The team replenished its roster by signing tight end Jake Stoneburner and Myles White off the practice squad, and signed linebacker Victor Aiyewa to the practice squad. Coach Mike McCarthy has already said linebacker Nick Perry (foot) is out for this weekend. Cobb placed on IR
Transcript of Spartans swept by Whitehall in conference...
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013 | LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS SPORTS | B3 www.ludingtondailynews.com
FROM PAGE B1
LUDINGTON BOYS: 1-Matthew Ritter 16:38. 3-Lucas Schwass 17:17. 5-Ben Jensen 17:29. 7-Chris Snow 17:30. 17-Jarod Cobb 18:05. 26-Randy Johnson 18:50. 28-Luke Riley 18:57.
The Ludington girls fin-ished second in the meet and second on the season
to the powerful Spring Lake Lakers.
Oriole freshman Lauren Biggs earned first-team all-conference honors by tak-ing second place in 19:39.
Senior Kayleigh Shillinger placed ninth in 20:45 and took home second-team all-conference honors.
Makenna Schwass (18th place), Naomi Billings (19th place) and Asia Patterson
(20th place) all earned all-conference honorable men-tion.
“The girls ran great,” said Lipa. “We knew that Spring Lake would be very tough.”
Spring Lake had six girls finish in the top 10.
GIRLS LAKES 8 CHAMPI-ONSHIP TEAM RESULTS: 1-Spring Lake 27. 2-Lud-ington 59. 3-Fremont 68.
4-Howard City Tri-County 112. 5-Orchard View 114. 6-Grant 151.
LUDINGTON GIRLS: 2-Lau-ren Biggs 19:39. 9-Kayleigh Shillinger 20:45. 18-Makenna Schwass 22:00. 19-Naomi Bill-ings 22:01. 20-Asia Patterson 22:19. 28-Corrine Anderson 22:45. 38-Emily Edel 24:43.
INDIVIDUAL WINNER: Carlyn Arteaga, Spring Lake, 19:26.
FROM PAGE B1
“Grant did not outplay us (Tuesday). We beat our-selves,” Stone said.
Ludington head coach Scott Stone, still recover-ing from his motorcyle acc-cident, sat with the team on the bench giving some en-couragement and instruc-tion while assisting his wife from his seat.
Ludington needed to win the match with Grant to open the door for the first ever league title in Orioles school history. Instead, Ludington will need to win the league tournament out-right and hope Grant falters along the way. The in-sea-son games count for half of the points necessary to win a league title. The other half is determined at that tour-nament.
Ludington individual sta-tistics:
ERIN THOMSEN: 9-10 serves, 3 points; 31-36 sets, 7 assists; 5 digs.
MADDA PUNG: 13-14 serve receive; 5 digs.
ANNAH PRYS: 8-10 serves, 3 points, 2 aces. 20-27 attacks,
5 kills; 12 digs; 14-25 serve receive.
BRANDY THOMAS: 15-17 at-tacks, 10 kills.
ALI PLAMONDON: 8-8 serves, 2 points; 10-12 attacks, 3 kills; 8-8 sets; 6 digs; 10-17 serve receive.
MADDIE BOCKELBANK: 8-13 serves, 2 points; 18-20 attacks, 6 kills; 16 digs; 9-12 serve receive.
BRETT BROWN: 6-8 serves; 23-25 sets, 12 assists; 5 digs.
MEGAN BRATSCHI: 11-14 at-tacks, 3 kills; 1 block.
LEXI CRAWFORD: 11-12 serves, 2 points; 6-6 attacks, 1 kill; 10-11 sets, 3 assists.
Ludington’s junior varsi-ty team defeated Grant, 25-20, 25-14, to finish unbeaten in Lakes 8 play this season. No individual statistics were submitted.
The freshmen team also won, 25-21, 25-22, to im-prove to 12-11-4. Melissa Morton had three aces and was perfect hitting with four kills. Mary Emma Riley was perfect serving and added three aces and four kills. Ri-ley Carey led the way in kills with five while adding two aces.
FROM PAGE B1
“This is the first time we’ve played in the rain this season,” said Ludington coach Tim Bryant. “It was good for us to do that.”
Greg Butterfield, Caleb Shillinger, Josh Cooney and David Ritter all scored a goal and recorded an assist for the Orioles.
Also scoring goals for Ludington were Malcolm Thompson, Zeb Jones, Paul Probst and Alessandro Fo-glietta.
The Orioles had 23 shots on goal while the Bucks got off none.
“We wanted to come out and put the pressure on them. And hold it on them,” said Bryant. “That is what we did.”
Josh Jensen was in goal for the victorious Orioles.
BIG RAPIDS 4, MANISTEE 0MANISTEE — Trailing only
2-0 to Big Rapids at halftime, the Manistee High boys soc-cer team felt like it was still in the game.
But the Chippewas failed to create enough offensive chances for themselves in the second half, and eventu-ally finished with a 4-0 loss to the Cardinals in a district qualifier at Chippewa Field in soggy conditions Tues-day.
“One of those goals in the first half was on a penalty kick, so overall we didn’t feel too bad at halftime,” Manistee coach Rudy Guil-len said.
“We just had to try to cre-ate more scoring opportu-nities, and that was just a little difficult for us today. I thought (goalkeeper) Con-nor (Fitzgerald) did a pret-ty good job. He came up against a couple of tough shots, quality goals that they scored on. He had some big shoes to fill this season, and overall I thought he did a good job for us.”
The Chippewas finished the season with a 7-13 re-cord, but graduates only three seniors (not includ-ing a foreign exchange stu-dent) and should have a sol-id corps of returning players next fall
Guillen’s major concern is getting more players to come out to give the team a stronger base around which to build, and create better depth.
“Our biggest issue right now is getting enough num-bers out,” the coach said. “It’s been our biggest road-block here the past couple of seasons. It’ll help us not only for when the season starts, but the future.”
BY THE DAILY NEWS
SCOTTVILLE — The Mason County Central volleyball team finished its West Michigan Confer-ence regular season schedule with a 2-5 record after losing on Tues-day to the Whitehall Vikings 10-25, 20-25, 12-25.
“We played well at times, but we struggled once Whitehall got more than a few points ahead of us,” said Spartan coach Mary Scheffler.
On the season, Central is now 8-19-7.
Central’s individual statistics:
CARLY DAVIS: 2 digs.ABBIE BERRINGER: 10-10 serves, 3
points, 1-1 attack, 57-60 sets, 12 as-sists, 12 digs.
KYLIE MOUNT: 3-4 serves, 1 point, 7-9
attacks, 3 kills, 6 digs.ABBY MAVIS: 5-5 serves, 1 point, 1
ace, 1-2 attacks, 3-3 sets, 4 digs.DRIA STRIKER: 10-11 serves, 4 points,
2 aces, 11-12 attacks, 2 kills, 7-7 sets, 3 assists, 4 digs.
ASHLEY PYKE: 2-2 serves, 3-5 attacks, 5-5 sets, 10 digs.
MADISON GEERS: 5-7 serves, 1 point, 35-36 attacks, 12 kills, 6-6 sets, 1 as-sist, 17 digs.
SARAH WINEY: 2 digs.SILJA BACHMANN: 3-4 serves, 1 point,
10-12 attacks, 2 kills, 2-2 sets.
MONTAGUE 3, HART 1MONTAGUE — The Hart Pirates
volleyball squad finished its West Michigan Conference schedule with an 0-7 mark on Tuesday after falling 12-25, 25-22, 16-25, 19-25 to the Montague Wildcats.
“I was happy with our effort,” said Pirate coach Chris Bosse. “We are making strides at a good time, right before the tournaments.”
“Baylee Draper had a great night at the net,” added Bosse. “And Natalie Switaj did a nice job on serve receive.”
Hart is now 2-25-2 on the season.Hart’s individual statistics:
ANNA HERTZLER: 4 kills, 1 ace, 7 digs.ANNA DRENTH: 2 kills, 1 block, 4 digs.BAYLEE DRAPER: 9 kills, 3 aces, 1
block, 4 digs.HALEY MAST: 2 kills, 5 aces, 4 digs.ISABEL VILLA: 2 digs.JESSICA RIGGS: 4 kills, 4 aces, 17 as-
sists, 3 digs.NATALIE SWITAJ: 1 kill, 2 digs.RAVEN SMITH: 1 dig.SYDNEY SCARBROUGH: 4 digs.
BRETHREN 3, PENTWATER 1BRETHREN — Pentwater’s vol-
leyball team dropped a 27-25, 20-25, 18-25, 22-25 decision to Breth-ren Tuesday night in Western Michigan D League play.
“Tonight was a tough loss for us in the conference. We couldn’t ever get into a good rhythm to-night. We made too many passing, serving, and hitting errors,” Pent-water coach Kerry Foote said. “We would get down and then make a fight back and then miss a serve. It really didn’t help us tonight.
“The girls have some tough competition coming up before dis-tricts and we need to work on get-ting our focus back. They have the ability to play with the best teams in the conference, we just have to
bring it all together.”Pentwater fell to 15-6 for the year.Pentwater individual statistics:
CHYANNE SMITH: 4 attacks, 2 kills; 14 assists; 23 serves, 4 aces; 5 digs.
LINNEA MCDONOUGH: 25 attacks, 9 kills; 10 serves, 2 aces; 10 digs; 26 serve receive.
EMILY GEBHART: 28 attacks, 7 kills; 12 serves, 1 aces; 11 digs; 23 serve receive.
TAYLOR GEBHART: 11 attacks, 4 kills; 13 serves, 1 ace; 11 digs; 10 serve receive.
TAYLOR WILKINSON: 6 attacks, 3 kills; 5 serve; 2 digs; 3 serve receive.
ANNA HOFMANN: 4 attacks, 3 kills; 11 serves, 2 aces; 6 digs; 12 serve receive.
JILL MILLER: 2 assists; 14 serves, 1 ace; 9 digs; 11 serve receive.
Prep volleyballSpartans swept by Whitehall in conference finale
ORIOLES: Swept in bid to take lead in Lakes 8 race
SOCCER: Ludington faces Shelby next in district semis
LHS: Girls cross country team second to Spring Lake
SUBMITTED PHOTOThe newly minted three-time Lakes 8 Activities Conference champion Ludington boys cross country team pose for a photo af-ter winning their latest crown Tuesday in Fruitport. Members of the team are, from left, coach John Lipa, Luke Schwass, Lucas Catron, Ben Jensen, Chris Snow, Jakob Kuhn, Matt Ritter, Quinn Phelps, Jarod Cobb, Jacob Lesinski, Luke Riley, Randy Johnson, Sean Pollock, Riley Brown, Trenton Dalm and Brendan Pollock.
BY SCOTT HELDASSOCIATED PRESS
ALLEN PARK (AP) — The Detroit Lions have 13 take-aways this season — three less than all of last season — and the defense isn’t the only unit pleased with the performance.
“It’s huge. Our whole de-fense has been making plays; every facet of it,” quarterback Matthew Staf-ford said Tuesday. “The d-line, the linebackers, the DBs — everybody is getting their hands on footballs and turning them back over to us, and as an offense, you love it.”
That’s one of the rea-sons the Lions have already matched last season’s win total.
The Lions have 10 inter-ceptions in this season’s first six games, including two by linebacker DeAndre Levy in Sunday’s 31-17 win at Cleveland. Levy is tied for the league lead in inter-ceptions with four — the most by a Lions linebacker since 1989 — and the team shares the league lead with Buffalo and Kansas City.
Add three fumble recov-eries and Detroit is in the upper third of the league in total takeaways.
Coach Jim Schwartz isn’t surprised by the number of interceptions — especially with a defensive line that includes Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the guys up front,” he said. “I think a lot of good things happen when you put pressure on the quar-terback and some of those good things are turnovers. It was an area we lacked in last year and we’ve seen some good things in the first six games.
“We still have a long way to go, but when you look at our four wins, when we win the turnover battle, it
puts us in good position to win the game.”
Detroit has returned an interception and a fumble
recovery for touchdowns this season and set the of-fense up with short fields after other takeaways.
“Game-changing plays like that, chances to have great field position, is all you can ask for,” Stafford said.
Cornerback Rashean Mathis said the Lions take the field hoping for at least three more takeaways than the opposing defense. He’s glad to be part of a unit that’s done its part so far.
“It always feels good to get our hands on a ball as a defensive unit,” he said. “If we can top that total or double that total, it’s go-ing to be a plus for us at the end of the year.”
The fast start has prompted talk of a postsea-son berth, but several play-ers deflected such buzz with the old “one-game-at-a-time” mantra. Still, Mathis said Detroit expect-ed to be in contention when it broke camp.
“That was our expecta-tion at 0-0,” he said. “We knew we had the capability, we knew we had the talent — it’s just a matter of how we execute.”
The Lions, who played four of their first six games away from home, welcome Cincinnati on Sunday and play host to Dallas on Oct. 27 before taking their bye week.
NOTES: The Lions signed tight end Dorin Dickerson and released receiver Patrick Edwards on Tuesday. Dicker-son caught nine passes in 11 games for Buffalo last season but was released before the end of training camp. Edwards had five catches in three games this season. . Mathis, who did not finish the Cleveland game due to a groin injury, said he feels fine.
Pro footballLions feasting on turnovers to reach 4-2
TONY DEJAK | AP PHOTODetroit Lions outside linebacker DeAndre Levy catches an in-terception as Cleveland Browns running back Chris Ogbonnaya defends Sunday in Cleveland.
Suh faces potential disciplineDETROIT (AP) — Detroit Lions defensive tackle
Ndamukong Suh is facing potential discipline from the NFL.
The league is reviewing Suh’s play against Cleveland.Suh led with his helmet when he hit Browns quar-
terback Brandon Weeden after he threw a pass in Sunday’s game. The hit that wasn’t penalized was shown on a video posted on NFL.com on Tuesday as vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said, “Why don’t we look at it some more?” in the league’s officiating command center.
Suh was fined $100,000 for an illegal block on Min-nesota Vikings center John Sullivan during an in-terception return in Week 1. He lost an appeal last week.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers wide re-ceiver Randall Cobb is out for at least six weeks with a knee injury.
The team placed Cobb on injured reserve/designated for return on Tuesday. The designation requires a play-er to miss at least six games. Cobb was hurt during the 19-17 win Sunday over the Ravens.
The hobbled Packers also
placed backup offensive lineman Greg Van Roten on injured reserve. He had a foot injury.
The team replenished its roster by signing tight end Jake Stoneburner and Myles White off the practice squad, and signed linebacker Victor Aiyewa to the practice squad.
Coach Mike McCarthy has already said linebacker Nick Perry (foot) is out for this weekend.
Cobb placed on IR
