Hubbard, Canfield fighters lead way

Each school had four winners among the 34 matches held at Hubbard.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HUBBARD -- Hubbard and Canfield fighters had the best results at the 16th K.O. Drugs High School Boxing Tournament Wednesday night in the Hubbard High gymnasium.
The boxers from Hubbard won four of seven bouts, while Canfield competitors went 4-2. Boardman and Niles fighters won three bouts each.
In all, there were 34 fights; 29 of them ended in decisions and in the other five the referee stopped the contest. Five fighters advanced by default.
Hubbard heavyweight Dave Phillips, a senior who was last year's upperclass light heavyweight champion, improved his all-time record to 5-0 as a K.O. Drugs boxer with a decision over Nick Sommerfield of Reynolds.
Phillips, a southpaw, proved to be a good counter puncher, tagging Sommerfield with long lefts and rights.
"I like to wait for the other guy to throw a punch," said Phillips.
Super-heavyweight win
Kiff Kinkead (6-foot-2, 296 pounds) won a super-heavyweight decision over Sean Harcar from New Castle. Kinkead, who was an All-Trumbull Athletic Conference selection as a two-way tackle at Champion, signed a football scholarship to Kent State.
Fighting an equally big man in Harcar, Kinkead said, "I knew I had to beat him to the punch as much as I could."
Upperclass junior middleweights Tom Fiscus of Struthers and John Butler from Ursuline looked good in gaining decisions in tough battles over Leon Yarmolinsky of Boardman and John Chechitelli of Fitch, respectively.
The only Ursuline boxer in action Wednesday night, Butler, the grandson of former Notre Dame and Youngstown Bear basketball standout Charlie Butler, needed the win to survive in the tournament.
"I thought I won last week and I didn't get that decision, so I threw as many punches as I could and hoped I could win this week," said Butler.
Liberty wins pair
Both Liberty fighters in action Wednesday night were winners. One of them was upperclass welterweight Jon Drennen, a runner-up the last two years, improved his all-time tournament record to 6-2 with a decision over Junior Myers of Keystone.
Boardman senior Marc Schiavoni who won a lightweight decision over DeAngelo McCoy from Life Skills.
Schiavoni, who was 4-0 as an underclass champion when he was a freshman, was in his first bout after a three-year absence.
Dave Castronova, a 15-year-old Austintown Fitch freshman, won a hard fought decision over Keystone's Nick Hartshorn in a welterweight bout.
Another 15-year-old freshman who looked impressive was underclass light heavyweight Dustin Flick of Canfield, who made his ring debut. In winning a decision over Champion's Ryan Miller, Flick looked like he had some experience, but after the fight he said, "The only fighting I ever did before was in my backyard, but I knew if I was going to win, I had to throw a lot of punches."