Charity rock'n'goal a big hit Def Leppard rockers play Whitehall benefit. 08/31/99 By MIKE FRASSINELLI Of The Morning Call Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell (right) on offense. Even before a comic in full Amish attire took to the field to offer running, er, walking commentary, something seemed out of place. Hard rockers whose high decibel music could remove the rust from nails are playing a soccer match! For charity, nonetheless! In the shadows of a retirement home! Whatever happened to fighting with your parents over rock 'n' roll? Or tearing up hotel rooms? Or breaking a guitar into pieces on stage? Def Leppard, which plays music tonight at the Allentown Fairgrounds, played classic rock station WZZO Monday night in a match at Whitehall's Zephyr Park. Local Internet provider Enternet donated $5 for every person who attended the free event, up to 400 people, to benefit Schadt Avenue Parks and Recreation Association youth programs. Nearly 1,000 people watched the match, won 6-3 by Def Leppard and its crew, helped greatly by guitarist Vivian Campbell's four goals. The team from WZZO was hardly disappointed. It was the first time the radio station team scored a goal against the rockers in three games with the band since 1983. When a ball went into the Def Leppard goal about eight minutes into the second half, WZZO morning man Bearman, handling play-by-play duties, exclaimed: ''Ladies and gentlemen, a historic moment!'' As the match progressed, it appeared nothing would prevent Def Leppard from winning. Not even Raymond the Amish Comic, who carried a wireless microphone on the field as he tried to distract members of Def Leppard's team. Band members took the antics -- which included the entire WZZO team rushing the field with under a minute left in the match -- good naturedly. But it wasn't hard to see that the band members, ranging in age from 36 to 40, take their soccer seriously. ''It's just the British way,'' said Phil ''Side Phil'' Wilkey, the band's monitor man and team goalie. ''Even if you play a friendly game, you go out and play hard.'' Bassist Rick Savage, a soccer prospect in his native Sheffield, England, provided a scare late in the match when he came to the sidelines holding his left hamstring. Moments later, he was smiling as he held ice from the water cooler on the back of the leg. Campbell, a native of Ireland, plays in two weekend soccer leagues in Los Angeles when the band is not touring. He said a package filled with tapes of English league soccer matches arrives every week so band members -- singer Joe Elliott, drummer Rick Allen and guitarist Phil Collen also played Monday -- can keep up with the results from their homeland. ''I love to play,'' Campbell said after Monday's match, his first in more than six weeks. ''We're way out of shape. We do our shows four or five times a week, but it's nothing like running when you play soccer. I miss it, because I'm used to playing every weekend.'' Fans lined both sides of the field, sitting in bleachers and along the sidelines, not far from Fellowship Community Manor and Courts. Among them was 39-year-old Cindy Driscoll, who has seen Def Leppard 60 times, including shows in England and Holland. She met band members at the Hilton lounge after a show in Allentown in 1983 and was impressed by how ''incredibly gracious'' they were. ''That did it,'' said Driscoll, who would go on to follow the band near and mostly far. ''Life was not the same after that.'' Def Leppard's legacy remains strong in the household of Brenda and Chris Ritter of Lehighton, who rekindled their romance by going to a Def Leppard concert in Philadelphia in 1992 and married two years later. ''They,'' Brenda Ritter said, ''brought me and my first love back together.'' © 1999 THE MORNING CALL Inc.