Sports News - January 18-23
Jays Defeat Randolph by Laura Huff
The Pierce varsity boys’ basketball team battled through cold shooting and used their in-the-face defense to prevail over Randolph 46-31 at Randolph on Tuesday, January 19.
The Jays tallied ten points in the first quarter and held the Cardinals to seven. Pierce added nine points in the second quarter, but the Cardinals were able to hit ten. Nevertheless, Pierce led 19-17 at the half.
In the third quarter Pierce added fourteen points and Randolph, seven. The Cardinals had to foul in the fourth to try for possessions, but Pierce players made their free throws and Randolph gained nothing. The Jays hit thirteen points to Randolph’s seven to win by fifteen.
All eleven of Pierce’s players saw action in the game, and five scored. Kenley Silhacek said that referees called a watchful game and some of the starters got into foul trouble. However, “the young kids played a big role in the game.”
Derek Wiedenfeld led all scorers with eighteen points. As a team the Bluejays tried the three point shot with not much success, but Wiedenfeld connected with three in a row, so teammates encouraged him to shoot. Kenley Silhacek had eleven points; Connor Schultz, eight; Connor Reed, five, and Brady Bretschneider, 4. Schultz had five rebounds and three steals to lead the defense; Silhacek had four rebounds.
Pierce out-rebounded Randolph nineteen to fourteen and had only four turnovers to the Cardinals’ fourteen. However, the Jays shot only 41 percent on the night. They were much better on their free throws, hitting fourteen of fifteen for 93 percent. Silhacek hit all six of his free throws.
Lady Jays Beat Randolph Cardinals by Megan Gerteisen
The Pierce girls’ varsity basketball team played the Randolph Cardinals on the Cardinal’s home court on Tuesday, January 19. The Lady Jays won with a score of 59-22.
The Lady Cardinals trailed Pierce the entire game. The first quarter ended with a score of 13-4. Continuing to play hard, the Lady Jays racked up 12 more points in the second quarter to Randolph’s 7 points, so Pierce led 25-11 at the half. Pierce came back in the third quarter and scored 12 points, while the Lady Cardinals came back with 4. Pierce was winning 37-15. During the fourth quarter Pierce finalized their win by scoring 22 points, while the Lady Cardinals scored 7 points.
Pierce connected on 6 three-point shots to Randolph’s 1 three-pointer, and Pierce also had a better shooting percentage than Randolph, 36 percent to 14 percent. Pierce hit 16 two-point shots, while Randolph hit 4. Pierce out-rebounded the Lady Cardinals 46-28. The Lady Jays stole the ball 20 times while Randolph had 3 steals; Randolph had 34 turnovers to Pierce’s 15.
Joey Koehn led the team with 16 points, including 5 three-point shots. Heather Wachter and Laura Retzlaff followed with 7. Morgan Buckendahl, Skyler Lippman, and Rachel Wiedenfeld all scored 6 points. Briana Adams made 5 points, and Payton Wragge, Branigan Stonacek, and Meghan Vogt all made 2 points. Wachter led the defense with 9 rebounds, followed by Lippman and Wiedenfeld with 7 apiece. Wachter had 6 steals.
Coach Sindelar said, “I thought we did a good job of pressuring the ball and making the Cardinals turn the ball over. We played under control, and that helped us to take a lot better shots.” Laura Retzlaff said, “ We worked well together, and we just had fun while we played.”
The Lady Jays’ next game was on Saturday, January 23, at Battle Creek. They will play again on Thursday, January 28, on Pierce’s home court against Crofton.
JV Girls Defeat Randolph by Caleb Erickson
Once again the Pierce JV girls’ basketball team nearly doubled the score on an opponent as they trounced Randolph 48 to 27 in an away game on Tuesday, January 19. Although Randolph played a box-and-one defense that keyed on Briana Adams, Adams sank 18 points in the contest to lead all scorers.
All 11 of Pierce’s JV girls saw action in the game, and ten of them scored points. Each girl played one or two quarters, but since Randolph does not have enough players to play no more than two JV quarters and still field a varsity team, the girls played just three 8-minute quarters.
The Pierce JV girls stayed ahead the whole game, beginning in the first period by scoring 17 points and holding Randolph to just 8 points. Pierce continued their relentless lead in the next period, scoring 20 points and allowing 11 points from Randolph. In the last period the JV Lady Jays didn’t let up on Randolph, scoring 11 points and allowing 8 points to take an impressive 21-point victory over the JV Lady Cardinals.
Following Adams’ 18 points were Branigan Stonacek with 6 points and Rachel Wiedenfeld and Alyssa Blair with 5 points apiece. Adams said, “Our shots fell.” The Pierce High girls’ JV basketball team will play again on Thursday, January 28 against Crofton at Pierce High School.
Varsity Girls Win at Battle Creek by Linse De Grez
The Pierce varsity girls’ basketball team defeated Battle Creek with a score of 42-30 at Battle Creek on January 23.
The Lady Jays immediately showed what they could do in the first quarter, scoring 10 points to 5 for the Battle Creek Bravettes. In the second quarter the Bravettes scored 8 points, but the Lady Jays could score 11 points. Pierce had a 21-13 lead at half time.
Again in the third quarter, the Lady Jays scored more points than the Bravettes. Battle Creek scored 7 points while the Lady Jays scored 15 points. In the fourth quarter the Bravettes scored more than Pierce, 10 to 6, but Pierce was still ahead and won by twelve points.
Senior Laura Retzlaff dominated the game, scoring a total of 15 points. Joey Koehn gave the team another 12 points, also scoring the two 3-pointers of the game. Heather Wachter and Meghan Vogt both scored 5 points, Skyler Lippman scored 2 and Morgan Buckendahl, Rachel Wiedenfeld and Ellie Pytleski scored 1 point in free throws. Koehn got 6 free throws, and she didn’t miss any of them.
The Pierce Lady Jays played a home game against Wayne on January 26 and on January 28 they play Crofton, at Pierce.
Junior High Girls Finish Tough Season by Laurie Venteicher
Pierce’s seventh and eighth grade girls’ basketball teams played their last games of their season on Thursday, January 21. The seventh-graders had five wins and five losses for the season; the eighth-graders had one win and nine losses. In December, both teams played in the Wayne and Norfolk Catholic Tournaments and had one other game against Wayne. In January, they played Plainview, Creighton, Norfolk Catholic, Randolph, and Hartington CC.
In the Wayne Tourney they played Hartington CC and West Point GA; the seventh grade girls beat Hartington CC 40-2 and lost to West Point GA 43-18. Rachelle Tucker and Allison Koehlmoos led the scorers against Hartington CC with 10 and 9 points, respectively. Hannah Higgins and Sydney Silhacek scored 8 and 7 points, respectively. Tucker again led scorers against West Point GA with 6 points. The eighth grade girls fought hard, but they lost to Hartington CC 42-9, and they lost to West Point GA 52-12. Heather Guenther led Pierce scorers in both games with 5 points against Hartington CC and 7 points against West Point GA.
In the Norfolk Catholic Tourney they played Boone Central and Norfolk Catholic; the seventh-graders beat Boone 29-14, but they lost to N.C. 45-15. Tucker led scorers for both games with 11 points against Boone and 5 points against N.C. The eighth-grade girls again fought hard but lost to Boone 40-15 and Norfolk Catholic 34-9. Jayden Mayfield amassed 13 points against Boone, and Carly McElhose led scorers against N.C. with 7 points.
In the seventh-graders’ game against Wayne, Tucker again led scorers with 9 points. Six other Bluejays scored to amass 24 points, but they lost 27-24. The eighth-grade girls also lost to Wayne 51-8; four eighth-graders scored against Wayne.
Both teams defeated Plainview on January 11; the seventh-graders won 28-4, while the eighth-graders won 31-20. Seventh-graders Tucker and Caitlyn Skoudas each scored 7 points; Silhacek and Higgins both scored 5 points. Mayfield led the eighth-graders with 10 points.
In their game against Creighton, the seventh-grade girls lost 28-15. Higgins and Tucker led the six Bluejay scorers with 4 points apiece. The eighth graders played a close game, but they lost 28-23. Mayfield led scorers with 6 points.
Both teams lost their games against Norfolk Catholic; the seventh-grade team lost 35-13, and the eighth-grade team lost 35-12. Again, Tucker led scorers with 7 points. Mayfield and Koehlmoos each scored 4 points.
Pierce’s seventh-graders dominated Randolph, doubling the Cardinals’ score to win 32-16. Tucker led all scorers with 14 points. Silhacek and Higgins scored 5 points apiece. The eighth-graders lost 44-19. Mayfield again led scorers with 10 points.
Both teams played their last games on Thursday, January 21, against Hartington CC. The seventh-graders won 38-21 with Tucker leading the eight Bluejay scorers with 12 points. Polt scored 6 points to help with the win. The eighth-graders lost 36-11. Five Bluejays scored.
JV Girls Beat Battle Creek by Eva Chavez
The JV Lady Jays’ basketball team won 32-8 on Saturday, January 23 at Battle Creek. The girls played steady but not dramatic basketball through three quarters then stepped up the pace a bit in the fourth quarter as they dominated the Bravettes.
Pierce outscored Battle Creek 7-3 in the first quarter and 7-0 in the second, possessing the lead at the half, 14-3. In the third quarter the Lady Jays scored 6 to Battle Creek’s 5. In the fourth quarter the Lady Jays scored 12 and Battle Creek 0. Four of Pierce’s points were on free throws.
The Lady Jays’ lead scorer was Haley Hoffman with 8; followed by Briana Adams with 6. Morgan Buckendahl and Ellie Pytleski helped out their team with 4 points each. Krystina Koepke and Rachel Wiedenfeld scored 3; Payton Wragge and Branigan Stonacek scored 2 apiece.
The JV Girls play at home against Crofton this Thursday, January 28.
Wrestlers Dominate O’Neill by Lacey Adams
Dominating the dual with an exceptional seven pins, the Pierce Warbirds defeated the O’Neill wrestling team 51-27 on Thursday, January 22 at Pierce.
Winning their matches by pins were Nate Meier, Logan Sudbeck, Kyle Eddy, Zach Neuhalfen, Seth Eggerling, Tanner Dickey, and Stephan Johnson. Mason Sudbeck won his match by a decision. Nick Ussery won by open weight class.
Shelton Dvorak lost his match 3-4, after his opponent got a last-second escape in the third period. Mason Zimmerer and Gus Ussery also lost their matches.
“In practice we’ve been doing a lot of reaction drills because our boys were having trouble reacting quickly, and it helped; I thought our boys reacted well Thursday night,” said Coach Ryan Stusse.
Seth Eggerling said, “We had a tough practice the night before, and we were a little sore, but we came out and did what we had to do.”
JV Jays Beat Cardinals by Sarah Krohn
Pierce’s JV boys’ basketball team started off with an 18-point power surge in the first quarter and went on to defeat the Randolph Cardinals 37-23 at Randolph on Tuesday, January 12. Zach Fehringer said the team “came out with intensity and showed up to play.”
Pierce played good defense all through the game and allowed the Cards only two points in the first quarter and four points in the second. The Jays added six points in the second quarter to their 18 and led 24-6 at the half.
Fehringer had hit a 3 pointer and Connor Reed had hit three of them in the first quarter; in the third, Fehringer connected on two more threes, and Tyler Lindsay tallied one to lead the Jays to 11 points while they held Randolph to 8. The fourth quarter was not as pretty: Pierce hit one basket and allowed the Cardinals nine points, 5 on free throws.
Reed led all scorers with 11 points, followed by Fehringer with 9, Jarold McWilliams with 6, and Lindsay with 5.
The Jays played hard the whole game, and the freshmen really stepped up. Coach Mike Emory said, “The boys came out strong with a good defense and shot a lot of good shots.” The JV boys play again on Thursday, January 28 at Pierce against Crofton, also Parents Night for boys’ basketball and the dance team.
Warbirds Third at Dual Tourney by Laura Huff
The Pierce High wrestling team took third on Saturday, January 23, 2010, wrestling four duals in a tournament at Aurora.
Pierce beat O’Neill in the first round of the day with a score of 48-18. In the second round, Pierce was outscored by Aurora with a score of 20-51. One highlight of the Aurora matches occurred when Nick Ussery, in the 135 pound weight class, was losing by three points. He was on his back in the second period when he flipped his man over and pinned him.
In the third round Pierce demonstrated the value of each individual match as they beat Nebraska City by one point with a score of 40-39. Fourth round Pierce beat Pius X with a score of 45-27.
Coach Ryan Stusse said, “It was the best finish ever. The boys wrestled very tough. I was very pleased with their performances. If we can fill our light weights we can be in the finals next year. They’re all pulling it together, fixing the little mistakes they need to, preparing for conference and districts. I’m excited to see how we end the season.”
Pierce JV Boys Crush Braves by Thomas Uher
Pierce’s junior varsity boys played the Battle Creek Braves at Battle Creek on Saturday, January 23. Pierce won 49–17.
Pierce had a great first quarter, Connor Reed sank two three-pointers as well as another two points, while Brock Schroder scored six. Pierce was already pulling away after the first quarter with a score of 23-3.
Pierce continued to run up the score during the second quarter as well. Reed and Schroder both scored an additional five points to their total for the night, and Pierce went to halftime with a 37-7 lead.
The third quarter wasn’t as high scoring as before: Pierce made only two points, while Battle Creek made six, leaving the score at 39-13. The fourth quarter, Pierce bumped up the score ten points while Battle Creek made four, so the final score was 49-17.
Reed led scoring with 13 points, 9 of which were three pointers, followed by Schroder with 11. Coach Tim Waldner said, “Offensively we played well in the first half to build a big lead. Everyone who played came in and did some nice things.”
9th Grade BBB
The Freshmen Boys were able to put on an impressive display of defense against Wisner-Pilger holding them to just 21 points. Pierce was up by ten at half when Zach Kremlacek put on a display of his own by throwing in three three-pointers and causing several turnovers defensively.
Scoring for Pierce was as follows: Zach Kremlacek with 12 (Four 3-ptrs.), Trent Spieker had 10, Eddie Francois had 7, Christian Beery and Zach Fehringer both had 3, and Lucas Osborne had 2. Final score: Pierce 37 W-P 21. The Freshmen will host Randolph this Friday at 6 p.m. at the auditorium.
Pierce Jr. High BBB
The Pierce Jr. High Boys basketball teams hit the ground running as they started the season with very few practices due to inclement weather during the opening week of school in January. Both the 7th and 8th grade teams have managed to gain wins in an early schedule that includes both Wayne and Norfolk Catholic. “Right now the boys need to be focusing on making themselves better by the end of the season. With such a short season, it’s hard to place emphasis on wins and losses. We just want them to improve individually and as a team and hopefully carry that to the next level”, stated 8th Grade Coach Nixon.
The 7th Grade Team is sitting at a record of 2-2 with losses to both Wayne and Norfolk Catholic while beating both Randolph and Plainview. The 8th Grade Team’s record is currently 1-3 after posting their first win against Plainview last week. Both teams will be competing in the Wayne W-Club B-Ball Tournament this weekend with games beginning at 9 a.m. at the Wayne Middle School against Norfolk Catholic the first round.
