Sports News - February 1-6
Pierce Jays Battle Hard with NC by Kaelee Stuchlik
With a slow start and weak defense in the first half, the Bluejays fell just short of a win against Norfolk Catholic in the semi-final game of the 2010 Mid-State Conference Tournament at Northeast Community College. On Friday, January 5, the Jays fought hard but suffered a 33-48 loss to the Norfolk Catholic Knights.
The Jays struggled early on in the game, scoring only four points during the first quarter and four again in the second, while the Knights scored 21 points in the first half. The Jays did get some shots at the basket but their shooting was cold. They connected on just one 2-pointer and two free throws in the first quarter.
However, after halftime the Jays came back aggressive and ready to play. They out did the Knights with eleven points against only nine points from Norfolk Catholic in the third quarter. The Knights slightly outscored the Jays in the fourth quarter with eighteen, while the Jays scored fourteen.
Leading scorer Brock Schroder finished with eight, while Kenley Silhacek had seven. Connor Schultz and Derek Wiedenfeld added an additional five points apiece to the score. Silhacek pulled down five rebounds, Schultz had four, and Brandon Freeman had three. Schultz also had an impressive six assists.
Bluejay coach Mr. Mike Emory said, “I thought we played very well during the fourth quarter. However, our defense was not attacking well in the first half.”
Sophomore Brandon Freeman said, “We didn’t come out ready to play. Our shots just weren’t falling in the first half.”
Two Warbirds Place at Creighton by Laura Huff
Five JV Warbirds traveled to Creighton for a JV wrestling tournament on Saturday, February 6.
Aaron Hanlin placed second in the 152 pound weight class. He had a record of three wins and one loss. Jordan Brus finished with fourth place in the 171 pound weight class. He had a record of one win and three losses. Wrestler, Aaron Hanlin said, “Everybody wrestled well, and it was a good tournament to go to.”
Colby Johnson had a record of no wins and three losses for the day in the 140 pound weight class. Gus Ussery had a record of one win and three losses in the 119 pound weight class. Colby Huff had a record of two wins and two losses in the 152 pound weight class.
This was the JV wrestlers’ last competition for the year. Colby Huff’s record for the season in the 152 pound weight class was six wins and two losses. In the 152 pound weight class, Aaron Hanlin finished the season with seven wins and two losses. In the 140 pound weight class, Colby Johnson finished with one win and eight losses. Jordan Brus finished the season with six wins and three losses in the 171 pound weight class, and Gus Ussery finished with two wins and two losses in the 119 pound weight class.
Freshman Girls Lose Against Knights by Eva Chavez
The freshman girls’ basketball team lost 30-35 in Norfolk against the Norfolk Catholic Knights on February 1. After not scoring during the first quarter, Pierce kept up with the young Knights the rest of the game, but still fell short at the end of the fourth quarter.
Catholic had control over the Jays 8-0 in the first quarter. Pierce regained confidence when outscoring Norfolk 7-6 during the second quarter, but Norfolk still possessed the lead 14-7 when half time was called. The third quarter resumed and the young Jays shot for 2-pointers, making five. Pierce scored 10 and Catholic scored 13 points during the third quarter. The third quarter concluded with Norfolk holding the lead 27-17. Pierce entered the fourth quarter with pride and added 13 points to the final score while Norfolk added only 8 points. The last whistle was blown to end the game, leaving the score Norfolk 35 and Pierce 30.
Katie Atkins was Pierce’s leading scorer with 7 points. Krystina Koepke and Alyssa Blair followed with 6 points apiece. Devin Gnat and Emily Ronspies each scored 4. Lexy Nuesch aided Pierce’s final score by adding 3 points.
The freshman girls will travel to Wayne to compete in the Wayne tournament Saturday, February 13.
Varsity Girls Lose First Mid-State Game by Linse De Grez
The girls’ varsity basketball team played Hartington CC on February 1 at Norfolk Catholic. It was their first game of the Mid-State Conference tournament, and the Lady Jays lost 48 to 21.
From the first quarter it was clear that it would be a hard game. Hartington scored 16 points, the Lady Jays 3. Pierce could score only four points in the second quarter, but Hartington scored 12. The score at halftime was 28-7.
After halftime Pierce could score seven more points in each the third and fourth quarters, but this was not enough to defeat Hartington. They scored 11 and 9 points.
Joey Koehn scored the most points of the evening for Pierce, 6. Heather Wachter scored 5. Briana Adams scored 3 points because of a nice steal, and Laura Retzlaff scored three points. Two points apiece were scored by Rachel Wiedenfeld and Meghan Vogt.
Vogt led the team for rebounds. She had 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Wachter had 3 rebounds and 3 steals.
Pierce tried to score a lot, but could only score 7 times of the 39 tries, only 18%. Hartington did better with 43%, 20 out of 47 tries. And Hartington did better in the free throws. They had 89 percent, scoring in 8 of the 9 tries. Pierce missed 7 out of 14 and so had 50 percent.
The Lady Jays play again on Thursday, February 4 at Norfolk Catholic against Battle Creek. This game will decide if they will play again on Saturday.
Bluejays Win First Round at Mid-State by Morgan Mattson
The Pierce High Bluejays traveled to Northeast Community College for the first round of the Mid-State Conference Tournament on Tuesday, February 2 against the Boone Central Cardinals. Pierce won 47-17. The Jays had been seeded third behind Hartington Cedar Catholic and Norfolk Catholic.
Brady Bretschneider, Brandon Freeman, Connor Schultz, Kenley Silhacek, and Derek Wiedenfeld started the game. The boys started out well in what would be a game of defensive strategy; they built a 9-2 lead in the first quarter, but they really worked hard to start the second half. Connor Schultz said that after halftime, “We really extended the lead.”
The game was very fast-paced and the Jays forced 14 turnovers by the Cardinals. After the 7-point lead in the first, the Bluejays gained 16 to the Cardinal’s 5 in the second quarter. Continuing to extend the lead, the Jays gained another 16 points to Boone Central’s 2 in the start of the second half. The boys added 6 while the Cardinal’s added 8 in the fourth quarter to win by 30 points.
Coach Mike Emory said, “We were focused from the start, and we played defensively through four quarters. For the next game, we have to handle their pressure, and control them off the dribble.”
Lead scorers were Connor Schultz with 21 points and Kenley Silhacek with 7. Brock Schroder and Connor Reed added 5. Derek Wiedenfeld and Brandon Freeman made an addition of 3 points each. Brady Bretschneider added 2, and Tyler Lindsay added 1. All together, Pierce had 7 three-pointers out of 16 tries for 44 percent, better than their 37 percent two-point shooting success. The Jays held Boone Central to thirty shots all together, of which they made only seven of the two-pointers and none of their eight 3-point shots. The Jays shot 67 percent on their free throws. Pierce out-rebounded Boone Central 29-18 and had nine steals to the Cardinals’ zero.
Connor Schultz said, “Our defense was key to our win. We gave up only nine points through three quarters.”
Junior Brock Schroder said, “The highlight of the game was probably that Connor had 20-some points on the board.”
This win sent the Pierce Bluejays to the second round of the Mid-State tourney, where they played Norfolk Catholic on Friday, February 5.
Lady Jays Defeat Bravettes by Linse De Grez
On Thursday February 4 the Pierce varsity girls’ basketball team played Battle Creek at Norfolk Catholic High School. This was their second game in the Mid-State Conference Tournament. The Lady Jays defeated the Bravettes with a score of 42-31.
In the first quarter, the two teams played very close. They both scored 7 points. In the second quarter, Pierce showed some really good playing. They scored 11 points, while the Bravettes scored 6 to bring the score at half time to 18-13 for the Lady Jays.
The third quarter was the Lady Jays’ best; they scored 16 points. Battle Creek scored 9. Battle Creek outscored Pierce by one in the last quarter, 9 points for them and 8 for Pierce. But Pierce won the game by eleven points.
Seniors Joey Koehn, Laura Retzlaff and Heather Wachter had a very good game. Koehn scored a total of 13 points, including three nice 3-pointers, Retzlaff and Wachter scored each 10 points. Wachter and Morgan Buckendahl had the lead in rebounds, 5 each. Ellie Pytleski and Meghan Vogt each scored 4 points, Briana Adams scored 2, and Buckendahl scored 1.
Pierce’s percentages were overall better than Battle Creek’s: 41.7% to 34.2% for overall field goals and 61.1% to 28.6% for the free throws.
It was a good game, although the Lady Jays could use some more support from the student section for their games. While the boys’ games are always packed, the girls had a student section of only 6 people for this game, which is not encouraging for them. So come and give the Lady Jays some more support!
The Lady Jays played Wayne on Saturday 6, the last game for the Mid-State Conference. They also played a home game against Creighton on Tuesday 9.
Varsity Girls Lose in Consolation
The Lady Jays played Wayne in the consolation finals of the Mid-State Conference basketball tournament on Saturday, February 6, and Pierce lost to the Lady Blue Devils 37-42. The Lady Jays started decently and led 21-16 at the half. They were ahead all the way then until about the second half of the fourth quarter when Wayne started to press, and the Pierce offense fell apart. Too many turnovers and Wayne’s ability to make use of them took away Pierce’s lead. Wayne gave the Pierce girls a bitter pill with the five-point defeat.
The Lady Jays did trail by four points to end the first quarter 7-11, but they put together a nice second quarter, scoring 11 and holding Wayne to five points. In the third quarter, Wayne tallied nine points to Pierce’s seven, but the Lady Jays still led 28-25 at the end of three quarters. But the Lady Devils tallied 17 points to Pierce’s nine in the fourth quarter.
Both teams made 11 two-point shots. Wayne attempted ten three-pointers and made four, one more than Pierce. The Lady Jays attempted seven three-pointers and made four. And the Lady Jays were awarded ten free throws, of which they made six; Wayne was awarded twelve free throws, of which they made eight. So the difference was a three-point shot and two free throws. Pierce committed 26 turnovers; Wayne, only 18. The Lady Jays did better than the Lady Devils at the boards: Pierce grabbed 25 rebounds to Wayne’s 16.
Pierce’s top scorer was Heather Wachter with 11 points. Joey Koehn had nine, all on threes. Meghan Vogt led the defense with six rebounds; Wachter had five rebounds and four steals, and Morgan Buckendahl had four rebounds, one steal, and one blocked shot.
Pierce Warbirds Third at Conference Meet by Lacey Adams
The Pierce Warbirds placed third out of eight teams at the Norfolk Catholic/Mid-Conference Wrestling Tournament held Saturday, February 6. The Pierce team had nine wrestlers place. Top individual placers were Kyle Eddy, Shelton Dvorak, and Seth Eggerling, all placing second. Earning third place were Mason Sudbeck, Zach Neuhalfen, and Tanner Dickey. Nate Meier and Logan Sudbeck, and Mason Zimmerer placed fourth.
Coach Ryan Stusse said, “I think the boys wrestled tough. Madison and Battle Creek are very good, and to be able to keep up with them says a lot about our team. There are a couple of matches that we should have had, but we’re going to get them back this weekend.”
The wrestlers’ next meet is districts, which will be held in West Point on Friday, February 12, and Saturday, February 13. Coach Stusse said he has “high expectations,” and is hoping to take at least six wrestlers to state.
Warbirds Win One & Lose One in Triangular by Sarah Krohn
The Warbirds faced off against West Holt and Elgin Pope John in a triangular on Thursday, February 4. They defeated West Holt 35-34 and lost to Elgin Pope John 37-33.
The dual with West Holt was very close, and the boys came through with a pin by Mason Sudbeck in 5:29 to win it by a point. Five boys won their matches: Sudbeck with the pin, Nate Meier with an open, Logan Sudbeck with a pin in 1:59, Kyle Eddy by decision 15-0, and Seth Eggerling with a pin in 1:31.
The dual with Elgin Pope John was tough, and the boys lost by only 4. Six boys won their matches: Nate Meier won by decision 8-5, Mason Zimmerer won by pin in 1:59, Shelton Dvorak won by open, Kyle Eddy won by pin in 1:03, Zach Neuhalfen won by pin in 1:00, and Tanner Dickey won by open.
Kyle Eddy, varsity at 152 said, “We wrestled very tough, but fell short on a couple of matches that we could have done a little better on.” Colby Huff, JV at 152 said, “We wrestled well; there wwere some things we could have improved on over the season that would have helped.”
The Warbirds wrestle next at Districts in West Point CC on February 12-13.
