SMH JV Continue On Roll

 On Tuesday, Dec. 6 the St. Mary's Junior Varsity Lady Cardinals traveled to Verdigre and played a very physical Niobrara/Verdigre Cougar junior varsity squad. SMH was able to pull out a 50-22 win in a game that consisted of only three quarters. SMH pressured the Cougars through-out the entire game and came away with 32 steals for their effort. 

Erin Boyle and Mackenzie Wecker led SMH JV in scoring with 10 and eight points. We had a pretty good, balanced scoring attack, as nine out of 12  girls scored points. Mackenzie led our team in steals with seven followed by Alejandra Vergara with six. Addie Wetzel pulled down nine rebounds while Bridget Schneider dished out four assists. This was another great team effort. 

Leading the Cards were Mackenzie Wecker with eight points, Erin Boyle with 10 points, Alejandra Vegera six points, Marisa Miles six points and Bridget Schneider four  points.

St. Mary's 9th/10th Grade Girls Basketball Team Wins 

Championship At C/O Cyclone Booster Club Tournament 

On Saturday, Dec. 10 the St. Mary's Lady Cardinals traveled to Orchard and came away with first place medals. St. Mary's played Lynch in the first game of tournament action. Lynch played very hard and gave the SMH Cards a good game. Emily Everitt and Mackenzie Wecker knocked down 13 and 12 points to lead SMH in the victory. In the championship game against Orchard/Clearwater, Bridget Schneider led in scoring with 12 points followed by Addie Wetzel with nine. 

Nine players suited up for this tournament and everyone of them contributed in the wins to get first place. They were: Addie Wetzel, Alejandra Vergara, Bridget Schneider, Emily Everitt, Erin Boyle, Krissy Krotter, Mackenzie Wecker, Marisa Miles and Traci Vandersnick. Alyssa Wiese is also part of the team but has been recovering from an early season injury.

Eagles Split Games Over Weekend

O'Neill's Donnie Taylor gets by a Hartington C.C. defender for a shot in last Friday's game at home.

On Friday the Eagles hosted Hartington Cedar Catholic and lost a heartbreaker in overtime, 66-65.  The game was back and forth all night with both teams trading buckets and neither able to pull away.  

At half time the score was all knotted up at 32 apiece and the second half was much of the same and the game got pushed to overtime due in large part to some unfortunate self inflicted errors by the Eagles.  In overtime the game was again all tied up until a big three by Hartington that gave them a three point lead with under 20 seconds to go.  

O’Neill got the ball in their own territory and got several good looks at the hoop but could only come up with two points to end the game with the one point loss.  “I thought our boys played extremely hard and never gave up, but we need to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and limiting our turnovers and mental mistakes.  We didn’t shoot real well from the perimeter tonight either, but we got great looks and those shots will start falling because we have a lot of guys who are capable of knocking down shots.  Sometimes the ball just doesn’t want to fall,” commented Coach Kallhoff.   

Scoring for the Eagles was very balanced as all five starters finished in double figures, led by Derrick Hostert with 14, Jordyn Johnson with 13, Conner Peterson and Brock Schueth each with 11, and Tyler Knopp with 10 points. Johnson led the team in rebounds with 11  as Peterson grabbed nine to go along with his team high four assists.  

On Saturday O’Neill traveled to Madison and brought home their first win with a 26 point victory.   Eight Eagles were able to break into the scoring column led by Brock Schueth who had 14 points, followed closely by Jordyn Johnson with 13. “We were able to work on a lot tonight and it was nice to get a victory after suffering two one point losses in a row,” commented Coach Kallhoff.  It was a victory that we really needed but we were all reminded that winning a basketball game is not that important in the grand scheme of life.  Madison suffered the loss of two student athletes in a tragic car accident earlier in the week and the boys of Madison showed tremendous heart going back onto the floor for the contest.    

Next action for the Eagles was Tuesday as they traveled to Pierce to face the Bluejays and then back on the road on Saturday to face the Wayne Blue Devils in Wayne.  

Lady Eagles Take Down

Hartington C.C. And Madison

O'Neill's Alex Hedlund  reaches in for a steal in last Friday's game in O'Neill.

The O'Neill Lady Eagles had a very successful week of basketball upsetting Hartington CC on Friday night 56-52 and then defeating Madison on Saturday 62-45.  

On Friday night the Eagles battled Cedar Catholic the entire night leading the contest by as much as 10 points in the fourth quarter.  Kelsey Appleby's  24 points  tied a school record hitting  six three pointers in the contest.  Molly Shane hit a turn around 10 footer off the glass with 12 seconds left to go up, 54-52 and Alex Hedlund sealed the deal hitting two free throws with :01 second left giving the Eagles a 56-52 victory.

Leading the Lady Eagles in the Hartington match were Kelsey Appleby with 24 points, Lindsey Appleby with 10 points and Alex Hedlund with 10 points.  

Saturday the Eagles traveled to Madison and came away with a victory also.  Six players made the scoring column and five of them double digits. 

"These two games were very big wins for this team and our program.  We are very proud of the effort and mental toughness that the girls displayed throughout this weekend and if we continue to grow as a team in these areas, it will be a very competitive season," said Coach Eichelberger.

Cards Defeat Cougars

The St. Mary's Cardinals traveled to Verdigre on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and defeated the Niobrara/Verdigre Cougars by the score of 65-33. The Cards extended a six point first quarter lead by outscoring the Cougars 23-11 in the second period.

The Cardinals (2-0) were led in scoring by sophomore Adam Moon with 22 points while senior Tait Sibbel contributed 18 tallies. Sibbel scored 11 points the first period to get the St. Mary's offense going while Moon tallied 10 the second stanza. Moon also led the rebounding charts with nine caroms while senior Tom Chvala hauled down six boards. Sibbel and junior Connor Connot each contributed five rebounds. Junior point guard, Ty Eiler, handed out eight assists to lead the ball handling. Senior David Shields added two assists. On defense, Moon led with four steals and one blocked shot while Eiler recorded three steals.

The Cardinals will face North Central on Friday and Spalding/Spalding Academy on Monday, Dec. 19 and to finish out before the holidays a trip to Hartington High School on Thursday, Dec. 22 for a make-up game. 

St. Mary's JV

The SMH boys JV are off to a 3-0 start with victories over Clearwater/Orchard, West Boyd and Niobrara/ Verdigre. The JV will have four more contests before Christmas break as they work hard to gain experience.

JV team members are : Cole Moon, Kyle Pardun, Lucas Schneider, Kyle Loecker, Jared Tomjack, Kyle Regan, Matt Kelly, Jeremiah Cuddy, Lucas Kozisek and Will Hupp. Freshman members are: Brant Shoemaker, Zack Novak, Drew Young, Logan Spencer, Michael Wecker, Grady Novak, Jacob Peterson, Adam Soukup and Jon Hofer.

The freshman have also played three freshmen contests against Bloomfield, O'Neill High and Clearwater/Orchard. The young Cards have lost all three games but continue to improve and show promise. Their final pre-Christmas game will be Saturday, Dec. 17 at Spencer against West Boyd.

"With the number of boys out for basketball at 29, we will continue to schedule games to help our young men gain game experience," said Coach Chvala

O'Neill Wrestlers Kept Busy

O'Neill's Blake Walters works for the fall over Kyle Wilkinson. Photo by Kathy Marvin.

Two days, 10 matches; this short phrase sums up week two for the O’Neill Eagle wrestlers.  

A tired group of athletes returned home Saturday from Columbus with an even 5-5 dual record and two members of the tournament  earned All-Dual team.  Blake Walters finished the tournament a perfect 10-0 while David Fox went 8-2 with one of his losses coming up a weight class at 170 lbs.

“I thought as a team we got off to a bit of a slow start.  We spent all of last week working on movement off the bottom position and we didn’t show much improvement in that area as a team early on.  The good news is our kids seemed to make adjustments as the tournament wore on and we seemed to get stronger,” commented Coach Corkle.  The Eagles had four wrestlers who finished their five duals on Saturday with a perfect 5-0 record.  Jon Marvin, Joey Gillham, Blake Walters and David Fox. 

“The great thing about a tournament like this one is it really seems to do a good job of showing you where your weaknesses are on the mat.  Our practice agenda is set for the next week for sure,” said Coach Corkle

The Eagles will be in action this Saturday at the Valentine Invitational.  Wrestling will begin at 10 a.m. 

Results are as follows:

O’Neill 48 -  High Plains 23

Millard South 54 - O’Neill 19

O’Neill 54 - Omaha Bryan 19

Papillion LaVista 57 - O’Neill 14

Cozad 48 - O’Neill 18

O’Neill 54  - Neligh/Oakdale 28

O’Neill 57 -  Gothenburg 16

Plattsmouth 41 - O’Neill 38

O’Neill 51 - David City 21

Elkhorn South 48 - O’Neill 28

Individual Records:

106 - Jon Marvin 8-2

113 - Joey Gillham 7-3

120  - Blake Walters 10-0

126 - Dion Nemec 5-5

132 - Corey Rowse 3-7

138 - Marcus McNichols 3-7

145 - Angel Rodriguez 7-3

152 - Jesse Albarran 2-8

160 - David Fox 8-2

170 - Tim Lechtenberg 1-8

182 - Spencer Knopp 7-3

220 - Keith Sandall 3-7

HWT. - Thomas Schipporeit 3-7

CWC Downs Ewing 66-55

The Ewing basketball squad fell to CWC last week losing 66-55.

Leading scorers for the Tigers were Blake Cunningham with 11, Jake Walton with 11, Robert Nordby with nine points and 11 rebounds, Damian Summers with eight points and six assists, Tad Fry with seven points and Michael Hynes with six points.

CWC dominated the battle on the boards as they out rebounded the Tigers 35-25 with 18 offensive rebounds.  The Renegades turned many of those offensive rebounds into second chance points in the second half as CWC overcame a four-point halftime deficit.

“The story of the game was us getting beat on the offensive glass.  We gave CWC too many second chance opportunities and I would estimate that 20-25 of their points on the night came on extra possessions due to their aggressiveness on the offensive boards.  We really need to improve in that aspect of the game.  We shot the ball well at times, but when tired we were short on a lot of shots.  I was pleased that we only had five turnovers on the night, but we need to shoot a higher percentage from the field and compete harder on the boards," commented Coach Appleby.

Ewing 15 12 14 14 55

CWC 14 9 20 23 66