Area Wide Sports 2-1-23

Goessel

Boys basketball – The Bluebirds played in the Burrton Invitational Tournament last week and took fourth place. They beat Fairfield in the first round, 63-48, but fell to Little River in the second round, 70-37, for a chance in the third place game.

In that game, Goessel lost to Central Christian, 56-44. Noah Schrag led the Bluebirds with 12 points.

Hillsboro

Girls basketball – The Trojans played at Minneapolis last week where they won 48-34.

“This was a really good win for our girls on the road. Minneapolis has a very good team. We were down two starters due to illness but the team came out and played with an edge from the start. We executed our game plan and defended at a high level all night. Good defense helps create better offense and that happened for us,” said Hillsboro Head Coach Micah Ratzlaff. “Zaylee Werth was again a very tough matchup for our opponent leading us in every stat category. 18 points, 11 rebounds, five steals, five assists, and two blocks. Two other girls also scored in double digits, Kori Arnold with 11 points and Anslee Brewer with 10 points. It was a great team win overall,” said Ratzlaff.

Coming—The girls will play Hesston at home on Friday, Feb. 3.

Boys Basketball – The boys played a make-up game from the Trojan Classic against Clay Center on Tuesday, Jan. 24. They lost 52-40.

“Too many turnovers, inconsistent play and being outscored at the free throw line made it a tough night for us. We committed 19 turnovers which led to 19 transition points for Clay Center. We just didn’t do a good job of facing up, using pass fakes and delivering on time to open players,” said Hillsboro Head Coach Darrell Knoll.

Defensively, the Trojans did force 14 turnovers and did an overall good job in the half court, but Clay Center shot a high percentage due to transition baskets. They also shot well from the line, which allowed them to extend their lead at the end when the Trojans had to foul.

“I felt like we had a good chance to win throughout the entire game, but we weren’t able to put together enough consistent offense,” said Knoll.

Nick Smith led the team in scoring with 11 on 5/7 shooting. Brekyn Ratzlaff finished with nine points, seven assists, and four rebounds.

The Trojans played at Minneapolis on Friday and won 61-28.

“This was as impressive of a team win as we have had the entire season. I loved our energy, focus, determination and consistent play. I thought everyone played really well and contributed to our success,” said Knoll.

Defensive intensity set the tone of the game.

“We pressured from the start and on Minneapolis’s third possession, Tyson got deflection, got the loose ball and made an assist to Brekyn for a layup, and we never let up from there,” Knoll said.

The Trojans had 10 steals and forced 15 turnovers. They executed offense well, which led to 64.6 effective field goal percentage. Passes were accurate and on time.

Knoll said, “We ended with 24 points in the paint and made 15 assists.”

Brekyn Ratzlaff scored 28 on 10/16 shooting, had four assists and three steals.

Tyson Plenert scored six on 3/5 shooting.

Seth Driggers added six points, three assists, two rebounds and one steal.

Wyatt Plenert scored six, grabbed three rebounds, two steals and made an assist.

Coming—The boys will play Hesston at home on Friday, Feb. 3.

Wrestling – The Trojans competed in a dual at Council Grove on Thursday, Jan. 26. Council Grove won with a final score of 45-24. Hillsboro had four varsity wrestlers out due to illness or injury.

“It was good to get junior Anthony Fickes back in the line-up at 120 lbs. He had not competed since the first week of January due to an injury,” said Coach Scott O’Hare.

The team also competed on Friday at the Hoisington Cardinal Classic where they came in 3rd out of 9 teams.

“This was a great stretch of competition for us to learn a bit more about where we are, what we need to work on, and how we need to prepare for the next few weeks of the season leading up to the Regional Tournaments,” said O’Hare. “We had several wrestlers compete very well in the dual at Council Grove and the tournament in Hoisington.”

Fickes picked up a nice win in the dual on Thursday night and followed it up with four straight wins on Friday before losing in the championship finals at Hoisington to earn a runner-up finish.

Aaron Hein continues to find success in his freshman season, going 5-1 on Thursday and Friday, earning a 3rd place finish at Hoisington.

Senior David Schafer improved on his season record, following up a loss on Thursday in the dual with five straight wins, all by pin at Hoisington to earn his second 157 lb individual championship on the season.

Sutton Redger also wrestled solidly, improving his season record to 22-5 in his freshman campaign, picking up a pin on Thursday night, followed by three more wins by fall on Friday to win the 165 lb individual title.

Junior Rachel Schafer also earned another medal stand appearance, finishing as the 140 lb runner-up in the girls division.

Coming—Feb. 3 & 4 – 2 Day Circle Boys & Girls Invitational; Feb. 9 – CKL Tournament; Feb. 11 – 4-3-2-1A Girls Regional Tournament in Wellington; Feb. 18 – 3-2-1A Boys Regional Tournament in Marion.

Marion

Basketball – The Warrior boys played against Council Grove on Friday, Jan. 27. Council Grove won 61-53.

The Warrior girls played Council Grove on Friday and won 33-25.

“Both teams struggled to score early, but we were getting good shots and stuff at the basket, they just were not falling for us early,” said Girls Coach Jason Hett. “Our girls stepped it up defensively in the 2nd half which created some offense for us and did not allow Council Grove to get anything easy. We had a lot of our younger girls step up tonight and hit some big shots and knock down some big free throws for us. This was a good win for us coming back from our tournament week.

Wrestling – The Warrior Wrestlers competed Friday night at Hoisington. It was a small team due to some sickness and also due to the home JV meet the next day. The results were as follows:

Chance Shults (132 lbs) went 3-2 and placed 3rd.

Colby Lollar (138 lbs) went 1-3.

Caleb Darrow (157 lbs) went 1-4.

“Friday was a bit of a rough night for the Warrior wrestlers. We were able to see some teams that were from the Western side of the state and that is always a great way for us to see where we are in the last few weeks of the season,” said Coach Tyler McMichael.

The Warriors hosted a JV meet at home on Saturday.

“Our home JV meet was a better all around showing for the Warriors. We had 3 wrestlers competing and placed two of them in the top three.

Kellen Waner (120 lbs) went 1-1 and placed 2nd

Wyatt Soyez (126 lbs) went 2-2 and placed 3rd

Eldon Smith (144 lbs) went 0-2, and he had to cut his day short due to injury.

“It was a great day to see some of our younger guys compete against others around their age. We saw a lot of good things this weekend, but there is still plenty that we have to fine tune in the next few weeks before Regionals,” said McMichael.

Coming—The Warriors are back in action on Friday at Onaga.

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