We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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The Orangeville Broncos and Milledgeville Missiles finished the odd 2021 spring football season by playing their last 11-man games. Both schools will transition to 8-man football next year. The Broncos went out in style with a 26-8 win over the Missiles. Orangeville stopped Milledgeville's initial drive and didn't take long to strike on offense. Gunar Lobdell picked up a first down for the Broncos. Two plays later, the Missiles stripped the ball from Lobdell, but the officials ruled forward...
Black Hawk/Warren coach Desie Breadon has all the faith in the world in his team's defense and his team rewarded that faith with several big plays in the second half against Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg, including a stop on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line that sealed the win for the Warriors. The Warriors were up 26-22 when the Knights twice threatened. The first of these drives saw BSMS move the ball down the field with three big pass plays. Quarterback Jacob Duerr hit Dominick...
Quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers are the ones who often get the glory. But football coaches and true football fans know that an offense will only go as far as the offensive line allows it to go. Black Hawk/Warren put in a purely dominant performance along the offensive line in their 56-12 win over Southwestern. Lucas Milz and Landen Mahoney are a pair of talented sophomore backs for the Warriors, but their job was made much easier by an offensive line that consistently changed the...
In the second half of the Stockton Blackhawks' game against Durand/Pecatonica, Blackhawks coach Matt Leitzen yelled to his team "You're getting beat in the six inches between your ears!" There was a lot of truth in that, as the Blackhawks' mental errors cost the team in a 28-6 loss to the Rivermen. Stockton didn't play flawless in the first 24 minutes of the game, but they did some things well. The Blackhawks were able to move the ball in the first half. But, ultimately, one mistake would be...
In this short volleyball season, with no postseason to come, teams have to find ways to motivate themselves. Teams are usually trying to place themselves in the best position for seeding in the postseason, as well as trying to play their best ball when the postseason rolls around. With those being erased from the picture, teams and players have to find new ways to keep themselves motivated. One way to do that is to play an area powerhouse in non-conference play. Two of the area's traditional...
The River Ridge Wildcats entered the fourth quarter of their Fulton Regional first round matchup with the Galena Pirates trailing by one point. Two minutes into the fourth, Tayden Patterson completed a three-point play, giving the Wildcats a two-point lead. From there, River Ridge only managed two more points as the Pirates pulled away for the 56-44 win. Right after Patterson converted the three-point play, Jacob Townsend tied the game with a putback down low. A minute later, Townsend made a...
All too often when looking at a matchup in sports, people tend to focus on just the overall talent level of one team versus the other. What is often overlooked is how those teams, especially their strengths and weaknesses, match up. While Annawan (6) was seeded above Stockton (13) in the Fulton Regional (and with a 23-9 record, rightfully so), it became quite obvious early on in their game that Stockton was a tough matchup for the Annawan Braves. Cody Schultz was the biggest guy on the court...
River Ridge/Scales Mound held Pecatonica without a field goal for nearly the first 12 minutes of their Regional matchup. The Wildcats were turning the ball over too much, limiting their shots on offense. They shot well in the first quarter, but had only eight shots. In the second quarter, they didn't exactly light the nets on fire, going 2-12 from the field. But that defense gave them a commanding halftime lead. Just seconds into the game, the Wildcats jumped on top as Livia Haas grabbed an offensive rebound and made the putback. A minute...
There probably wasn't anybody not associated with the Warren girls basketball team that would have given them any shot to upset East Dubuque in the first round of the River Ridge Regionals. And while Warren couldn't quite pull it off, they sure had East Dubuque fans worried with just a few minutes to play. In the first quarter, Warren stayed close thanks primarily to their defense. They forced East Dubuque into four turnovers and held them to 3-13 shooting from the field. Brianna Anderson hit a long two-pointer to open the scoring and...
It was always a rarity to see a high school team score 100 points. The institution of the running clock has made it a much more difficult feat. The Eastland girls basketball team was on pace to reach triple digits through three quarters, but the running clock made it essentially impossible. With fouls sending players to shoot free throws, nearly a minute got taken off the clock each time. So, the Cougars had to settle for a 61-point win over Alden-Hebron to secure their appearance in the...
It took just 92 seconds for the Eastland Cougars to jump out to an 11-0 lead against Polo in the Regional championship game. It would be a precursor of things to come as the Cougars delivered a massacre on St. Valentine's Day for their fourth straight Regional title. Seconds into the game, Meredith Janssen put the first points on the scoreboard, making a layup. Erin Henze followed with a three-pointer. Then a trey by Lydia Coatney. Then another three-pointer by Henze. Polo coach Jeff Grobe used...
Sean Ormiston had quite a high school career wearing the black and gold of the Lena-Winslow Panthers. Now, he's taken the first step in his college career, opting for the black and gold of the University of Iowa. Ormiston, who plans to major in nuclear medical technology, signed an agreement to join the Hawkeyes as a preferred walk-on in front of family, coaches and teammates in the Lena-Winslow High School Library on Wednesday, February 5. He says Iowa is looking at him as a linebacker first,...
The gap in talent has never been wider than it is right now amongst the girls basketball teams in the NUIC. There are quite a few great to very good teams and quite a few teams experiencing lows with not a whole lot of teams in between. River Ridge-Scales Mound (RRSM) is one of those teams experiencing lows right now as there isn't a wealth of talent among the upperclassmen on Dave Wiegel's team. Stockton, on the other hand, has four strong starters, three of which were key players on their...
Wins on the road aren't easy in the NUIC-West. The conference is balanced, with no terrible teams and no great teams. So, the River Ridge Wildcats - a team without much depth and playing without one of its starters - had a tall order playing at Scales Mound - a very young, but very talented team. The Wildcats got a big game from a sophomore starter and points from an unexpected source in the final minutes, to pull off the 57-56 upset on the Hornets' Homecoming game that raised some eyebrows....
After an easy win over Galena earlier in the day, the Eastland Cougars played splendid defense in a 67-58 win over Pecatonica on the Indians' home court at the Pecatonica MLK Shootout. That defense frustrated the Indians and caused them to continually turn the ball over, most of which were live ball turnovers resulting in easy points for the Cougars. Eastland had a rough shooting first half, making only 10-33 from the field for a percentage of 30.3. That percentage would have been lower,...
Just minutes after River Ridge's 64-20 loss to Polo in the semifinals of the Illinois 8-Man Football Association playoffs, Wildcats' head coach Doug Nicholas and some of the assistants took a couple moments to thank and honor their outgoing seniors. Then, they turned to the returning players, most of the team for the Wildcats, and told them building toward next season starts now. They learned a couple lessons from their loss to the Marcos, none more important than the need to get working in the...
The River Ridge Wildcats played without a couple of their key players in their second round I8FA matchup with Danville Schlarman. No Joseph Diaz. No Jacob Sollars. No problem for the Wildcats as they defeated the Hilltoppers 42-20 to advance on to the State semi-finals. With Diaz out, the Wildcats relied on running back Caleb Rhodes and quarterback Bryton Engle, effectively cutting their three-man rushing attack down to two. But it was more than enough as the two combined for nearly all of the...
River Ridge thoroughly dominated the North Fulton Wildcats on the field, taking a 34-0 lead at halftime, scored on their first drive of the second half to enact the running clock and won 48-0. In their first year of playing 8-man football, River Ridge made the playoffs for the first time of the River Ridge Wildcat football program. It was also the first playoff win for the school, which made the IHSA playoffs six times in their co-op with Warren. While there was plenty of excitement, the last...
The Eastland Cougars knew coming into the Regional championship game versus Sterling Newman that they'd have to play one of their better games to come away with a victory. They had faced Newman near the end of the regular season in a tournament hosted by the Cougars, with each team winning one set. In the first set, Eastland had some issues, but they played hard, battling the Comets each step of the way. The Cougars' hitters had a little trouble keeping the ball in play, handing away easy...
While the importance in having talent cannot be overstated for a team in any sport, having the mental strength to face adversity, which is sure to come at some point, is equally important. That was on full display in the semifinal matchup of the Dakota Regional between Aquin and Durand. The first and third sets were close throughout, with the experienced, battle-tested Durand Bulldogs coming out on top. In the second set, Aquin jumped out to an early lead and Durand looked defeated, failing to...
Morrison entered their Regional match with the Eastland Cougars with just one win on their resume and seeded 14th out of 15 teams in their Sub-Sectional. There shouldn't have been a lot for the Cougars to worry about. But Eastland coach Kelsey Thurman knew that her team needed to approach the game as if they were playing an undefeated team. The postseason is no time for half effort. "I think I gave them the same message that I send to them for most of the games that we play, which is our focus...
The Stockton Blackhawks knew their final regular season game was important in terms of seeding, but for their opponent, the Dakota Indians, it was a do-or-die game. The Indians sat at 4-4, needing one more win to become postseason eligible and continue their season. It was the Blackhawks who rose to the challenge with a 14-0 win on the road. After Week Five, the Blackhawks had a 3-2 record and were looking at a difficult last four games, which included three former "big school" NUIC teams. For...
It isn't often that a team's most successful play is a kickoff, but that seemed to be the case for the Stockton Blackhawks in their 50-6 win over East Dubuque. The Blackhawks recovered three squib kicks in the first half against the Warriors, allowing them to stay on offense for nearly all of the final 16:30 of the first half and push their lead from 12-0 to 34-0 at halftime. Stockton scored on their second drive of the game as Jason Hermann ran for a 24-yard touchdown, just one play after a 23-...
Based on the first half, it appeared the showdown between River Ridge and Danville Schlarman might not be decided until the final seconds in a shootout. But after taking the lead just seconds before halftime, River Ridge made some adjustments at the break and pulled away for an easy 52-34 win. Schlarman held a couple of leads against the Wildcats in the first half. They led 12-6 early in the second quarter before a 19-yard touchdown run by Joseph Diaz, his second of the night, helped River...
For years, teams that played with the smaller teams in the NUIC have heard how they wouldn't have a chance if they played with the big boys - Lena-Winslow, Forreston, EPC and Dakota. They've even heard how they couldn't hang with the teams that struggled in that conference like, say, Durand-Pecatonica. That disrespect found its way to social media this week as the Blackhawks had to hear how they wouldn't win a game the remainder of the season and other such insults, some thinly disguised as...
