GR Spoils EG Homecoming

HAWKS LOSE FIRST GAME, NOW THIRD IN D7

Glidden-Ralston put the clamps on East Greene, 40-8, in a District 7 showdown last Friday night in Grand Junction.

The loss put a bit of a damper on East Greene’s Homecoming activities. GR remained in first place in D7, the “Lincoln League,” with a 3-0 mark, tied with Coon Rapids-Bayard, which beat Boyer Valley, 67-44. EG dropped into third place in the district with a 2-1 mark.

EG, GR and CRB are each 4-1 overall for the season. The win helped push GR to the No.10 spot in the Des Moines Register’s 8-Man state football rankings this week.

The Hawks put forth a solid effort. It tied the lowest point total the Wildcats have been held to all season (40 in a 3 OT loss to Newell-Fonda, 46-40) but the GR defense was unyielding and the offense got off to a fast start. GR rolled to a 34-0 halftime lead and upped that to 40-zip early in the third quarter.

The Hawks did get on the board with a touchdown run by Scyhler Bardole and run for the 2-point conversion by Reed Ostrander in the third quarter. Despite a poor first-half showing, the Hawks did play the Wildcats even for the second half, and actually outscored them 8-6.

East Greene was able to move the ball—racking up 237 yards and 11 first downs—but just could not punch the ball across the goal line. GR had only 25 more total yards (262) and just two more first downs (13) but the Hawks hurt themselves with three turnovers—an interception and two fumbles.

Bardole racked up 128 yards on 21 carries while Nic Nicolaisen ran 5 times for 23 yards. Bardole also led the receiving corps with 3 catches for 18 yards. QBs Tyler Cooklin and Tory Beger passed for 85 yards against the GR defense, but it took them 20 attempts and only 8 of those passes were completions. Cooklin completed 1 of 6 passes for seven yards, while Beger connected on 7 of 14 for 78 yards and one interception.

GR unleashed a running back “triple threat” with Taylor Hackett, Mitchell Lensch and QB Wade Hoyle each scoring two running touchdowns. Hackett had 13 carries for 114 yards and Lensch added 99 yard on 17 carries.

Despite his scoring two TDs, the Hawks did hold QB Hoyle pretty much in check, limiting him to just two completions in six passing attempts for 12 yards, and just 33 yards on the ground in 9 carries.

East Greene travels to Woodbine tonight while the Wildcats host Ar-We-Va.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Well, there are baseball towns and there are football towns. Clearly, Glidden is a football town, and with EG having made the substate in baseball the last two years, Grand Junction and Rippey are baseball towns.

But, that being said, it really was disappointing to see GR win by a such a large margin when it seemed both teams were pretty evenly matched, and especially since last year, when EG came so close to beating GR, losing a hard-fought battle, 14-6. That game showcased how much improvement the Hawks have made over the last several years, considering GR drubbed EG 48-8 in 2007 and the Hawks pulled closer in 2008, 34-14, and then the loss by just a touchdown last year.

The Hawks will need to re-group as they have a long road trip this week to Harrison County to take on Woodbine, now 1-2 in D7 after rolling over Walnut last week, 52-12. The Tigers are 3-2 on the season, but their losses are to very strong teams—D7 co-leaders GR and Coon-Rapids Bayard (combined records of 8-2) and East Mills (3-1) which is in third place at 2-1 in District 8, just behind co-leaders Stanton and Fremont-Mills (3-0). East Mills’ only losses this season have been to top ranked Lenox (5-0) and No. 5 Stanton (4-1) whose only was to Lenox in the season opener.



Woodbine's Kyle Kuhlmann heads down the sideline

in last week's game at Walnut. Photo by Dawn Powers

of the Logan Herald Observer/Woodbine Twiner.



The Hawks will need to get their offense back in gear while the defense will need to stop the Tigers’ Kyle Kuhlman (see photo) and QB Zach Archer. Archer has thrown for 393 yards and 8 TDs and passed for 313 yards and 5 TDs through the air so far this season, while Kuhlman has rushed for 647 yards and scored 9 running TDs along with 118 yards receiving and 2 passing TDs.

EG has its own offensive weapons with Bardole now having racked up 823 yards for the season, a hefty 164 yards per game average, and a 1-2 punch at quarterback with Beger and Cooklin.

Tonight’s matchup with Woodbine begins a key stretch of four key games for the Hawks that mark the back half the season. After the road trip, EG returns to face Walnut (1-4) in Grand Junction on Parents’ Night on Oct. 8, and then the Hawks go on the road to finish the season with tough games at Coon Rapids against CRB and in Westside against Ar-We-Va the final two weeks of the season, Oct. 15 and 22.

The Hawks will need to make sure there is no letdown after losing in a big game that was even bigger because it was against a longtime rival like GR and that it came at homecoming.

It should be noted that when the Hawks scored that impressive victory over Boyer Valley on Sept. 10—even more important when tallying up the District 7 standings as BV went on to beat Ar-We-Va, a solid team year-in and year-out—it also matched all of last year’s EG win tally (3). And the thrashing of Charter Oak-Ute the following week moved the EG season win total to 4, which surpassed last year’s mark and equaled the four wins of the 4-5 record of the team two years ago. That 2008 season was the best EG grid showing since its first year of 8-man football in 2001, when EG went 6-2 with its only losses to the same team—state champion Adair-Casey.

One more East Greene win will clinch a winning season, the first since that 2001 campaign.

It’s a bit premature to begin talking about a berth in the substate in the postseason, as there are still 4 of the 7 total district games to be played, but it’s not at all out of the realm.

First things first, and that’s the road game at Woodbine. This will be a night where the lights are really shining bright on the Lincoln. Not only do “Lincoln League” schools EG and Woodbine faceoff in a key game in Woodbine, but Ar-We-Va travels east “on the Lincoln” to the other side of Carroll to Glidden to take on GR in another key battle of LL teams—these two being the smalls school rivals who are the east and west neighbors of county seat Carroll and its 2A schools Kuemper and Carroll public.

Ar-We-Va rolled over Charter Oak-Ute by 54 points last week and will no doubt be psyched to knock GR off its first-place D7 perch and out of the state-wide rankings. Last year GR squeaked by with a 20-19 win while Ar-We-Va had the upper hand in 2008, winning 32-12.

District 7 Standings
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3-0, 4-1
Glidden-Ralston 3-0, 4-1
East Greene 2-1, 4-1
Boyer Valley 1-2, 3-2
Ar-We-Va 1-2, 2-3
Woodbine 1-2, 2-3

Walnut 1-2, 1-4

Charter Oak-Ute 0-3, 0-5

Sept. 24 Results:

Glidden-Ralston 40, East Greene 8

Coon Rapids-Bayard 67, Boyer Valley 44

Ar-We-Va 56, Charter Oak-Ute 2

Woodbine 52, Walnut 12

Tonight’s Games:

East Greene @ Woodbine

Ar-We-Va @ Glidden-Ralston

Boyer Valley @ Charter Oak-Ute

Walnut @ Coon Rapids-Bayard

Hawks Get 16th Win of Season

TAKE ON SWG IN DISTRICT OPENER TONIGHT

An extra-inning 3-2 thriller over Madrid Thursday night pushed East Greene’s season win total to 16 games, surpassing the 15-10 mark of 2008 and last year’s 14-15 record for the 2009 state tournament team. That team entered post-season play at 10-14 and then went on a four-game streak that did not end until a loss to Newman (Mason City) in the first round of the state tourney at Principal Park in Des Moines.

A steal home by Jessie Priest in the bottom of the 8th inning got the win for the Hawks. Priest went 1-2 at the plate with an RBI and a double and Wes Onken went 2-4. Onken picked up the win, giving up 6 hits, three walks and 1 wild pitch while striking out 8. The Hawks were guilty of three errors, but Aaron Lyons was one bright spot on the defense as he made a spectacular catch in right center to rob Madrid’s Eric Simmons of a potential two-run homer in the sixth.

The enthusiasm of 16 wins was tempered however with a 17-6 drubbing the following night from Coon Rapids-Bayard. The Crusaders were playing for the league championship, as was Woodward-Granger in its tilt with Des Moines Christian in Woodward. WG came out in that one, 7-6, leaving CRB and WG as West Central co-champions at 17-1.

The EG-CRB and DMC-WG matchups were actual make-up games that were rained out earlier in the season.

The loss to CRB closed out EG’s regular season with an 8-9 mark in the conference, good for fifth place. The Hawks had a tough week overall, going 1-3 with a loss to co-champ Woodward- Granger 4-3 on Tuesday and to Panorama 12-8 on Wednesday.

Des Moines Christian had already locked up third place in the conference, but was looking for momentum heading into this week’s districts. Adding further drama to Friday’s games was that this week’s district pairings could set up another round of EG-CRB and WG-DMC matchups.

EG (16-11) opens tourney play tonight at 5 p.m. in Coon Rapids against Southeast Webster (0-24) a team it beat handily in the season opener, 12-3. In the other half of the twin bill at Coon Rapids at 7 p.m., the Crusaders (23-7) take on a much improved Glidden-Ralston (10-9) squad that finished in third place in its first season in the Rolling Hills. Tuesday’s winners advance to the District semifinal round on Thursday, also to be played in Coon Rapids.

On the opposite side of the bracket in District 12, CAM (Anita) drew a bye while undefeated Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira (21-0), ranked fourth in the state in Class 1A, takes on Adair-Casey (8-14) tonight in Adair. The winner meets CAM (4-14) in a semifinal game Thursday in Adair. Thursday night’s winners face off for the District 15 championship on Saturday in Coon Rapids.

The District 15 winner meets the District 16 winner on Tuesday, July 20, in Denison with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Des Moines. Teams in District 16 are Woodbine, Boyer Valley (Dunlap), Charter Oak-Ute, Ar-We-Va (Westside), Woodbury Central (Moville).

EHK/Exira rolled to the Rolling Hills championship with a perfect 12-0 record, with Iowa Christian (West Des Moines) in second and Glidden-Ralston in third.

Rolling Hills Final Conference Standings
(Conference record, season record)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 24–0
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–7
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–9
Walnut 5–7, 12–12
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–14
CAM 3–9, 4–14
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 6–13

With four of the top five spots in the West Central Conference going to Class 1A teams, the chances are high for several teams to make a deep run in the post-season.

Woodward-Granger (22-4) opens district play tonight against Madrid (5-18) on the Tigers’ home diamond at 7 p.m. following a 5 p.m. game that pits Colo-Nesco against Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg). The winners meet in Madrid on Thursday at 7 p.m. The opposite side of the district bracket features four teams that all have state tournament potential. Martensdale-St Mary’s gets the home field advantage and heads into its opening round game against Grandview Park Baptist with an impressive 35-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in Class 1A. Grandview Park Baptist made it to state two years ago and last year advanced to the substate before bowing out to EG. DMC (14-9) takes on Iowa Christian Academy, runner-up in the Rolling Hills Conference, in the opener at St. Mary’s. The winners square off Thursday in St. Mary’s in the semifinal round. The semifinal winners from Madrid and St. Mary’s will meet for the district title in Madrid on Saturday night.

WG looks pretty solid to make it out of first two rounds, but it could be a tall order for DMC to beat both Iowa Christian and then top-ranked MStM to set up a rematch of last Friday’s game with the Hawks in the final at Madrid.

The five 2A teams in the West Central opened district tourney action Saturday night and the only win was West Central Valley over league foe Guthrie Center, 10-5. Interstate 35 (Truro) beat Earlham, 6-2; CMB (Baxter) beat Van Meter, 7-6; and Audubon beat Panorama, 9-0.

West Central Valley advances to the semifinal round where the Wildcats will take on Audubon tonight in Guthrie Center.

West Central Final Conference Standings
(Conference record, season record)
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 22–4
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 23–7
Des Moines Christian 13–4, 14–9
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 16–11
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–19
Madrid 3–15, 5–18
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawks will really need to pull it all together to come anywhere close to what they pulled off last season. The deck is stacked with both Coon Rapids-Bayard, a perennial 1A baseball power, and the newly combined EHKE—undefeated and state-ranked—in District 15.

EG does get an advantage as it faces winless Southeast Webster-Grand in the opening round while CRB takes on a solid Glidden-Ralston club. GR scored a nice win over Iowa Christian early in the season, although it lost non-conference tilts to both EG and CRB. EHKE is the hands-down favorite on the Adair side of the ledger. Adair-Casey was the winner out of the district played in Coon Rapids last year and upset the home team in the semifinal round, and then advanced all the way to the state tourney along with EG. The Hawks won the Ames district and Ankeny substate.

Pitching and avoiding key mistakes on defense will be key in the district. Iowa high school baseball pitchers are limited to 16 total innings a week (Sunday through Saturday) and no more than 9 innings in any one day or two consecutive days. And after 9 innings, a pitcher must have two complete calendar days of rest. So if a pitcher is stretched to 9 innings in, say, an opening round game on Tuesday. He must rest Wednesday and Thursday, but come pitch on Saturday in the finals, but no more than 7 innings.

CRB will need to put a solid pitcher the mound in its opener against GR while East Greene can keep its top two aces, Onken (6-2) and Tyler Cooklin (4-4) in reserve for a big semifinal game—most likely against CRB—and then a final against EHKE if they should get by the Crusaders. Onken has the better record for EG, but Cooklin was on the mound when the Hawks took on the league leaders in the conference. Look for freshman pitcher Reed Ostrander (3-2) to get the start against SWG.

The Crusaders have a veritable stable of solid pitchers: Tyler Boeke (7-0), Jay Carstens (6-1), Gage Reis (5-1) and Jacob Esdohr (4-2) and three others who pitched three or fewer games. EHKE has gone all season with three pitchers, and all are undefeated: Carson Smith (10-0), Travis Stevens (8-0) and Nolan Himmelberg (6-0).

The good news for EG is that it all three pitchers for EHKE are seniors, so that should give the Hawks an advantage when they take on the Spartans in Rolling Hills action next year. And they won’t have to face CRB in home-and-away conference tilts, but hopefully the Crusaders will be on next year’s non-conference schedule as CRB and EG have made for a great rivalry over the years. Both Cooklin and Onken are juniors and Ostrander will be back for three more seasons, giving an anchor to build future Hawk pitching around.

EHKE has the edge in hitting with a .361 average while CRB is a very solid .327 and EG is .262. EG will need to shore up its fielding too, as it was guilty of 56 errors in 27 games while CRB erred 49 times in 30. EHKE committed 38 errors in 24 games, but EG and CRB were facing much better pitching and hitting in the West Central than EHKE saw in the Rolling Hills, but then again, the Spartans won just as many non-conference games, 12, as they did league matchups, and one of those non-league games was a 6-3 win over CRB on June 9.

HAWKS FALL TO GR

EG Looks To Even Record Tonight Against AC

Glidden-Ralston got the upper hand in a defensive struggle at Glidden last Friday night, posting a 14-6 win over East Greene.

The Hawks put up a stalwart effort, playing the Wildcats even throughout the contest. EG outgained the Wildcats in total yardage, 276 to 244, but GR had the edge in scoring with two TDs and one 2-point conversion. GR had 15 first downs to the Hawks' 12.

Tyler Gathercoal, who rushed 3 times for 46 yards, scored EG’s lone touchdown. Schyler Bardole rushed 25 times for 108 yards and QB Tom Beger had 7 carries for 7 yards. Beger was 11-for-26 in passing for 129 yards but was intercepted 3 times.

EG had another fine defensive performance and kept the GR air game in check, limiting QB Wade Hoyle to just 4 completions in 11 attempts for 24 yards. The Hawks picked off 3 of Hoyle’s passes.

GR clearly had the advantage in the ground game however, amassing 220 yards rushing compared with EG’s 147. Taylor Hackett and Stuart Conner were hard to stop as they ran for 101 and 88 yards, respectively. Conner scored both GR’s touchdowns and a 2-point conversion.
Beger led the defensive effort with 8 solo tackles and 2 pass interceptions, Rob Ritchie had 7 solo tackles and Zach Beyerink had 6 solos and intercepted a pass.

The loss dropped EG to 1-2 on the year and 0-1 in District 7. The Hawks host Adair-Casey tonight at Karber Field. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This was a tough loss for the Hawks and clearly the best 8-Man game they’ve ever played against Glidden-Ralston, which has a storied football history dating back to the days of Glidden High School. GR and CAM, both winners last week, will face off in key battle for D7 supremacy tonight on CAM’s home field in Anita.

EG will face another stiff challenge in Adair-Casey, last year’s D7 runner-up. AC beat Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 46-40 last week in a D7 game that does not count in the standings as EHK/EX is not eligible for the playoffs. AC has a deep history in 8-Man football too, but the Hawks are clearly playing at the caliber of teams like GR and Ar-We-Va, which had been ranked until GR beat them two weeks ago. AC (2-1) opened the season with a 41-8 win over Farragut (2-1) and then dropped a close game to No. 4-ranked and undefeated Stanton, 32-28.

EG has given up an average of just 14 points a game in three contests to some pretty formidable competition. If the offense can generate just a little more heat tonight, EG can get the win over the Bombers. A victory would put the Hawks at .500 in both D7 and on the season.

Overall, D7 is looking very balanced this year as no team won by more than 8 points in the three games played last week (including EHK/EX-AC). It looks like the D7 championship and the four playoff spots could go right down the last week of the season.

District 7 8-Man Standings (District, Overall)
CAM (Anita) 1-0, 3-0
Glidden-Ralston 1-0, 3-0
Adair-Casey 0-0, 2-1
Coon Rapids-Bayard 0-0, 3-0
EHK/Exira 0-0, 2-1
East Greene 0-1,1-2
Walnut 0-1, 2-1

Sept. 11 Results:
AC 46, EHK/EX 40
CAM 20, WAL 12
CRB 78, Meskwaki Settlement School 8
GR 14, EG 6

Tonight’s Games:
AC at EG
CRB at EHK/EX
GR at CAM
MESK at WAL

SEASON FINALE

Hawkettes End Regular Season at GR

East Greene takes on Glidden-Ralston tonight, Monday, July 6, at Glidden in the final conference and final regular season softball game of 2009.

The game is actually the last West Central Conference softball game ever between EG and Glidden-Ralston, and GR’s last appearance in the West Central Conference in girls high school competition. The Wildcats baseball team is playing in a similar finale tonight against EG in Glidden.

When school opens in the fall for 2009-2010, GR will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference, along with longtime rival Paton-Churdan and six western Iowa teams--Adair-Casey, Orient-Macksburg, CAM (Anita), Exira, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Walnut. Two suburban Des Moines Schools, Ankeny Christian and Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines, round out the 10-team league.

East Greene and Glidden-Ralston have been conference opponents since the formation of the Central Valley Conference in the late 1970s. After the Central Valley was disbanded a decade later, both schools became original members of the Coon River Valley Conference and then both moved to the West Central Conference in the 1996-97 season.

EG was hoping to head to Glidden as the spoiler in the Wildcats’ effort to leave the West Central as conference champions, but Earlham earned that honor with a 6-2 win over GR at the Lady Wildcat Tournament in Glidden on Friday, which counted as a make-up game for a game rained out earlier in the season. GR went into that game with a 11-4 conference mark, just behind Earlham at 13-3.

Earlham clinched the league crown, however, with the win, upping its conference mark to 14-3, while GR dropped to 11-5. Earlham has no make-up games on its schedule, so tonight’s game at Van Meter will just be icing on the cake for the Cardinals, as a loss would drop them to 14-4 but still keep them ahead of second-place GR. Des Moines Christian’s title hopes were dashed when it dropped a 1-0 game to Madrid on Friday. The Lions fell to 10-6 and were mathematically eliminated with that loss and Earlham’s win over GR.

EG and Glidden-Ralston tangled earlier in the season with GR winning 9-5 in Grand Junction. The Hawkettes will be out to revenge that loss and get some momentum going for the regional tournament. EG opens regional play Wednesday against Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids. GR drew a first-round bye and will face the EG-CRB winner on Friday in quarterfinal action in Coon Rapids.

GR has a makeup game with Panorama which could be played Tuesday as GR does not have a Wednesday regional opening round game as do the other conference schools who play in Class 1-A and Panorama, a 2-A school, does not open regional play until Thursday.

West Central Conference Standings (through 7-4)
Earlham 14-3
Glidden-Ralston 11-5
Des Moines Christian 10-6
Madrid 9-7
Van Meter 9-7
Guthrie Center 8-8
Panorama 7-9
Coon Rapids-Bayard 5-10
West Central Valley 5-10
East Greene 2-15