In area sports action over the weekend, the Seneca Fighting Irish football team defeated Reed-Custer and the area cross country teams were also out in full force. The area's grade school baseball teams were also at IESA state on Friday with Saratoga, MVK and Minooka all losing in the first round.
FOOTBALL
Seneca 20,
Reed-Custer 0
The Fighting Irish did all of their scoring in the first half in the Interstate Eight Conference Small game against the Comets.
Mike Taylor scored the first TD of the game on a 5-yard pass from Peyton Schrag. Austin Applebee's kick then made it 7-0.
In the second quarter, Bo Taylor scored on a 10-yard run and then again after catching a 64-yard pass from Schrag right before halftime.
CROSS COUNTRY
Morris at El Paso Invitational
The Redskins boys won the event while the girls were seventh. The boys won it despite missing Austin Fatlan (shins).
"Everybody stepped up and the win was quite impressive," Morris coach Joe Blumberg said about the true "cross-country meet" where the runners traverse creek crossings, hey bales and other obstacles. "(Jacob) Wantland battled for the lead, (Justin) Sjostrom) ran super, (Austin) Patterson picked up a solid third team place and Brock Kukman and Nick Marino gutted out top 25 spots to secure the win."
Morris' total time was 1:30:25, which was nearly a full minute ahead of second place Stanford Olympia. The average time by the Redskins was 18:04.93 and the pack time was 1:55.
On the girls side, the Redskins were led by Valerie Pfaff's 21st place finish. After thatwere Sara Burns (34th), Sydney Corrigan (40th), Bridget Gile (44th), Mackenzie Larson (51st), Katie Friend (67th) and Maddie Davy (73rd).
"Val continues to run strong, but there isn't enough support behind her right now," Blumberg said. "I know the girls are getting frustrated ... I think it's a product of summer work. The girls have to be patient and vow to get better each day."
On Saturday at the Warrior Invitational, the Morris boys were third behind Wheaton Academy and Aurora Central Catholic with 95 points and the girls were eighth with 140 points.
At the same event, Gardner-South Wilmington's boys were ninth with 214 points. Lane Hoffman had a ninth-place finish for the pantehrs in 16:49. Chelsea Schultz was 16th for the girls with a time of 24:38.
Minooka at Loyola Lakefront
The Minooka girls won the event held at Montrose Harbor in Chicago on Saturday while the boys finished fifth.
Freshman Morgan Crouch was sixth overall for the Indians in recording a time of 19:13. Also running for Minooka was: Caleigh Beverly (14th/19:38); Haley McNamara (18th/19:49); Kaitlyn Chetney (19th/19:49); Moria McAsey (21st/19:51); Laura Simon (22nd/19:52) and Ashley Clark (46th/20:49).
"The girls really responded to the level of competition today," Minooka coach Kevin Gummerson said. "These girls have been putting together some impressive workouts in recent weeks, so it was great to see that carry over into the competitive arena."
On the boys side, Joey Santillo had the best finish for the Indians, ending sixth in 16:05. Coming in behind Santillo were: Cam Knudsen (9th/16:14); Alex Pierce (20th/16:32); Henry Bugajski (68th/17:26); Erik Brick (69th/17:29); Will O'Connell (79th/17:34) and Joey Teresi (92nd/17:44).
"The boys battled out there today," Gummerson said. "Cam had the performance of the day. He put together an outstanding race."
GIRLS SWIMMING
DeKalb 124,
Morris 45
The Redskins got five seconds on the day in DeKalb on Saturday.
"DeKalb has a great program," Morris coach Andrew Porth said. "Our girls swam as good as they could have today."
Mackala Tobolsky was second in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:19.51, Britt Crawford was second in the 200 IM in 2:37.16 and Morgan Abraham was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:18.83.
Additionally, the Morris 200 medley relay team of Mackenzie Claassen, Crawford, Abraham and Harmony Alford were second (2:20) as was the 200 free relay team of Crawford, Emily Walker, Abraham and Tobolsky (2:01.55).
Morris won the JV contest 75-20.
Previously, Morris got its first win of the season by beating Fenton 103-58.
In that meet, Tobolsky was first in the 200 freestyle (2:19.67); Crawford was first in the 200 IM (2:36.06); Kelly Kolotka was first in the 50 freestyle (:28.64); Tobolsky was first in the 500 freestyle (6:33.58); the 200 free relay team was first (2:01.49); Crawford was first in the 100 backstroke (1:11.10) and the 400 freestyle relay team was first (4:32.83).
BOYS SOCCER
Streator 2,
Coal City 1
Sophomore Kevin Soto scored the lone goal for the Coalers in the win. It came off of an assist by Zack Pierard on a corner kick.
Chase Mincey made 12 saves in goal.
Hinckley-Big Rock 8,
Newark 0
Joe Hughes had 23 saves in goal for the Norse.
GRADE SCHOOL
BASEBALL
IESA STATE
Jasper County 12,
Saratoga 1
Morris got its lone run in the second inning when Payton Voitik scored. It came on an RBI single by Jacob Overbeek. Ethan Heap, Lucas Bledsoe, Luke Bardash and Matt Dinelli also had hits for the Hawks.
Bledsoe was the losing pitcher. Dylan Callahan also pitched in relief.
Morton 8,
Minooka 0
Adam Christianson tossed the shutout — a two hitter against the Indians.
Grant Olsen and Luke Faifer had the hits.
Jacob Maston was the losing pitcher. Antonio Saldana also pitched in relief.
Hamilton 7,
MVK 3
The Mavericks had 11 hits and pitcher Hunter Simon had 13 strikeouts but still suffered the defeat.
Simon allowed seven hits and walked three in the loss. At the plate he also had two hits.
Also adding two hits each were: Kyle Binion, Riley Yard and Sam Grushkin. Bryce Bedeker and Truman Daggett had a hit each.
