SPORTS

Forestburg boys beat Gold-Burg 53-47; Prairie Valley loses to Midway

Published

1 year ago

01/11/2023

Forestburg vs Gold-Burg
The Forestburg Longhorns picked up their first district win in three season by beating Gold-Burg at home on Friday.
The Longhorns turned things around in the second half in order to win 53-47 against the Bears.
Both teams headed into the game looking for its first district win. Both had played some of the top teams in the district so far with not great results, but had reason to believe Friday’s game was winnable.
Forestburg is a young team with no seniors filled with mostly underclassmen.
With a recommitment to basketball from the young group along with some much needed depth, the team has won some non-district games this year after struggling to do so the last two years.
Gold-Burg is a bit older and more experienced, but needed to put all of its pieces together for things to work out.
With neither team playing any games during the holiday break, both were still trying to get things together on Friday.
The Bears’ full-court pressure defense was causing some havoc for the Longhorns in the first half.
Both teams initially wanted to play fast, but it was too fast at times for Forestburg which led to turnovers that Gold-Burg fed off of.
While the Longhorns scored enough against the press to keep the game close at halftime down only 29-25, it looked like the type of game that was benefitting the Bears as it went on.
The second half saw Forestburg calm things down and methodically break the press while playing solid defense which led the Longhorns starting the quarter on a 17-3 run to build a double-digit lead at one point.
Gold-Burg rallied to finish the quarter better when Forestburg’s big post player Kyler Willett had to sit with foul issues and trailed only 45-38 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was more back and forth as the Bears were able to have some moments of press defense chaos trying to claw their way back into the game.
They got as close to cutting it to 51-47 with two minutes left in the game.
The Longhorns were able to hang on, making a couple of free throws in the final minutes to win 53-47.
Jesus Sanchez led Forestburg with 27 points while making six 3-pointers. Willett was second with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
For Gold-Burg, Isaac Renteria led the team with 15 points while Jayon Grace scored 14 and Aidan Foster scored 11 points.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs lost a tough game against Midway on Friday night.
The Falcons won 51-24 against the Bulldogs.
Prairie Valley came into the game hoping to slow down Midway’s offense, which Coach Seth Stephens thought the team did well enough in the first half. Unfortunately, the Falcons got hot and made five 3-pointers in the third quarter and outscored the Bulldogs 21-7 to break the game open.
Prairie Valley could not recover since the team was having trouble scoring all game long.
Tyler Winkler led the team with 15 points and six rebounds. Tyson Easterling was second with five points and four rebounds. Trae Campbell scored the other four points.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

District awards for 1A released

Published

18 hours ago

05/18/2024

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Bellevue’s Bryce Ramsey was named his district’s newcomer of the year.

With the baseball and softball seasons over for the area 1A schools, district awards have been released.
Listed below are those earned honors on the field and in the classroom for Saint Jo and Bellevue.

Softball
Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Utility player: Taylor Patrick; Catcher: Jordyn O’Neal

Baseball
Superlatives
Offensive MVP: Devin Stewart, Saint Jo
Newcomer of the Year: Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue

Pitcher: Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Jayden Curry, Saint Jo

Second team
Pitcher: Charlie Barclay, Saint Jo
Infielder: Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; Sam Martin, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Rylan Forrester, Saint Jo
Catcher: Charlie Evans, Saint Jo
Utility: Logan Hoover, Saint Jo
DH: Amzy Barclay, Saint Jo

Honorable mention
Cody Gaston, Saint Jo; Xander Joyner, Saint Jo

To see academic awards from Saint Jo players, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

Forestburg coach retiring

Published

19 hours ago

05/18/2024

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Forestburg boys basketball coach Eldon Van Hooser helped lead the program to its first playoff win in nine years in his last year coaching.

Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

Bowie Sports Banquet

Published

4 days ago

05/15/2024

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The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.