Sports

A total of 12 Clay County football players were honored this past weekend by the Lincoln Journal-Star for their play during the 2020 season.

Topping the classes for Clay County athletes proved to be Sutton senior Joe Hinrichs and junior Matthew Davis, along with Harvard senior Ben Okraska, as all three were tabbed as first-team selections.

Hinrichs and Davis were both named to the Class C-2 first team defense, as the 5-11, 195 pound Hinrichs was tabbed for his play on the defensive line, while the 6-1, 235 pound Davis earned honors at linebacker.

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With the big win over Bruning-Davenport/Shickley earlier in the week, the Sutton Mustangs continued their winning ways this past Friday and Saturday, claiming a 58-49 win over Hastings St. Cecilia, before blowing past the Eagles of Nebraska Christian in a Saturday matinee bout, 72-39, to hand the Eagles their first loss of the 2020-21 season.

In Friday’s win over the Bluehawks, Sutton jumped out to a 2-14 first-quarter lead, and then behind a 12-7 second-quarter run, led 34- 21 at the break.

St. Cecilia cut the Mustang lead to 42-34 with a 13-8 third-quarter rally before Sutton held on with a 16-15 fourth-quarter run to gain the nine-point win and improve to 3-2.

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The Sutton Mustangs opened week two with yet two more big challenges facing them, with both the Heartland Huskies and the Lincoln Christian Crusaders on tap for games two and three.

The Mustangs held off a strong surge by the Huskies to come from behind and down Heartland 59-57 on Dec. 8. A red hot shooting Crusaders ball club on Dec. 12 proved to be too much, as Lincoln Christian, who shot nearly 67 percent from the floor gained a 64-48 win over the Mustangs, dropping Sutton to 1-2 on the season.

Sutton held leads of 17-16 and 30-27 after each of the first two quarters against Heartland in Southern Nebraska Conference play, but the Huskies outscored Sutton 16-12 in the third ton 16-12 in the third period to claim a 43-42 lead going into the final eight minutes of play.

The Harvard Cardinals logged a ton of miles in week two of the basketball season, taking the near 180-mile trip to Santee to take on the Warriors Dec. 8, before heading nearly 80 miles to Franklin for Twin Valley Conference action with the Flyers Dec. 10.

Finally, on Saturday, Dec. 12, the Cardinals returned home to host the Axtell Wildcats and log their first win of the season, beating Axtell 39-31. Santee ran past the Cards 56-48, while Franklin squeaked out a 38-36 win over Harvard.

At Santee, the host Warriors broke open a 7-7 tie after the first quarter to go on a 24-9 second-quarter run and claim a 31-16 halftime lead.

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The Sutton Fillies accomplished a feat that hadn’t been reached since the 2010-11 basketball season, they made it past week two of the season with a perfect record.

After a dominant 57-28 win over Heartland Dec. 8, the Fillies knocked off the Lincoln Christian Crusaders this past Saturday for the first time since a 48-46 win the Fillies gained over the Crusaders during the 2010-11 season. This year’s team gained a 52- 46 win over the Crusaders to improve to 4-0 on the year.

Tuesday’s 29-point win over Heartland would see 10 Fillies score against the Huskies, led by junior Gracie Nuss who tallied 14 points while hitting on six of seven shots (85.7%). Xytlaly Bautista and Kate Griess added eight points each, while Julia George hit for seven.

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For the first time since the 2016 basketball season, the Harvard girls basketball team began a season with an opening game win, beating the Giltner Hornets in convincing fashion, recording a 53-15 win in the Birdcage at Harvard High School.

Harvard’s last opening game win over Giltner proved to be a 52-41 win on Dec. 1, 2016. This year, the Cardinals removed the stinger of the Hornets early and throughout Thursday night’s win, as Harvard opened the game with a 10-2 first quarter run, then held Giltner scoreless in the second quarter, while scoring nine points to own a 19-2 halftime lead.

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What a difference a year can make, as proven by the Sutton Fillies this past weekend to open the 2020-21 basketball season.

After week one a year ago, Sutton sat at 0-2 with tough losses to Superior (45-33) and to Kearney Catholic (64-36), which ultimately led the Fillies to a 2-6 record after the month of December last season.

This year, Sutton made a big about-face, cruising to a 2-0 record after a dominant 50-32 win over Superior this past Thursday, before taking down a solid Kearney Catholic squad 49-40 in front of the Fillies home crowd.

Senior Kylie Baumert set the tone in both wins, recording a double-double during each win, while setting a new school record in career rebounds, with her 23 point, 11 rebound effort against the Wildcats.

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Coaches of the D6-4 District announced their 2020 all-district teams last week, with three Harvard seniors landing on the annual honors list.

Offensively, Ethan Piper and Jose Gonzalez were tabbed by the five coaches from Harvard, Red Cloud, Franklin, Wilcox-Hildreth and Silver Lake.

Piper was named as one of two first team running backs, which also included Carson McCleary of Red Cloud.

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A pair of near misses left the Sandy Creek football team just short of a winning season in 2020, as in two of the Cougars’ four losses, Sandy Creek came up a total of 14 points short.

After a season opening 37-20 win over Schuyler, Gibbon edged the Cougars 23-15 in week two.

A week three 28-14 road win over Hershey brought the Cougars home where David City gained a narrow six-point, 24-18 win over the Cougars.

Sandy Creek then held off a stingy Superior team 21-20 before being handed a pair of tough losses to Doniphan-Trumbull (36-0) and Sutton (42-0) to close out the year.

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The drive to finish strong in 2020 led the Harvard football team to their fifth straight winning season under the direction of head coach Scott Trimble.

It looked as if it was going to be tough to break even on the year after the first four weeks of the season, as a 38-0 road win over St. Edward proved to be the lone win for the Cardinals in the opening four weeks.

Harvard fell to Spalding Academy (47-40) and to Mc- Cool Junction (50-6) during the first two weeks, then after the 38-point blanking of St. Edward, fell on the road to Red Cloud 49-26 before going on a four-game winning streak to close out the season.

Harvard took down Silver Lake 50-14 after the Red Cloud loss, the gained a 67-7 win over Elba, before posting an 83-51 win over Wilcox-Hildreth and a gutsy 50-39 win over the Franklin Flyers in the season finale.