Sports

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.

The 2020 Sutton Mustang football team closed out the recent season with it’s 11thstraight trip to the Class C-2 state playoffs, in a season that was as strange as ever, with one cancelled game and a replacement game, all the while, compiling a final 7-3 record.

Sutton opened with a 22-0 blanking of Grand Island Central Catholic, before falling 13-12 at home to Wilber-Clatonia.

Three straight wins, beating Fairbury 40-0, Lincoln Lutheran 42-31, and Hastings St. Cecilia 38-3, led the Mustangs into a replacement game loss to Ord (35-16) before the Mustangs blanked Sandy Creek 42-0 and tripped up Doniphan-Trumbull 61-12 to head into the post season, where Sutton disposed of North Platte St. Pats 30-6, before a season-ending 21-7 loss to Archbishop Bergan closed out the year.

Sutton senior Kylie Baumert, along with three of her teammates were honored last week by the coaches of the Southern Nebraska Conference for their play during the 2020 volleyball season, while Sandy Creek senior Caileigh Tripe was honored for her play for the Cougars this past season.

Baumert was named as a first team selection, while junior Kate Griess earned second team honors.

Dayvie Perrien, a senior for the Fillies this past season, earned third team honors, while junior Reagan Vavricek was named as an honorable mention selection.

Tripe was also honored as an honorable mention selection by conference coaches.

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Sutton senior Kylie Baumert, shown center front, signed a national letter of intent to play womens basketball with Hastings College on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Shown with Baumert are her parents, Amy, left and Dan, right, along with Broncos head coach Jina Douglas, back left, and Sutton girls basketball coach Josh Rapp. TORY DUNCAN | CLAY COUNTY NEWS

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Coaches of the Class C2-4 district announced their all-district football picks last week, with the Sutton Mustangs landing 17 total players on the list, while the Sandy Creek Cougars placed 12 on the final season honors list.

For the Mustangs, seven players were named to the first team, including on offense: Joe Hinrichs, defensive line, Cade Wiseman, quarterback, Tyler Baldwin, tight end, Quenton Jones, defensive back, Matthew Davis, linebacker, as well as Jesse Herndon and Paxton Olson as running backs.

Second team selections for the Mustangs were: Jackson Anderson, kicker, Nathan Ladehoff and Hayden Switzer, offensive linemen, Colton Haight, defensive back, Adam Griess, defensive end, Caleb Ladehoff, linebacker and Vance Smith, offensive lineman.

Honorable mention honors went to Sutton’s Alvin Sanchez, Noah Gwennap and Myles Jones.

For the second straight season, the Harvard volleyball team wrapped up the net season with a 14-9 overall record, as in 2019, the Cardinals finished with the same season mark.

During the 2020 season, matches in late August through September gained Harvard 10 of their 14 wins, tripping up Spalding Academy, Heartland Lutheran twice, Red Cloud, Palmer, St. Edward twice, Lawrence-Nelson and Silve Lake.

During that same time span, Harvard dropped seven matches, falling to Silve Lake, Franklin, Shelton, McCool Junction twice, Kenesaw and Giltner.

The final run, during October, Harvard won four of six matches, with wins over Loomis, Nebraska Lutheran, Red Cloud and Franklin

A tough straight sets loss to Kenesaw in the D1-8 sub-district tournament ended the Cardinals season at 14-9.

Friday’s quarterfinal round of the Class C-2 state football playoffs took the Sutton Mustangs to Fremont to challenge the top-seeded Archbishop Bergan Knights.

The first 24 minutes of the game, a span covering the first and second quarters, the Mustangs held their own, as Sutton trailed just 7-0 at the half.

It would be the opening three and a half minutes of the third quarter, however, that put the Mustangs on the back of their heels, with the Knights taking the opening kick-off 80 yards in the first 3:21 of the quarter, combined with a fumbled kickoff return by Sutton that quickly took the Knights to a 21-0 lead with 7:47 left to play in the third stanza that led Bergan to the quarterfinal round win.

The loss ended Sutton’s 2020 season with a 7-2 record, while the Knights advanced to the state semifinal round against the Yutan Chieftains Friday.

Sutton’s all out rushing attack all but broke down the North Platte St. Patrick’s defensive effort as the Mustangs recorded their fourth straight win over the Irish in a Class C-2 opening-round playoff win. Sutton rolled up 395 yards on the ground to record a 30-6 win in the C-2 opener and improve to 7-1.

Since the 2015 playoff season, where the Mustangs edged the Irish 18-15 in the C-2 opening round, Sutton has gained two regular-season wins over St. Pats as well, beating the Irish 50-7 in 2018, and last season, escaping with a 17-7 win. Overall, Sutton holds a 5-2 record, dating back to 1988.

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Thinking back to some very big football games over the last two or three years for the Sutton Mustangs, is this Friday night one of those proverbial “Daved vs. Goliath” games when the Mustangs travel to Fremont to take on the Knights of Archbishop Bergan?

I’m not going to go that far, because if I’m going into battle against the top seed of any tournament, I’m going to want to go into that battle with the likes of the Sutton coaching staff.

This will be one of those kinds of games that not one, if very few, statewide sports writers will give the Mustangs a chance to win, and you know, that’s exactly where they want to be. A big game atmosphere, on the road and against a very good team.

As I wrote last week, I would never once, and I mean never once pick against the Mustangs under coaches Ramer, Rafert, Parrish and Gwennap.

Monday night’s first round match of the C2-8 Sub-District tournament wasn’t a bout for the faint of heart between Sutton and Superior, as the two Southern Nebraska Conference teams duked it out point by point, set by set for the right to move forward to the final of the tournament.

Sutton came out swinging strong, taking the opening set 26-24, but in typical fashion Superior wasn’t about to go away. The Wildcats battled back for a 25-21 second-set win.

The see-saw battle would then see the momentum swing fully in the direction of the Fillies as Sutton ran away with set three, 25-17, and kept the momentum through most of the fourthset, as at one point, Sutton held a 23-17 lead and a 24-19 lead, but Superior pulled off a miracle finish in the set, outscoring Sutton 7-1 late to gain a 26-24 win.