Sports

Fans of Wildcat football filed into the stadium for St. Paul’s home opener on Friday night with balloons in hand, eagerly waiting for the Wildcats’ first touchdown of the season on their home gridiron to fill the sky with blue and gold. That moment never happened, as Minden controlled the line of scrimmage, milked the clock, and ended up deflating St. Paul’s hopes of remaining undefeated by besting the Wildcats 23-0. “We didn’t have a very good week of practice, and that usually carries over into games,” said St. Paul Head Coach Rusty Fuller following Friday night’s contest. “We had a lot of kids – four or five – gone for practice during the week, so it is hard to get prepared and get the backups ready when you have that many kids gone. “We felt a little uneasy coming in because of that fact.” Right out of the gate, St. Paul was off kilter, with the Wildcats losing yards on their first two downs of the game. The second down of the contest featured a bobbled pitch that pinned St. Paul at their own four, with a small gain by Cody Kuszak on third down not being enough to get the team out from behind the sticks.

The Ron Priebe Invite, held on hilly terrain north of Gibbon, has long had the reputation of being one of the toughest cross country meets of the season for area runners, and this year, the Buffaloes’ annual meet lived up to that billing.

After opening their season in the hills surrounding Miletta Vista Winery, the St. Paul Wildcats were already in shape to tackle the terrain that runners must face at the Ron Priebe Invite.

his is a tournament we have had a long history of success at, and it just felt right to be receiving medals again.” - Matt Koehn-Fairbanks The St. Paul Wildcats continued their early-season tear last week, with the highlight of a busy week on the court for the Blue and Gold being a return to the top of the medals stand at the Lexington Invitational.

is meet is always a fun one for us, because we get to play at home and it is a bit more relaxed than our bigger meets.” - Coach Ashley Lynch The St. Paul girls’ golf team had the chance to compete on their home course last week, and the Blue and Gold capitalized on the opportunity.

The Centurions were forced to sweat out a penalty- plagued slugfest with a clan of badgers Friday afternoon, with the Burgundy and Gray coming up just short of recording their second victory of the season when the final whistle blew. Last week, with temperatures soaring on the gridiron at Centura High School, the Centurions went nose-to-nose with Valentine through all four quarters of the afternoon contest, but the Badgers ended up biting the hardest, winning the game 28-20. The difference in Friday’s contest was the contributions of Valentine quarterback Asheton Lurz, who, like the team’s namesake, proved to be one of the toughest competitors on the field. During the game, Lurz rushed for 225 yards and three of Valentine’s four touchdowns. The quarterback, who called his own number twenty-nine times, led a three-dimensional offense for Valentine, with Conner Kreutner and Cayden Lamb being the only other members of the Badgers’ team to carry the ball.

Since dropping their first two bouts of the season, the St. Paul Wildcats went on a tear last week, winning four straight games and outscoring their opponents by an overall count of 49-9. On Thursday, the Blue and Gold needed just three innings to trounce Minden 20-0. Two days later, the Cats traveled west for the Holdrege Softball Invitational and were set for a rematch with the Whippets in the tournament’s opening round. After a sluggish start, St. Paul used a late rally to edge out a 7-4 victory over Minden, improving to 2-2 on the year. Starting pitcher Brooke Peetz ran into some trouble in the game’s first inning. After back-to-back walks, Minden’s Lily Bloomfield and Trinity Carr put hits into the outfield, giving the Whippets a three-run advantage. St. Paul answered right back when Sidney Gawrych reached first base on a walk. Three pitches later, Gawrych trotted home after a line drive triple from Charlee Wegner. Before the end of the frame, Matti Stepanek cut Minden’s lead to one run, scoring Wegner with an RBI ground ball to the short stop.

For the fifth consecutive year, the St. Paul volleyball team kicked off its season against the David City Scouts, and for the fifth consecutive time, the Wildcats came away with a three set victory. The Scouts, however, are a program on the rise, and they made St. Paul work for the win in front of a sizable crowd.