Sports

The Centura volleyball team was looking for some competition when they added a new opponent – Holdrege – to their schedule this year. And the Burgundy and Gray were likely not disappointed in the caliber of competition that joined them in the octagon at Centura High School for their season opener last Thursday night.

The St. Paul Wildcats did not shy away from competition during the first week of the season, with the Blue and Gold seeing some of central Nebraska’s top golfers during their inaugural outings. Last week, the Wildcats opened up the year by joining a strong slate of competitors at the Doniphan-Trumbull Invite in Grand Island on Monday. Following that meet, St. Paul traveled to Kearney on Thursday to battle at the Kearney Catholic Invite, which was staged at Meadowlark Hills Golf Course on the west edge of town. During those two outings, St. Paul had the chance to shake off some preseason nerves, see some solid competition, and gain a better understanding of how they stack up against the area’s best. Last Monday, St. Paul ended up carding a 483, which put the team in seventh place in the nineteam field. Grand Island Central Catholic won the team title at the Cardinals’ meet with a 375, while Kearney Catholic came in second after the Stars shot a 402. “The girls were a little nervous for the first meet of the year, and I felt the nervousness showed in our scores,” said St. Paul Head Coach Ashley Lynch. “That gave us a team total of 483, which we know isn’t the best golf that we can play.” Leading the Wildcats in Grand Island was Kaylee Ambrose who finished the day shooting a 109. Ahna Jerabek carded a 113, Kailee Shreve ended up hitting a 123, and Faith Murithi came in with a 138. Julia Messerer of Grand Island Central Catholic won the individual title after she hit a seventyeight, while golfers from Kearney Catholic and Adams Central finished tied for second, with both carding an eighty-six. Also at last Monday’s meet, Maddie Harrahill and Abby Hirschman played nine holes each in the junior varsity division. Hirschman finished with a seventy and Harrahill ended up hitting a seventyeight.

The Elba Bluejays had jumpstarted last season’s fall campaign on the gridiron with a victory, and the Purple and Gold were hoping to repeat that performance last Thursday night when they traveled to Shelton for their season opener. However, when they arrived in eastern Buffalo County, what the Bluejays discovered was a talented team that illustrated that they had no issues adjusting to six-man football. On Thursday, Shelton came away from the whistle and made a statement early, scoring thirty-six unanswered points on their way to a 58-12 victory. That first-quarter performance was bookended by a pair of safeties on Thursday, with the Bulldogs adding five touchdowns to their resume in that same frame. Shelton had scored on the ground four times and picked up points aloft once early on in the frame. Leading the Bluejays 36-0 heading into the second, both teams settled in for a long ballgame, with the home team notching twenty-two more points, while Elba earned both of its scores in the fourth quarter of the contest. The Bluejays’ woes on Thursday night were likely amplified by the fact that, with the Bulldogs having played with Wood River in a cooperative for eleven-man football in the past, the locals had no current scouting report on the Buffalo County kids. This week, some of those same unknowns will also exist in the Bluejays’ game against Wilcox-Hildreth.

The Centurions not only notched their first victory of their gridiron season last Friday night, but the Burgundy and Gray also exacted some revenge. Last week, Centura was able to flip the script on Grand Island Central Catholic – the team that had topped the Howard County kids in their final game of the regular season and kept them from securing a spot in the playoffs last year– when they blanked the Crusaders on their home field 28-0.