Advertisement

"Our motto this year is 'Climb back to the top', meaning we wanted to finish at the top of the GAC standings and we wanted to qualify for the state play-offs. Tonight, we accomplished both of those goals." Commented Ram coach Dennis Reinhart after the game.

The win gives Montrose a 6-1 overall record and officially puts the Rams into the post-season play-offs. Just as importantly, Friday�s GAC win over the visiting Railroaders, coupled with Mt. Morris� victory over Lake Fenton, assures Montrose of at least a share of the GAC-Red crown. The Rams finish the league portion of their schedule with a 4-1 mark while Lake Fenton still has to beat Goodrich on its own turf this Friday in order to earn a share of the title.

Montrose seized control of the game early and methodically pulled away from the Railroaders on homecoming night as they scored in every quarter while shutting out Durand until the waning moments of the contest.

Cody Gruulx scored on a 32-yard run at 7:46 of the opening quarter and Zach Van Cleve added the extra point to give the Rams a 7-0 lead. Five minutes later, Van Cleve booted a 20-yard field goal to up the advantage to 10-0 at the end of the period.

Joe Lamay scored on a 10-yard run early in the second quarter and Montrose took a 16-0 cushion into intermission.

James Person broke free for a 79-yard dash to pay dirt at 6:22 of the third quarter and Van Cleve kicked the PAT to run the advantage to 17-0, then Scott Trybe picked off an errant Railroader pass and returned it 70 yards to give Montrose an insurmountable 23-0 edge just 31 seconds before the end of the third.

Cory Hargraves hauled in a 30-yard pass from Seth Hursh at 7:31 of the final stanza to give the Rams a 35-0 lead before Durand scored two inconsequential TDs late in the game.

"Their quarterback (third-year starter Jason Johnson) is very good and I was very pleased with the way we defended against him and their spread offense," said Reinhart. "I am very pleased with our overall performance and especially happy with the great defense we played tonight." The Rams held Durand to 280 yards of total offense, most of which came after the game's final outcome had been decided. The opportunistic defense recovered a fumble and picked off three passes.

Mitch Scneider spearheaded the defense with nine tackles and an interception. Brandon Rose added seven tackles and Brian Molaski had six stops. Derek Elston had an interception and Trybe contributed his 70-yard interception to the Ram cause.

Offensively, the Rams rolled up a whopping 467 yards, pounding out 370 of those on the ground. Person rambled for 170 yards and a touchdown on a dozen carries. He also had a fumble recovery on defense. Groulx covered 102 yards on 13 carries, including his 32-yard TD run and Jon Hall gained 54 yards in eight tries. Jeremy Fondren caught two passes, good for 67 yards.

Montrose will take its 6-1 record to Livonia this Friday against a Clarenceville squad that is much better than its 1-6 mark might indicate.

Meanwhile, the Rams can savor their impressive win on Friday, which assures them of a league title and a berth in the state play-offs.

Hornet gridders capture important win over Byron, 31-18

NEW LOTHROP Faced with a must-win situation on homecoming night against Byron, New Lothrop�s varsity football team used a big third quarter rally to down the visiting Eagles, 31-18 last Friday.

"Byron's a good team and this is a big win for us tonight," commented Hornet mentor Jake Emmendorfer after the game. "This was a big test for us because we faced some adversity tonight, trailing at halftime. We treated this like a play-off game and we put together a great team effort to pull out the victory." New Lothrop came into the game with a 3-3 mark, knowing it could not afford another loss if it wanted to be assured of a spot in the state play-offs.

Ryan Praski put NL ahead at 6:16 of the opening quarter on a five-yard TD run and Kyle Moore added the extra point to give the Hornets a 7-0 lead. But Byron responded with a pair of TDs in the second quarter, and despite missing both conversion attempts, the Eagles took a 12-7 lead into the break.

The Hornets still trailed by the same margin midway through the third quarter, when they were faced with a fourth-and-three at the Byron 11-yard line. On perhaps the key play of the game, Praski broke loose for an 11-yard run to pay dirt to give his team a 13-12 edge at 6:17 of the third period.

Praski�s big score was set up earlier in the drive by a Praski-to-Kyle Trent pass that covered 50 yards.

New Lothrop continued to cling to its one point lead until Tom Wenzlick broke loose for a TD run of 45 yards at 3:20. The missed conversion left NL ahead, 19-12.

With just 39 seconds to go in the third, Praski gave his team some breathing room when he raced for a 63 yard run, expanding the lead to 25-12.

The Eagles made things a little more interesting when they scored, narrowing the gap to 25-18 with 5:37 left in the game, but Kyle Moore came up with a huge interception on an Eagle pass that was tipped by Brandon Baryo and returned it 30 yards for the score. The two-point conversion failed, but the big interception gave NL a 31-18 cushion with just 2:20 remaining in the contest.

The Hornets amassed 354 total yards in the contest while holding Byron to 267 yards of offense. Praski rushed for 137 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries to pace the offense. Tom Wenzlick had a TD and gained 53 yards on eight carries. Kyle Trent was the leading receiver with five catches, good for 70 yards.

Defensively, Marc Confer anchored the Hornet defense with 11 tackles and a pair of sacks. Moore also recorded 11 stops, one for a loss, in addition to his key interception and return. Keith Perizzolo had 10 tackles and Baryo registered four tackles, two sacks, one tackle for a loss and a tipped pass that led to a Hornet interception.

The Hornets, now 4-3 overall and 4-1 in the GAC, will travel to Bendle this Friday to take on their GAC-Blue rivals. Game time is 7:00 PM.

Montrose drops three soccer tilts

Montrose's varsity soccer team lost three straight contests this past week, dropping a 2-0 non league decision to Genesee Christian on Monday before succumbing to LakeVille and Mt. Morris in league encounters later in the week.

The Rams fought Genesee Christian to a scoreless deadlock through the first half of Monday's game before finally giving up a pair of goals to the Soldiers after intermission.

The following day, Montrose traveled to LakeVille, where they took a 6-2 loss at the hands of the Falcons. LV took advantage of a lackluster Ram performance early in the game and jumped out to a 4-0 advantage before Kyle Colby scored on an assist from Brad Smith to put Montrose on the board with six minutes left in the first half. Chet Ptasnik�s squad turned in a better effort in the second half, holding the Falcons to a pair of goals. Colby scored a header off a pretty chip shot from Logan Dowell to give the Rams their second goal of the game. Corky Hickmott had eight saves in goal.

On Thursday, Mt. Morris came to town and handed the Rams a 3-1 setback. Brad Smith scored the only goal, an unassisted tally, and Hickmott turned away nine Panther shots between the pipes.

Indian kickers drop three straight

Chesaning�s varsity soccer team lost three contests last week, sandwiching road losses at Swan Valley and Laingsburg around a 5-1 setback at home against Ithaca last Wednesday.

The Tribe suffered a tough 1-0 defeat at Swan Valley on Monday, fighting the host Vikings to a scoreless standstill until SV finally found the net in the 46th minute of play. The winning score came on a shot from 18 yards out, tipping off the outstretched hands of Indian keeper Kyle Hoover. Hoover turned away 16 shots in net. Coach Dan Lucas noted strong performances by Brandon Aldridge and Josh Gordon for Chesaning.

Myles Shephard scored the only goal for the Indians in Wednesday's 5-1 loss to the Yellowjackets, connecting on a 40 yard free kick that tied the contest at 1-1 with 15 minutes left in the first half. Ithaca responded with a pair of goals before intermission, however, to take a 3-1 advantage. The Jackets added two more scores in the second half to secure the win. Hoover had 10 saves in goal and Ryan Tatroe turned in a strong performance on defense for the Tribe.

Laingsburg peppered the net with 23 shots on Thursday as they rolled to an 8-0 win over the Indians. Hoover turned away 14 of the 20 shots booted at him by the Wolfpack and Trevor Kimball allowed the last two goals of the game, recording a save along the way.

Hornet gals, Ram guys win GAC X-C double-duals Beck sets Montrose school record

NEW LOTHROP Ken Beck set a new school record to pace Montrose to a sweep of New Lothrop and Byron in boys competition and the New Lothrop girls edged past Byron in the girls portion of a double dual cross country meet held at New Lothrop last Tuesday.

Beck's personal best time of 16:22 gave his team a 19-36 win over NL and a

26-29 triumph over Byron. New Lothrop lost to Byron, 20-39. David Leos turned in a time of 18:01 to help the Rams to victory.

For the Hornet guys, Jesse Lorencz (18:16), Dakota Allen (18:44) and Pat Schnell (19:40) all ran personal-best times. Other top finishers for NL were Josh Schiefer (29:54), Tiler Bacon (22:52), Cody Jacobs (24:14), Matt Knieper (24:52) and Eric Crenshaw (27:40).

New Lothrop�s gals eked past Byron by a single point and won by default against Montrose, which was unable to field a full team.

Emily Vincke ran a 21:52 to pace the Hornet gals. Other top performers for NL were Kayla Knieper (23:40), Ashley Root (23:52), Amanda Sanders (23:54), Celeste Rousseau (25:36), Chelsea Parsons (27:05), Kristen Baryo (30:56) and Kristen Baryo (30:56).

In the junior high two-mile run, Sal Adams (12:51), Sean Vincke (12:55), Rachel Vincke (14:01), Steven Chappelle (14:10), Josh Stankiewicz (14:26), Gavin Bennett (14:54), Kelsey Bacon (15:10), Keith Schnell (16:02). Eric Mills (16:22), Cory Harris (16:23), Kayla Bila (16:27), Courtney Seamon (16:30), Adam Ashley (16:37), Amanda Eickholt (17:33), Kyle Jacobs (17:42), Corina Bitterman (19:08), Olivia Moody (20:23), Julia Johnson (20:23), Caitlin Clason (21:34), Alex Cramer (21:44) and Natalie Henige (22:47) all ran for the Hornets.

NL opens GAC-Blue volleyball campaign with sweep of Bendle

BURTON New Lothrop's varsity volleyball team had little trouble last Wednesday as the Hornets opened the GAC-Blue portion of their schedule with a 25-18, 25-14, 25-12 sweep of Bendle on the Tigers� own court.

"Everyone contributed to tonight's win, whether it was on offense or defense and it was a good team win to open the Blue division side of our schedule." Commented Hornet coach Sheri Warner, whose team now owns an overall GAC record of 5-2 and stands at 22-14-3 overall.

Kayla Krupp tallied nine kills, eight digs and three aces on the night for the Hornets. Monica Confer chipped in with 11 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces and a block, while Rachelle Kviz added six kills and six digs. Sabrina Besaw contributed 24 assists, 4 digs, 2 kills and an ace to the Hornet cause.