Month: October 2018

We are less than a week away from the start of the 2018-2019 College of the Ozarks basketball season.  The NAIA coaches have released their preseason poll.

The Lady Cats check in at #6.  Senior All-Americans Kelsie Cleeton and Cass Johnson return to lead a team that 31-2 a year ago.

The Lady Cats open the season on Monday, hosting Tabor.

This weeks poll:

 

2018-19 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll (Oct. 23)

RANK	LAST WEEK	TEAM (FIRST-PLACE VOTES)	2017-2018 RECORD	POINTS
1	2	Concordia (Neb.) (10)	36-2	311
2	7	Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) (1)	32-6	295
3	1	Southeastern (Fla.) (1)	31-1	290
4	4	Saint Xavier (Ill.)	32-3	277
4	5	Marian (Ind.)	32-3	277
6	3	College of the Ozarks (Mo.)	31-2	268
7	6	Eastern Oregon	31-3	243
8	11	Northwestern (Iowa)	25-9	240
9	9	Indiana Tech	30-5	220
9	19	St. Francis (Ill.)	22-10	220
11	13	Morningside (Iowa)	22-12	212
12	10	Southern Oregon	28-5	203
13	12	Hastings (Neb.)	26-7	195
14	NR	Saint Francis (Ind.)	17-14	183
15	17	Indiana Wesleyan	25-9	156
16	14	Valley City State (N.D.)	25-5	150
16	8	Jamestown (N.D.)	31-5	150
18	16	Olivet Nazarene (Ill.)	23-10	138
19	15	Taylor (Ind.)	24-11	136
20	RV	Tabor (Kan.)	18-14	123
21	21	Lawrence Tech (Mich.)	25-7	121
22	RV	Cardinal Stritch (Wis.)	19-10	95
23	23	Bryan (Tenn.)	25-10	85
24	20	Rio Grande (Ohio)	30-4	67
25	24	Antelope Valley (Calif.)	22-7	58

* Last week refers to the final regular-season poll of the 2017-2018 season. Beginning last year, there is no longer a postseason coaches’ poll.

Others receiving votes: Oregon Tech 55, Bethany (Kan.) 47, Reinhardt (Ga.) 28, Aquinas (Mich.) 28, Bellevue (Neb.) 18, Oklahoma Wesleyan 14, St. Thomas (Fla.) 12, IU East (Ind.) 7, UC Merced (Calif.) 6, Huntington (Ind.) 5, Northwest Christian (Ore.) 4, Rochester (Mich.) 4, Indiana Northwest 3

The Branson Pirates will be the host site for the Class 4 District Soccer Tounament next week.

The Pirates received the number four seed and will play top-seeded Ozark in the Semi-Finals on Tuesday at 5:00.  That match will be followed by Nixa vs Kickapoo at 7.

The winners will meet for the Championship at 5 on Thursday.

The Branson-Ozark Match can be heard on perryphillipssports.com

 

for the bracket go to   Class 4 District Tournament Bracket  

With all the Week 9 games complete the brackets and matchups for the District Playoffs are now set..

No big surprises, as must things were lined out last night..

Class 3

1. Cassville- win over Lamar was just punctuation mark
2. Reeds Spring- win over Mt Vernon in week 3 proved huge
3. Mt Vernon- survived upset bid by Hollister but spot known for weeks
4. Seneca- knew it would be tight.. did just enough to jump Hollister
5. Hollister- Tigers made it interesting… playing really well right now
6. Aurora- played well vs Reeds Spring.
7. Nevada- gets to go back to the same place they played Week One
8. Clinton- Its been a tough year

Clinton at Cassville

Hollister at Seneca

Nevada at Reeds Spring

Aurora at Mt Vernon

Cassville/Clinton winner will face Hollister/Seneca winner in semis

Nevada/Reeds Spring winner will face Aurora/Mt Vernon winner

Team with the better seed will host

Class 5

1. Carthage- Locked this down weeks ago.
2. Parkview- One of the best backs in the area
3. Nixa- finished behind Republic but beat them
4. Republic-margin of win/loss helped get them a home game
5. Branson- Pirates did beat Republic but you cant drop more than 1 spot

Branson at Republic

Carthage, Parkview, and Nixa get first round byes

Branson/Republic winner at Carthage

Nixa at Parkview

Class 2

1. Ava- Have not had a problem since week one
2. Fair Grove- Knew they would be now worse than 2
3. Strafford- the head to head loss to FG hurt
4. Liberty- needed a win to get a home game and got it
5. Mountain Grove- win over Houston gives them a rival in round 1
6. Houston- upstart team against high flying Strafford
7. Willow Springs-still think they are better, even if record not
8. Forsyth- as I have said for weeks.. it just takes time

Forsyth at Ava

Mountain Grove at Liberty

Willow Springs at Fair Grove

Houston at Strafford

Forsyth/Ava winner vs Mountain Grove/Liberty winner

Willow Springs/Fair Grove winner vs Houston/Strafford winner

Reeds Spring traveled to Aurora last night to take on the Houn Dawgs in the final game of the regular season.   The Wolves would get the win, and move to 6-3 on the season, but it was certainly not easy.

The rain moved out by game time and actually  it was a nice night for football.  It got started on a little different note, as Aurora was late coming out of their locker room.  The Reeds Spring captains stood at midfield with the officials for a couple of minutes waiting on the home team, while a yellow flag lay on the ground on the Aurora sideline.

Eventually, the game did get underway and despite driving the ball up the field the initial Reeds Spring drive would stall and they would turn the ball over on downs.

Aurora would have success early throwing the ball short, in the flats, and moving the ball up the field.  The Houns would strike first.  Casey Weatherman caught a TD pass from Jay Lee to put the Aurora up 7-0 with 1:30 left in the fist quarter.

The Reeds Spring offense would not need to take the field.  Seth Stamps took the ensuing kickoff started up the middle and eventually went to the right side and up the sideline and into the endzone for the score.  He would not get to take  a breather tough.  He lined up and kicked the extra point to tie the score.

Aurora would take the lead again with 7:39 left in the second quarter.  Pablo Reyes drilled a 30 yard field goal, that would have had the distance from 45.  The defense though would tighten up from there.

Stamps, who moved to fullback this week after the loss of Cody Hughes to a broken arm,  would again give Reeds Spring the lead.  The senior took a handoff from Blake Gronvold, hit the hole opened up by the offensive line, and turned on the jets for a 51 yard score.  He would be off on the extra point but the Wolves had a lead that they would never relinquish.

Blake Gronvold would add a score before the half and a successful two point conversion gave the Wolves a 21-10 halftime lead.

Reeds Spring would eat up the majority of the third quarter.  After forcing the Aurora offense to a three and out, the Wolves offense took the ball and ran the clock all the way down to 4:58 left in the third before Matt Allison found the endzone from five yards out.

Aurora would add a fourth quarter score but could get no closer.  The 27-17 victory secured the #2 seed in the upcoming District Playoffs for Reeds Spring.

Seth Stamps led the way.  In addition to the KO return for a score, the senior carried the ball 25 times for 170 yards and that long touchdown.

Playoff brackets will become official this afternoon or evening.  When they are released Reeds Spring will show in the #2 spot and will host #7 Nevada.  The same team they opened the season with.  Reeds Spring won that matchup 52-32.

 

I have done this for quite a while.  And rarely do you see a player have the kind of dominating season that Izzy Erickson just turned in.  The Reeds Spring junior was phenomenal in the circle and at the plate.

In the batters box she hit for power and average.  She hit well over .400 and tied Marley Harmon’s single season home run record, with 8.  And, with a full year still to play is only one long ball away from the career mark.

But, as good as she was at the plate, it was in the circle where the right hander made the biggest impression.  The 12-5 record is impressive, as are the three saves.  But, how bout the fact that she struck out 230 batters in 117 innings?  Want more?  She walked only 22.  That amounts to a 10.45 to 1 K to BB ratio, unheard of.

For those exploits she has been names the Big 8 Pitcher of the year.

Joining Izzy on the first team was her battery mate Maddison Cantrell.  Cantrell not only did a great job behind the plate, she led the team in batting average.

Dusty Welch, Courtney Scobee, Brooke Davis, and Abby Rudd garnered second team recognition.

Reeds Spring finished the year 18-6.

We have come to the final week of the regular season.  A number of spots are locked up while we wont know until late Friday night about others.  Here is a look at the district outlook for the Districts involving our area teams…

Class 3

1. Cassville– Wildcats have Lamar.. could lose by 13 and still should end with 45.93 points and that would be enough to stay in the top spot.
2. Reeds Spring– Will finish 3rd in pts but will jump to 2nd because they beat Mt Vernon
3. Mt Vernon– Even if Mt Vernon beats Hollister the most they could end up with is 45.13. (baring some huge upset in another game)
4. Hollister/Seneca–  These two teams are going to play each other in the first round of districts.  Its just a matter of where the game will be.  If Hollister can upset Mt Vernon, its simple, they are the 4.  If Hollister loses big and Seneca beats McDonald County big, the Mustangs are the 4.  Most cases of a Hollister loss and Seneca win favors the Indians to get the spot.  This one is so close it could also be influenced by other games.  Cassville beating Lamar would help Seneca, while Hollister would get a small boost if Aurora could upset Reeds Spring.
5. Hollister/Seneca– See #4
6. Aurora– Pretty well locked into this spot.  Get ready to head to Mt Vernon.
7. Nevada– When you look at the standings you see they are only up 0.1 points.  But that is a little misleading.  They play Monett this week which gives them bonus points and will help them secure the 7 spot and a return to Week 1 opponent Reeds Spring.
8. Clinton–  Only a Clinton big win could get them out of the bottom spot and a trip to Cassville.

Class 5

1. Carthage– They had this spot locked down weeks ago
2. Parkview– Unless the Vikings get blown out by Waynesville AND Nixa hammers Webb City, this spot is secure…  ITS SECURE.
3.  Nixa/Branson/Republic  Things are crazy tight at the bottom of this 5 team District 1.43 points separate the three teams.  This is huge because whoever finishes in the 3rd spot gets a bye week 10 AND gets on the other side of the bracket from Carthage.   Nixa has the toughest matchup but they get the biggest boost in strength of schedule by adding Webb City.  And most of all they have victories over the other two teams in hand.  Branson has the most favorable matchup of the three and has the week 1 win over Republic.  And finally Republic can not finish in the 3 spot.  They have lost to both the other teams and will drop to 4th if they get the points to finish there.  Best case for Branson would be if they could win by 13 or more against Willard, Republic get the win over Neosho, and have Nixa get blown out by Webb City.  If this happens, the Pirates would get the 3 seed and get a bye.   If you look strictly at the numbers of probability you will say Nixa 3rd, Branson 4th, and Republic 5th.
4. Nixa/Branson/Republic– see above
5. Nixa/Branson/Republic—  yep, see above.

Class 2

1. Ava– The Bears were upset week 1 at Buffalo.  Since that time they have taken care of business as expected.  That has earned them the one spot
2. Fair Grove–  The Eagles will finish 3rd in points.  But, they beat Strafford head to head and will jump the Indians.  They are off this week after their opponent dropped them too late to pick up another game.
3. Strafford– Indians are locked in here.
4.  Liberty/Houston This is where it gets interesting.. This will be either Mountain View Liberty or Houston.  They play this week and the winner gets the 4 spot.
5. Liberty/Mountain Grove  If Liberty loses to Houston, they will finish here.  If the Eagles beat the Tigers, Mountain Grove jumps to this spot because they beat Houston last week.
6. Houston/Mountain Grove… see above.  This spot is totally about who wins the Liberty-Houston game, No matter what Grove does against Thayer.  Houston beats Liberty, this spot is filled by Moutain Grove.  The Tigers fall short, they will drop here.
7. Willow Springs– no matter what happens this week, they will head to Fair Grove Week  10
8. Forsyth–  The Panthers will have the task of opening Districts at Ava.

 

Here is a look at the District Football Standings with one week to play….

Tomorrow I will go over the scenarios that will set the matchups for the first week of Districts…

Class 3

1. Cassville                8-0        49.61
2. Mt Vernon            7-1         44.8
3. Reeds Spring       5-3        36.68
4. Hollister                4-4        30.27
5. Seneca                   3-5         28.27
6. Aurora                    2-6        24.11
7. Nevada                  1-7            19.89
8.  Clinton                 0-8           19.77

Class 5

1. Carthage              7-1               45.88
2. Parkview              4-4               30.05
3. Nixa                        3-5                26.13
4. Republic                2-6              25.79
5. Branson                2-6                24.7

Class 2

1. Ava                                  7-1                  47.55
2. Strafford                      7-1                  45.02
3. Fair Grove                    7-1                  44.25
4. Liberty                          5-3                   38.61
5. Houston                        5-3                   36.2
6. MountainGrove         4-4              30.16
7. Willard                          1-7                   19.61
8. Forsyth                         0-8                   15.34

Not a lot of changes in this weeks projections.. but there are a few….

Class 3

1. Cassville- Can afford to lose once and maybe twice and still get this spot
2. Reeds Spring- Wolves have the win over Mt Vernon in hand and will be able to jump them if they finish 2-3
3. Mt Vernon- Win or lose against Catholic and Hollister.  Mt Vernon is likely to finish second but will drop to third because of the Reeds Spring loss.
4. Hollister- this is going to be tight.. pretty sure Hollister and Seneca play in the first round, its just a matter of where.. If I have the numbers right.  If Hollister beats Rogersville and falls short against Mt Vernon.  They will finish slightly ahead of Seneca, even if the Indians beat both East Newton and McDonald County even with the bonus the Indians get for playing the Mustangs.   This will be really tight though, the Tigers would do well to get the max points vs Rog and AT LEAST keep it close vs Mt Vernon. (a victory over Mt Vernon would lock it down for sure)
5. Seneca- see above
6. Aurora- only an upset of Marshfield or Reeds Spring gets them out of this spot and only if Seneca also loses one of their last two.   No way they can finish ahead of Hollister
7. Nevada- locked in here
8. Clinton- fate is decided as well.

Class 5

1. Carthage- This one is a no brainer
2. Parkview- The numbers are decently close with those behind, looking at the schedule only Branson has a realistic shot to catch them.
3. Nixa- I know they sit last right now, and will likely lose both games they have left.. But they are only  .9 out of 3rd. and most importantly they play Joplin this week… That means bonus points and will be enough to move them up into the 3 spot if everything else remains equal.  If Branson finishes 3rd and Nixa 4th they will switch places
4. Branson- even if the Pirates finish behind Republic in points, as long as they are directly behind them, they will jump them. Beating CJ or Willard is a real possibility and could make a big difference beating both will give them an outside shot at the #2.  That is how close this is.
5. Republic-  The bottom three teams are as tight as can be.  Math says the Tigers finish here.. but an upset could make a big difference

Class 2

1. Ava- They win their last two, which they should, they get the 1
2. Fair Grove- will go undefeated in regular season but will get the 2
3.  Strafford- already looking forward to the possible rematch with the Eagles
4. Houston- as long as they beat Liberty they finish here
5. Liberty- as I said before..  will play Houston two weeks in a row, just where the second game will take place
6. Mountain Grove- Got a nice win this week but likely still gonna finish here
7. Willow Springs – locked into this spot
8. Forsyth- fell short in their shot at a win this past week… but they will build a program